[ShizukaMikudou]

Originally Posted by Zairak

That is a generalization. Atheism, in its purest definition, does not require you to have an active belief about gods. It is the lack of belief in said god or gods. That is a very important distinction.

You hardly have to believe in a god to have a system of morals either. Neither does lacking belief in god mean believing that life is meaningless.

Actually, there is already something with the definition of "does not claim to have a religion" - Agnosticism. Yes, atheism is the belief that there is no god, meaning it does lack the belief in any known god. What atheism does believe, though, is as said, the lack of any being called "god".

Believing in a god does not set the foundation for a system of morals either. It's the worldview that sets the foundation for every belief, including morals. Why do we believe killing innocent people is wrong? What tells us that breaking the law is wrong? Is it our instincts? Our conscience? Even in following any set of laws, we are accepting something else as a higher importance and in a way, giving that thing the title of "god". Atheism in claiming that there is no god claims that laws and morals hold no influence over a person's own choices, which in fact makes every person his or her own god. A "god" does not always label some powerful, magical person or statue. A god is any thing that people respect regard as more powerful than themselves.

So it is in fact an inverted belief to think that atheism is being generalized. ^^

There are phrases that self destruct, such as "There is no truth" and "Atheists don't believe in anything", because then "There is no truth" must not be a truth either, and to say that "Atheists don't believe in any religion" means that atheists don't believe in atheism, the belief that there is no "god", either. xD