Lithodid-Man writes:
I stated that atheism is, like religion, a philosophical position and rooted in faith.
I think you said that philosophical materialism was a faith, not atheism. Atheists are people who lack faith in any Gods, but they are not necessarily philosophical materialists (some Buddhists and Animists, for example, plus atheists/spiritualists etc., plus people who think there might be other universes, not necessarily all material in the way we would understand the word).
However, you have now stated a faith that atheism is rooted in faith. I assure you, as an atheist, that it requires no faith to lack faith in anything for which there is no evidence, from Santa Claus to any Gods you care to mention. Faith in supernatural beings for whom there is no evidence is active, lack of it is just passive sanity.
ABE: The rest of your post is absolutely correct, as is the one above, and not even a matter of opinion, but of definitions. Many of us have made the same point on EvC (I use the word naturalism where you use materialism), and you put it very well.
Edited by bluegenes, : afterthought