The Problem with the "Atheist"

As I've said, I've never believed in God, which technically makes me an atheist (since the prefix "a" means "not" or "without"). But I have problems with the word "atheism." It defines what someone is not rather than what someone is. It would be like calling me an a-instrumentalist for Bad Religion rather than the band's singer. Defining yourself as against something says very little about what you are for. That's my biggest objection to the wave of atheist book^ks and Web sites that have c...

 Summary of Schopenhauer's Philosophy

[Schopenhauer] was also an atheist. He did not believe in a personal, omnipotent God. Instead, Schopenhauer believed that the essence of the universe is Being: a blind, irrational, unquenchable thirst to exist he called Wille zum Leben, and that everything we perceive is a representation of this Will to Live. Because we ourselves are products of Will, we spend most of our lives trapped in a cycle of striving and boredom. We're constantly willing ourselves to attain our goals, and when we d...