Does atheism require faith?

Today's thought comes from a recent conversation regarding atheism.

Many times I have heard it said that atheist is the absence of belief: that all religions require a belief in something (God, Allah, Enlightenment, etc), but atheism is the absence of such beliefs.

But my thinking is that atheism is, in actual fact, a belief system: it is the belief that there is no God.

Putting forward this proposal spawned a flurry of comments from my friend, trying to convince me that atheism is certainly not a belief system and cannot be likened to other religions.

Two things come from this:

Firstly, that belief in the non-existence of God tends to carry with it a belief in the non-existence of anything supernatural. The follow-on is that the only things "rational" people believe in are the things confirmed by science. And this pathway leads to the belief system that science, despite not yet having all the answers (it is forever a work-in-progress), will ultimately be able to explain all of the intricacies of the universe. This is also in spite of the fact that science (currently?) only works with the physical nature of the universe, not the supernatural aspect that is a major part of most religions.

So, it seems as though atheists have a faith in science. Despite knowing that science does not have all the answers (as yet), I have currently not found an athiest willing to engage in such philosophical debates who does not refer back to science to back up their own beliefs.

Secondly, the recent conversation with my friend turned rather quickly to concern that a person could possibly entertain the thought of a supernatural force operating in the universe. A striking resemblance to people such as Richard Dawkins who believe that people holding a faith in God are deluded. The problem with this line of thought is that it is highly intolerant of religious people. The claim that a person "of no religion" is the most able to be objective becomes a farce: their own belief system becomes a driving force of religious intolerance.

To sum up, it seems to me that atheism not only requires a belief in the non-existence of God, but also in the infallibility of scientific theory and testing (despite the ever-changing nature of science, which currently does not hold all the answers). Atheism also causes a large amount of intolerance to people who do not share the same belief system.

Therefore: atheism seems to require faith, and it seems to carry with it some similarities to religious extremism.


Note: By stating that science does not hold all the answers, there is no implication that any particular religion does hold all the answers.