h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Atheism requires as much faith to believe that there is no God as it does to believe that there is one.

Faith: 1.) Belief in god; religious conviction. 2.) Loyalty; allegiance. 3.) A system of religious beliefs.

Atheism: Disbelief in, or denial of the existance of god.

Atheist: One who denies the existance of god.

These definitions are found in "The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language". According to "Roget's Thesaurus" Synonyms of Atheism include: "Skepticism, unbelief, disbeief, lack of faith..."

Faith and atheism have very little in common. I'm not saying that we atheists have no faith. I have faith in a lot of things. That is faith as defined by #2 above. I have faith in the people I love. I have faith in myself.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998, first two entries:

faith \Faith\, n. [OE. feith, fayth, fay, OF. feid, feit, fei, F. foi, fr. L. fides; akin to fidere to trust, Gr.
??????? to persuade. The ending th is perhaps due to the influence of such words as truth, health,
wealth. See Bid, Bide, and cf. Confide, Defy, Fealty.] 1. Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of
what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on
testimony.

2. The assent of the mind to the statement or proposition of another, on the ground of the manifest truth
of what he utters; firm and earnest belief, on probable evidence of any kind, especially in regard to
important moral truth.

Allow me to give the defintion I had in mind when using the word faith: "Something that is believed to be true without proof; or belief in something that cannot be proven." And by proof, I do not mean evidence.

I think in reference to these defintions and ideas, that athiesm requires faith, as the existence or non-existence of God or a higher power of some sort cannot be proven. People may say that they have evidence either way. But as my best friend (who is agnostic, not athiestic) told me, "It takes a lot of gall to say that there is no way God can exist."