Atheism as pragmatism
@ D@v3: Maybe preachyboy's purposefully confusing the term with "infidel" or "kafir". It would be interesting to know whether he does mean atheists or any other non-muslims.
@J1: You seem to be implying a point about atheism requiring a similar leap of faith as required by religion, except that atheism has no underlying guidance or morals from god or his prophets, making it presumably more anarchistic and corrupt. Well in a sense that's probably very true, but in my opinion it seems better to live a life based on what you can prove is before you rather than but what may or may not exist outside our perception. Why rely on that to determine your life choices? The only truly reliable agent to oneself IS oneself.
Oh but there's "external proof" to Islam is there? The teachings of the prophets perhaps? They were human beings too, and just as prone to fallibility as any atheist or kafir you could care to name. And even if they were entirely accurate in their spreading of god's teachings, can you honestly guarantee that their teachings passed down the hundreds/thousands of years between then and now entirely unaltered? We certainly can't with Islam or any other religion for that matter, as evidenced by the many different denominations those religions have.
So my final question is: How did an article about a big telescope become such a massive philosophical discussion? Doesn't anyone care about the amazing feat of engineering this is? The thing is giving us the most detailed infrared sky survey ever! That's not one but TWO nebulae in that photo! For us slightly-advanced primates to even be seeing that is mind-boggling enough without bringing religion into it. Honestly, we're never satisfied, are we?