Dear brothers and sisters,
Throughout my life, I have learned that unless you know about a subject better that the ones around you, you shouldn't try to discuss about it. Because the ones who know the subject better can beat you in discussion, even you may be ridiculed
Therefore, we better exactly know about atheism and get to the ultimate point which makes theists and atheists disagree : "Which is eternal, thought or substance?"
Atheism, in its broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of any deities. That is, all who do not have such a belief—whether they are nontheists, agnostics, or even Buddhists—are covered under this term. Atheism can also be defined more narrowly as the active rejection of the existence of gods, either of a specific or general kind, or even that gods can exist. Generally speaking, atheism refers to a lack of belief in all deities for any reason.
In essence, materialism answers the fundamental question of philosophy by asserting the primacy of the material world: in short, matter precedes thought.
Materialism holds that the world is material, that all phenomena in the universe consist of matter in motion, wherein all things are interdependent and interconnected and develop in accordance with natural law, that the world exists outside us and independently of our perception of it, that thought is a reflection of the material world in the brain, and that the world is in principle knowable.
The eternity of one wise thought or a substance is something which even an atheist cannot deny, for if he does, he falls into the trap of contradicting with logical concepts
The principal question is: "From where did it come into being?"
Here, I wrote a fictional dialogue between an atheist (A) and a believer (Q). I hope that will be fun and useful for you in your further discussions
Q: You don't believe in God do you?
A: No
Q: Then answer my questions will you?
A: Yes, sure
Q: From where did this desk come into being?
A: From a piece of wood
Q: What about that wood?
A: From a tree
Q: Tree?
A: From a seed
Q: Seed?
A: From another tree
Q: What about the first tree of all?
A: From soil
Q: Soil?
A: From rocks
Q: Rocks?
A: From magma
Q: Magma?
A: From earth itself
Q: Earth?
A: From sun
Q: Sun?
A: From a supernova
Q: Supernova?
A: From the universe itself
Q: Universe?
A: From something that originates it.
Q: What is it?
A: A substance. A substance that is eternal in past. Nothing precedes it
Q: So how did it create a motion that resulted to the universe?
A: Perhaps it was an enormously dense and hot that it exploded, or it was changeable in its own nature
Q: Was it the big bang?
A: Perhaps, i am not sure.
Q: So you think that an eternal substance did all this work itself unconsciously.
A: Well yes, I have to. That is why I am an atheist
Q: And that is the main point that differs us. I believe that the eternal one is thought, an energy, an infinite power, a conscious and wise thought, nothing precedes him. That is the one and the only creator
A: I see. I believe in an unaware substance
Q: By the way, what if aliens from space created us?
A: Yes, that is what I can believe
Q: Who created them then?
A: Aah. Ok! That is enough
