"Going back," he says, "to the very earliest of our mental conceptions on this subject, we advert first to the distinction, in point of real and logical import, between unbelief and disbelief.

There being no ground for affirming that there is a God, is a different proposition from there being ground for affirming that there is no God....

The Atheist does not labor to demonstrate that there is no God; but he labors to demonstrate that there is no adequate proof of there being one.

He does not positively affirm the position, that God is not; but he affirms the lack of evidence for the position, that God is.

Judging from the tendency and effect of his arguments, an Atheist does not appear positively to refuse that a God may be; but he insists that He has not discovered Himself, whether by the utterance of His voice in audible revelation, or by the impress of His hand upon visible nature.