Religion can either be a dominant force in ones life or a non-existent force. Going from one extreme to the next, theism and atheism seem to be contradictory terms, representing contrasting and opposing beliefs. Prejudice and discrimination emanate from both sides of the religious spectrum and they rear their heads when statements are made such as atheists are closed-minded and theists have no backing to their claims. But in light of this controversy, I decided to not look at either creed individually, but rather look at the two together in order to find any concepts that are alike. This resulted in me finding that theists and atheists have more in common than meets the eye.
The literal definition of a theist is one who holds an absolute belief in at least one god, and that that god exists outside a physical universe, is omnipresent, omniscient, and a supernatural power. An atheist, on the other hand, simply put, believes in the absence of any spiritual being as described above.(2) In reading the two definitions, they seem to be opposites of each other in pure content, but one similarity between the two is the word "belief". Theists justify their beliefs through faith whereas atheists justify theirs through reason. But the fact of the matter is, they are merely beliefs coming from both sides... beliefs and not knowledge. Because of this, neither side can disprove the other due to that lack of knowledge (3).
Both atheists and theists hold the "burden of proof" which goes hand-in-hand with the absence of knowledge. Theists make the claim that at least one god does indeed exist, but what backing do they have behind this? In order to justify to anyone what they believe, theists must first elucidate the nature of the god or else any explanation of a concept of the creed pertaining to that god would mean nothing to an atheist. Without a clear definition of "god," saying that "god exists" communicates nothing to another person(1).
One would think that atheists would never encounter this problem of having to justify their beliefs or lack thereof, but many times this circumstance does indeed come up. Atheism does not claim anything of the world, aside from the belief that God is non-existent. But denial itself sometimes is a claim in itself which warrants justification from many theists(1). Unknowingly so, this need for proof is found on both sides of the spectrum.
Many atheists today are labeled by theists as being closed-minded individuals due to the fact that they do not accept the possibility that there is a god watching over the world. Atheists seem to be the target of ridicule when it comes to this point, but the statement that atheists are closed-minded while theists are not, is pure hypocrisy. Would not a theist be closed-minded if they did not accept the possibility that there may not be a god? So if theists are labeled as open-minded, then atheists must be as well, and if atheists are labeled as closed-minded, then theists must be as well. In this aspect, whatever an atheist is, a theist must be the same.
Theists and atheists may hold different beliefs in regards to an super natural god, but when it comes down to it, these two groups share some of the same characteristics which ultimately define them as being quite similar. It is encouraging to me to be able find these similarities, keeping in mind the tendencies of todays society which presents so much scrutiny on its members. It is good to know that two groups originally thought to be so contrary have more in common than we all ever realized.
