What is Atheism?

There are a small but vocal number of what might be called militant atheists who would like to see all forms of religious belief completely eradicated. In addition to the convictions of moderate atheists, they would also claim that religion is demonstrably false and, furthermore, usually or always harmful or dangerous. Most open-minded atheists and humanists are opposed to such militant views, considering them equivalent to religious fundamentalism, and more likely to give atheism a bad reputation than to further its cause.

Atheism is not in itself a religion. It does not involve any kind of worship, rituals, faith, prayers, etc, and it has no spiritual leader and no sacred text. Most atheists never join any kind of atheist organization although they do exist. Some atheist and humanist organizations do offer secular rituals for common events such as namings, weddings and funerals with the intention of giving them meaning and significance without any religious content , but these are realively rare and not mainstream events.

Atheism is not necessarily anti-religious either, and atheists in general do not dislike or outright hate theists although they may be vehemently opposed to their views. Most atheists would willingly concede there are, or have been, some good things about religion, such as religious art and music, religious charities and good works, some religious wisdom and scripture, and the human fellowship and togetherness that religion often fosters.

Atheists are no more required to be hostile to the religious than Christians or Jews are required to be hostile to Hindus or Muslims. There are even some, like Alain de Botton for example, who try to find a middle way between religion and fundamantalist atheism, and who look for ways to preserve some of the finer elements of religion - such as its art and architecture, its spirit of community and its concept of humility - without involving the idea of a transcendent being or God.

De Botton has even albeit playfully, and not entirely seriously suggested the idea of temples for atheists. Atheism is not even necessarily equivalent to irreligion, although the majority of atheists are also irreligious, in the sense that they do not practice any religion. Some religious and spiritual belief systems that do not actively advocate belief in gods such as some forms of Buddhism, for example could be described as atheistic, and several other religions, including Confucianism, Taoism and Jainism, either do not include belief in a personal god as a tenet of the religion, or actively teach non-theism.

There are even sects of Christian Atheists who reject the God of Christianity but follow the teachings of Jesus and Jewish Atheists who emphasize Jewish culture and history, rather than belief in a God, as the sources of Jewish identity. Unitarian Universalism is an example of a religious Christian movement into which some atheists may comfortably fit, should they feel the need. Atheists are no less moral than any other individual, and they are just as likely to be empathetic, charitable, etc.

Religions do not have a monopoly on moral behaviour, and morality is or should be more than just simply following rules. Indeed, atheists often follow a very similar moral code as religious people, but they arrive at the decision of what is good or bad without any help from the idea of God. Atheism does not have its own moral code, and indeed does not say anything about how an individual person should act, but most atheists nevertheless follow the same general moral code as theists even if for different reasons.

Atheists are quite as capable of positive views on other aspects of life as proponents of any other belief: Neither are atheists necessarily pessimistic or depressive, but they do tend to be realists in the non-philosophical sense and are willing to square up to a world where bad things inevitably happen and where much is dependent on blind chance, without seeking recourse to superstition or comforting fictions. Various forms or sub-categories of atheism can be identified, and there are several other related terms which should be distinguished:.

Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority and creeds. What do Atheists Believe? Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.

According to the World Values Survey , 4. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, 3. Atheists and agnostics combined make up about a quarter of this unaffiliated demographic. In recent years, the profile of atheism has risen substantially in the Arab world. A study noted positive correlations between levels of education and secularism, including atheism, in America. By contrast, in underdeveloped countries, there are virtually no atheists. In a study, researchers found intelligence to be negatively related to religious belief in Europe and the United States.

In a sample of countries, the correlation between national IQ and disbelief in God was found to be 0. He doubts that religion causes stupidity, noting that some highly intelligent people have also been religious, but he says it is plausible that higher intelligence correlates to rejection of improbable religious beliefs and that the situation between intelligence and rejection of religious beliefs is quite complex.

Atheism and Agnosticism

In a study, it was shown that compared to religious individuals, atheists have higher reasoning capacities and this difference seemed to be unrelated to sociodemographic factors such as age, education and country of origin. Statistically, atheists are held in poor regard across the globe. Non-atheists, and possibly even fellow atheists, seem to implicitly view atheists as prone to exhibit immoral behaviors ranging from mass murder to not paying at a restaurant. Pew furthermore noted that, in a U. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Atheist disambiguation.

Humanistic Metaphysical Methodological Religious. Implicit and explicit atheism. Negative and positive atheism. Agnostic atheism and Theological noncognitivism. Arguments against the existence of God , Problem of evil , and Divine hiddenness. Evolutionary origin of religions , Evolutionary psychology of religion , and Psychology of religion.

Atheism and negative theology. Atheist existentialism and Secular humanism. Atheism and religion , Criticism of atheism , Secular ethics , and Secular morality. Agnosticism and Atheism , in Flynn , p. The first takes the privative a both before the Greek theos divinity and gnosis to know to mean that atheism is simply the absence of belief in the gods and agnosticism is simply lack of knowledge of some specified subject matter. The second definition takes atheism to mean the explicit denial of the existence of gods and agnosticism as the position of someone who, because the existence of gods is unknowable, suspends judgment regarding them The first is the more inclusive and recognizes only two alternatives: Either one believes in the gods or one does not.

