A very broad catagory of people that others
may consider anything from unethical to logical. In truth
atheism (a-lacking; theism-beleif in a higher power) makes up a large number of people with different beleifs. Not all atheists are such because they don't have proof that
God exists.
I, for
one, am atheist because I know that if I were Christian, and I ended up in heven, I would feel guilty that a good many people in hell were there for eternity because they grew up with
one set of "heretical" beleifs and "were never taught better".
I beleive that hell is a punishment that people are told they
will face if they are not good to their fellow
man. This would be a good thing, however, if, say, a Native American, who did not beleive Christ was the son of
God and did only good during his life, goes to hell, that defeats the concept.
Nobody has the right to say
one child is born with "original sin" and the way to cleanse him is to pay the church.
I have many reasons to be atheist (and science is one of them). It is always better to judge the individual than to put everybody into about 25 groups and dictate their right to live on this planet based on that.