There are atheists neither in heaven nor hell. But are there any on earth either? An atheist is a person who does not believe in God. By this definition an atheist need not reject God's existence. He merely has to believe not. (An analogy might be helpful. A child who is unaware of a place commonly called China surely doesn't believe China exists. It's not that the child actively rejects China's existence. Rather, he simply doesn't affirm China in his thinking. His unbelief we might say is merely passive . He simply doesn't assent to China. How could he?) Romans 1 couldn't be more clear. All men know God. So much so, all are without excuse and culpable before Him. Since belief is a condition of knowledge (for what can be known that's not also believed?), we may safely conclude that if all men know God, then all men must believe He is. Given our definition of an atheist, on God's authority we can know there are none anywhere. There is no actual