10 myths about atheists that just won’t go away

2. Atheists have just replaced religion with science

This is often called scientism. The belief that atheists have just replaced one religion with another. However, while it may be safe to say the majority of atheists believe science answers many of life’s questions, it would be unfair to claim that they believe science can answer them all (scientism).

For starters, being an atheist does not mean you must accept scientific facts, there are atheists who believe in the “ancient aliens” idea that life on earth was guided by aliens from another galaxy, or atheists who believe the moon landing is a conspiracy theory. Just not believing that god(s) exist does not mean you immediately accept all scientific laws or theories.

Secondly, science is not a religion. Science is a set of steps that help test ideas and find out what is false. The entire basis of the scientific method is to falsify ideas, not to prove them as true. Scientific theories are not based on tests that prove something is true, it is based on tests that fail to prove that it is false. If a test later shows that a previously accepted idea is false, the idea is abandoned. Science lacks the dogmatic adherence to ideas that religions often have.