1. Atheistic- Atheism says that everything comes from nothing. There is no God. There is no purpose in life. Might makes right as Hitler believed. There is no absolute rule as there is no God to dictate such rules.
Atheists often have a very strong sense of purpose. This (so far as they believe) is their only existence; wasting even a moment is senseless. If anything you could say a Christian would lack purpose, because once they've done enough to get to heaven nothing else on earth is of any meaning.
An atheist is likely to consider everything in their lives to be of some meaning, if only because it is an expression of their existence.
An atheist could probably express this better than me.
2. Agnostic- While the atheist says there is definitely no God and the Christian says there IS a God, the agnostic says we can't know and won't know if there is a god. Agnosticism was first coined by Aldous Huxley in 1869. He was called Darwin's Bulldog.
This isn't quite true, although you're right in that the word was coined by Huxley (not the most famous member of his illustrious clan).
Agnostics have been around as long as religion has been. They're the ones who go through the motions just in case.
4. Polytheism- Poly meaning many and theism meaning God. This belief is in "many gods." Pagans did and still do believe in the many gods of nature. There was the sky god, the water god, the fire god, the earth god and so on.
In a way. Polytheists don't necessarily believe in nature god alone. Many polytheistic faiths have quite complicated god relationships. Certain branches of Christianity, for example, believe in the trinity, which is roughly analogous to some Hindu interpretations of the divine as expressed through Shiva, Kali, Vishnu and the rest. The idea of aspects is a polytheistic belief, although many would deny it utterly.
Other polytheistic beliefs, just as those of the Norse and the Greeks, have a strict hierarchy of gods which isn't dissimilar to angelic pantheons in mediaeval christianity and very early Judaism.
We know the conscience may be weak, defiled, good, seared, strong or pure but it is never absent. Where did the conscience come from? The only accurate explanation is that the great Moral Being who created us all planted the moral sense in us. No other explanation will do.
That's a bit dogmatic. Surely the only explanation that will 'do' is the right one. If we believe the Jewish/Christian/Islamic tradition then it's because humanity chose it for itself - we ate the apple that cursed us with the knowledge of good and evil - we ate the apple that gave us a conscience. So it was we who enlightened ourselves.
Of course, you can reject that as you wish, but I really think you should be more enlightened to the possibilities, particularly those that are part of the faith you claim to profess.
