What is Atheism?

For obvious reasons, believers in God have misconceptions about Atheism, more or less like biblical fundamentalists about Evolution, when they ask: “If humans came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?”. Unfortunately, also some people who consider themselves atheists don’t know what Atheism is.
The two misconceptions about Atheism:

1. “Atheism is a religion too.” [Say religious people]
2. “Atheism is the denial of the existence of God.” [Say religious people and some atheists]

Religion is belief in the supernatural: gods, angels, demons, spirits, Heaven, Hell, reincarnation, miracles, etc. About these things religions have doctrines, compiled in “holy” books, which even must not be doubted. The Bible and the Koran, for example, teach that those who doubt what is written in these books must be killed. In the majority of countries, ridiculing religions ends in jail. Furthermore, religions dictate what is right and what is wrong and what must and what must not be done and demand the practice of rituals.
Atheism is disbelief in gods. Disbelief — and nothing else. (Indeed, atheists disbelieve in only one god more than religious people.) Believing, for example, in Santa Claus has a content: how he is, where he lives, what he does and what he wants. The opposite, that is, not believing in Santa Claus, doesn’t have a content. If it doesn’t have a content, it doesn’t teach anything. In the same way, disbelieving in God doesn’t demand and doesn’t command to do anything, neither good nor bad. Therefore, there is no way for Atheism to be a religion.
Atheism is not to say that “God doesn’t exist”, but that “There is no evidence that God exists”. Just as it’s not impossible that Santa Claus exists, it’s not impossible that God exists. However — for lack of evidence —, there are no reasons to believe in God.

1. “I’m an Atheist because God doesn’t exist.” [Wrong]
2. “I’m an Atheist because there are no reasons to believe that God exists.” [Right]

Since believing in things of which one has no evidence is nonsense, so is in God.
Apropos of that, if, as Jews, Christians and Muslims say, it’s necessary to have faith not to believe in God — reason why disbelieving in God supposedly is religion —, then it’s necessary to have faith also not to believe, for example, in Zeus. Jehovah, the god of the Bible, and Allah, the god of the Koran, are only two gods among the thousands of gods of the most varied religions. Just as Jews, Christians and Muslims don’t see any reasons to believe in the gods of other religions (something over which they, by the way, don’t lose even a second of sleep), atheists don’t see any reasons to believe in the gods of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions.
The Bible, for example, says that “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists” (Hebrews 11:6). Well, if to believe in God it’s necessary to have faith, faith itself is evidence that God doesn’t exist. If God existed, there would be no need to have faith, because no one would doubt his existence.

“Atheism is a natural result of intellectual honesty.”
— Paulo Bitencourt(Wasting Time on God)