By Steve Petersen
At the September Minnesota Atheists meeting with PZ Myers, a classic issue came up in the question-and-answer session: Atheism only defines what we do not believe rather that what we do believe. I argued that many people are proud to be independent, not dependent, even though this also defines only what they are not. Similarly, the Declaration of Independence is primarily a negation of dependence on Britain, but it is not viewed as a pejorative document, at least not because of its title.