Atheists

I was just watching a film and Anthony Hopkins' character says that the thing about atheists is that they are always looking for proof. He goes on to ask, and what would we do if we found it. I found that interesting.

Because to me, that's an agnostic. An atheist doesn't start that way. They are usually a theists. Or perhaps an agnostic. Either way they usually come from a position of being a non-atheist. They go through life as an agnostic, searching for that proof or non-proof, proof, which theists consider faith.

The point here is, once you have enough proof, you hit a tipping point from which you start to believe there is no God. Time passes and you have other proofs you accept as acceptable. Finally one day you simply realize, you are now an atheist.

From then on, there is no need to search for proof. You now know. You don't believe, you don't have faith in atheism, you simply know that what cannot be proved, isn't proof and there is no God.

All the rest is theistic banter and a desire to see in atheists who they would be themselves if they were searching. They constantly push that onto atheists. But it's not who an atheist is.