Consequently, there is no third alternative, as those who call themselves agnostics sometimes claim. Insofar as they lack belief, they are really atheists. Moreover, since absence of belief is the cognitive position in which everyone is born, the burden of proof falls on those who advocate religious belief.

The proponents of the second definition, by contrast, regard the first definition as too broad because it includes uninformed children along with aggressive and explicit atheists. Consequently, it is unlikely that the public will adopt it. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy ed. Either the lack of belief that there exists a god, or the belief that there exists none. Sometimes thought itself to be more dogmatic than mere agnosticism, although atheists retort that everyone is an atheist about most gods, so they merely advance one step further.

Archived from the original on 13 May Atheism in this sense means "not theistic". The former meaning of the term is a literal rendering. People frequently adopt an attitude of rejection toward a position for reasons other than that it is a false proposition. It is common among contemporary philosophers, and indeed it was not uncommon in earlier centuries, to reject positions on the ground that they are meaningless.

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Sometimes, too, a theory is rejected on such grounds as that it is sterile or redundant or capricious, and there are many other considerations which in certain contexts are generally agreed to constitute good grounds for rejecting an assertion. So an atheist is someone who disbelieves in God, whereas a theist is someone who believes in God. Another meaning of 'atheism' is simply nonbelief in the existence of God, rather than positive belief in the nonexistence of God.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Department of Religious Studies, University of Alabama. Archived from the original on 14 May Atheism in Pagan Antiquity. Atheism and atheist are words formed from Greek roots and with Greek derivative endings. Nevertheless they are not Greek; their formation is not consonant with Greek usage. Not till later do we find it employed to denote a certain philosophical creed. Atheism in the Ancient World.

What is atheism? - Atheist Alliance International

New Histories of Atheism". In Hunter, Michael; Wootton, David. Atheism from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. The Legacy of the French Revolution. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. The Secular Web Library. God and the Burden of Proof: Plantinga, Swinburne, and the Analytical Defense of Theism. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Naturalism and Physicalism , in Martin , pp. Martin, Michael T, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Archived from the original PDF on 21 October Retrieved 1 October Archived from the original PDF on A World of Atheism: In Bullivant, Stephen; Ruse, Michael.

The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Persons professing atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion, including the militantly antireligious opposed to all religion. Persons professing no religion, nonbelievers, agnostics, freethinkers, uninterested, or dereligionized secularists indifferent to all religion but not militantly so. Directorate General Research, European Union. Archived from the original PDF on 30 April The term as generally used, however, is highly ambiguous.

Its meaning varies a according to the various definitions of deity, and especially b according as it is i. As to a , it is obvious that atheism from the standpoint of the Christian is a very different conception as compared with atheism as understood by a Deist, a Positivist, a follower of Euhemerus or Herbert Spencer, or a Buddhist.

However, this common contrast of agnosticism with atheism will hold only if one assumes that atheism means positive atheism. In the popular sense, agnosticism is compatible with negative atheism. Since negative atheism by definition simply means not holding any concept of God, it is compatible with neither believing nor disbelieving in God.

There is an agnostic atheism or atheistic agnosticism, and the combination of atheism with agnosticism which may be so named is not an uncommon one. Agnosticism , in Flynn , p. Since agnostics do not believe in God, they are by definition negative atheists. This is not to say that negative atheism entails agnosticism. A negative atheist might disbelieve in God but need not.

I usually reply with a question like, "Well, are you a Republican or an American? Agnosticism addresses knowledge; atheism addresses belief. The agnostic says, "I don't have a knowledge that God exists. Some agnostics are atheistic and some are theistic. Why Should Atheists Be Persecuted? Till that proof comes he remains, as his name implies, without God. His mind is open to every new truth, after it has passed the warder Reason at the gate. On the contrary, I, as an Atheist, simply profess that I do not see sufficient reason to believe that there is a god.

I do not pretend to know that there is no god. The whole question of god's existence, belief or disbelief , a question of probability or of improbability, not knowledge. As such, it is usually distinguished from theism, which affirms the reality of the divine and often seeks to demonstrate its existence. Atheism is also distinguished from agnosticism, which leaves open the question whether there is a god or not, professing to find the questions unanswered or unanswerable. Critique and denial of metaphysical beliefs in God or divine beings. Unlike agnosticism, which leaves open the question of whether there is a God, atheism is a positive denial.

It is rooted in an array of philosophical systems. But dogmatic atheism is rare compared with the sceptical type, which is identical with agnosticism in so far as it denies the capacity of the mind of man to form any conception of God, but is different from it in so far as the agnostic merely holds his judgment in suspense, though, in practice, agnosticism is apt to result in an attitude towards religion which is hardly distinguishable from a passive and unaggressive atheism.

Archived from the original on 12 May The Religious Philosophies of Mankind. I must begin by stating what sense I am attaching to the word "atheism," and how I am construing the theme of this paper. I shall understand by "atheism" a critique and a denial of the major claims of all varieties of theism. Thus, a child who has received no religious instruction and has never heard about God, is not an atheist — for he is not denying any theistic claims. Similarly in the case of an adult who, if he has withdrawn from the faith of his father without reflection or because of frank indifference to any theological issue, is also not an atheist — for such an adult is not challenging theism and not professing any views on the subject.

