Re: Self-contained in your madness.

"I believe there is no God" - a statement of faith.

Not necessarily. I'm fully willing to believe there are atheists who are so convinced of their position that they reject even the possibility of a God. The fact that I've never met or even heard of one doesn't matter. I'm sure you can find one somewhere in this big world of ours (although you might explain to them that they should really call themselves an antitheist rather than an atheist).

But your normal atheist will say "I believe there is no God" in the same way he would say "I believe that your asthmatic three-legged horse will not win the Grand National". It isn't a statement of faith, simply an opinion on probability. It is _possible_ that your horse will win, it is just that, based upon the available evidence, it is very very very unlikely.