I wanted to define Atheism and what it means or does not mean. The dictionary would say:
a·the·ism/ˈāTHēˌizəm/ Noun: The theory or belief that God does not exist. But this is not quite right. Atheism is not a "belief" that god doesn't exist, it more means that a person can find no evidence to believe in god. The difference may seem subtle but it is important. Think of Atheism as a zero point expression. A baby would be Atheist for they no more believe in god, a religion, or Santa Claus *yet*, for how could they. They can't read or speak! Atheism is akin to NOT believing in alchemy or astrology. If you do not believe in these two things, we don't have a word for it!
More often than not, a person who 'invokes' Atheism usually has a good grasp on not only his countries popular religion but also of the other minority ones as well. What is also interesting is that many studies have been conducted, where an Atheist or a person who discounts a religion will actually possess more information of that religion than the general population or even that of the layman's of that religion. I will reference the Pew study here: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1745/religious-knowledge-in-america-survey-atheists-agnostics-score-highest
This is a basic framework for Atheism but like all things, there are shades of colors. For example there are 'strong' Atheists and 'weak' Atheists. A strong one will say god is false versus a weak one will say it cannot be proved true. This is not contradictory to the above framework. A weak Atheist should not be confused with Agnosticism, a person who says god may or may not exist and may or never be proved. Now to muddy the waters a little an Atheist may say, without being an Agnostic, that one day god can be proved to be true, if the evidence proves it to be true.
Even if god were to be proved true it would not prove a specific religion was true. This gives us Deism which many of our nations forefathers were. Others were ambivalent on religion and still more were christians and catholics. Thomas Jefferson was a Deist but today when it is more sociably acceptable to invoke Atheism but still not politically so, may have called himself an Atheist, along with James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin.
"Atheists have no morals, since they don't believe in God". This is true in part. There is nothing in Atheism that says anything on morality or politically or anything besides god. You can be a communist or mad psycho killer and be atheist (which you can be part of any religion and be a psycho killer as well). More often than not what you will find along with Atheism is being a Secular Humanist. Humanism is for another topic but I can most assuredly tell you, it is not devil worship or the like. I can pull up many parts of scripture in the bible or koran, which by my western sensibilities are indeed IMMORAL and repugnant. It is undeniably interesting to find out what most religions texts find to be moral but many practitioners of said faith find to be abhorrent behavior.
I would like for you to view your faith from a critical eye, actually read your holy book, and then challenge your beliefs with debate, either in person or watch debates on youtube, Fora.tv or anywhere else. I must applaud many christians who would say, "If my faith cannot stand the test of scrutiny, I should not be believing in it."
On closing I would like for you to watch this video. A search on youtube on this video will bring up 3 different parts. Please search for them.
