ARGUMENTS

Being in the minority, atheists are often called upon to justify their beliefs (or lack of beliefs). It should be borne in mind, though, that atheists do not make any claims to knowledge, whereas theists and proponents of religion do. The burden of proof therefore should be firmly on the believers, and, to their credit, many theologians and philosophers over the centuries have attempted to address just that. This puts the atheist in the position of having to refute centuries of well-funded theist argument.

However, there are also other, more positive arguments why atheism is a preferred philosophy, and it is important that these also be considered. In addition, there are some common arguments used by religious believers in an attempt to show that atheism is in some way incomplete or hollow or just plain bad, and these too need to be addressed.

I have therefore split the arguments for atheism up into three main categories: