> > Speaking of religion in literature, one of the *many* things I love > > about David Weber's work is that the Christian church is very much > > present in Honor's universe. I get cranky when societies have total > > absence of religion--individuals may be athiests, but humans as a > > group are going to worship *something*. and... > I get cranky when far-future societies have anything recognizable as > religion, personally. Makes no sense it would last that long. It seems to me that among the attempts to rigidly define athiesm, we have two opposing viewpoints. Perhaps what we like to see in the future is molded by our own beliefs. Someone with faith prefers a far future where religion has discarded most of it's negative baggage, and someone without faith feels that faith itself is negative baggage. I'd say that athiesm is not a religion, and you can firmly be an athiest without absolute proof of the non-existance of god/s... if you absolutely lack faith, than you are an athiest. -Greg Schwartz