Faith of the Atheist

There are hundreds of thousands of atheists in the world so all of us probably meet and talk with and write to many each day. The purpose of this work is to better understand them and what faith they have so as to get along better with one another. Along the way we will establish some definitions to make the playing field level as we try to understand how various atheists differ from one another and other persons with their faiths and beliefs. We will look at some famous atheists and look at what influenced them and what changed for some of them as they matured to adults from childhood. We will make some comparisons between atheists and those calling themselves Christians. My wish is to better understand my fellow man and hence to try to picture the faiths that are different from mine.

There are hundreds of thousands of atheists in the world so all of us probably meet and talk with and write to many each day. The purpose of this work is to better understand them and what faith they have so as to get along better with one another. Along the way we will establish some definitions to make the playing field level as we try to understand how various atheists differ from one another and other persons with their faiths and beliefs. We will look at some famous atheists and look at what influenced them and what changed for some of them as they matured to adults from childhood. We will make some comparisons between atheists and those calling themselves Christians. As an engineer, I have experiences that have built on elementary mathematics. Please excuse my leaning on these experiences as they pop up with my explaining some fundamentals in arithmetic terms. We all have faith of one kind or another. The atheist says there is no god but he still has faith and we will try to define the basis of that faith. We all have some common faiths such as the faith that gravity will be acting each day as soon as we open our eyes. We have faith that the sun will come up in the morning. So we all, atheists and non-atheists, have some faiths that are common. My wish is to better understand my fellow man and hence to try to picture the faiths that are different from mine.

David W. Lewis, Ph.D., P.E., is Professor Emeritus of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. With forty years of teaching in the field of Mechanical Engineering. Industrial experience with Shell Research and Development, Bell Helicopter, and IBM. Co-authored with Henry Bolanos the book “Entrepreneurship And Small Business” emphasizing creativity and new product development, The Big Purr Press, Copyright © 2000 by Bolanos and Lewis. “Alone” D. W. Lewis, Copyright © 2005 by David W. Lewis, LULU Press, Lulu Enterprises, Inc. 3101 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27601. “The Open Door”, David W. Lewis, Copyright © 2010 David W. Lewis, iUniverse, 1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403.