I propose to examine some philosophic concepts of atheism Angeles, Prometheus Books, Agnostics are distinguished from innocents, who also neither believe that there are gods nor believe that there are no gods, by the fact that they have given consideration to the question whether there are gods. Innocents are those who have never considered the question whether there are gods. Typically, innocents have never considered the question whether there are gods because they are not able to consider that question.

How could that be? Well, in order to consider the question whether there are gods, one must understand what it would mean for something to be a god. That is, one needs to have the concept of a god. Those who lack the concept of a god are not able to entertain the thought that there are gods. Consider, for example, one-month-old babies. It is very plausible that one-month-old babies lack the concept of a god. So it is very plausible that one-month-old babies are innocents. Let us, for future ready reference, introduce the labels 'positive atheist' for the former and 'negative atheist' for the latter.

The Review of Politics. Archived from the original on 13 November The true default position is neither theism nor atheism, but agnosticism The Case for Agnosticism". Archived from the original on 20 May In the absence of any good reasons to believe these outlandish claims, we rightly disbelieve them, we don't just suspend judgement.

This is because when we have a lack of absolute proof we can still have overwhelming evidence or one explanation which is far superior to the alternatives. The True Intellectual System of the Universe: Pressley, Sue Anne 8 September Archived from the original on 22 May Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? Commit it then to the flames: Internet Infidels , Secular Web Library. Language, Truth and Logic. In a footnote, Ayer attributes this view to "Professor H. Gunasekara, "The Buddhist Attitude to God". Archived from the original on 2 January In the Bhuridatta Jataka, "The Buddha argues that the three most commonly given attributes of God, viz.

Mother Earth Publishing Association. Archived from the original on 21 May Claydon, David; et al. Although Neo-Pagans share common commitments to nature and spirit there is a diversity of beliefs and practices Some are atheists, others are polytheists several gods exist , some are pantheists all is God and others are panentheists all is in God. One online information source indicates that depending on how the term God is defined, Neo-Pagans might be classified as monotheists, duotheists two gods , polytheists, pantheists, or atheists.

Hinduism, a way of life. For the thoroughgoing atheist, the path is extremely difficult, if not lonely, for he can not develop any relationship of love with God, nor can he expect any divine help on the long and arduous journey. Archived from the original on 27 September The Ineffable, Inconceivable, and Incomprehensible God. Fundamentality and Apophatic Theology". Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion. Negative Theology as Jewish Modernity. Religion and Politics Worldwide. National Conference of the American Academy of Religion lectures. Archived from the original PDF on 4 March Nonbelief has existed for centuries.

For example, Buddhism and Jainism have been called atheistic religions because they do not advocate belief in gods. Archived from the original on 16 April The Gospel of Christian Atheism. Archived from the original on 29 September The Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. According to Hinduism, the path of the atheist is very difficult to follow in matters of spirituality, though it is a valid one. Brother Ivan Fyodorovich , Chapter 4 there is the famous argument that If there is no God, all things are permitted.

All things are lawful then, they can do what they like? This, however, is possible in an intelligible world only under a wise author and ruler. Reason compels us to admit such a ruler, together with life in such a world, which we must consider as future life, or else all moral laws are to be considered as idle dreams That problem was brought home to us with dazzling clarity by Nietzsche, who had reflected more deeply than any of his contemporaries on the implications of godlessness and come to the conclusion that a fatal contradiction lay at the heart of modern theological enterprise: This, in Nietzsche's mind, was an absurdity.

It amounted to nothing less than dismissing the architect while trying to keep the building or getting rid of the lawgiver while claiming the protection of the law. Morality "has truth only if God is truth—it stands or falls with faith in God" Nietzsche , p. The moral argument for the existence of God essentially takes Nietzsche's assertion as one of its premises: Like other mid-nineteenth-century writers, George Eliot was not fully aware of the implications of her humanism, and, as Nietzsche saw, attempted the difficult task of upholding the Christian morality of altruism without faith in the Christian God.

Beyond Belief Session 6 Conference. Salk Institute , La Jolla, California: Cohen notes particularly that Plato and Aristotle produced arguments in favour of slavery. Koba the Dread ; London: Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Altemeyer, Bob; Hunsberger, Bruce International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.

Archived from the original on 16 May In a world riven by ignorance, only the atheist refuses to deny the obvious: Religious faith promotes human violence to an astonishing degree. Ethics for a Brave New World. Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: Catholic Education Resource Center.

Word Pictures in the New Testament.

Atheists in the original sense of being without God and also in the sense of hostility to God from failure to worship him. See Paul's words in Ro 1: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. English recusant literature, — The Psalmes of David and others, with J. The Atheistes which say..

The auncient ecclesiasticall histories of the first six hundred years after Christ, written by Eusebius, Socrates, and Evagrius. The opinion which they conceaue of you, to be Atheists, or godlesse men. Atheism , retrieved , First Known Use: Athisme, that is to say, vtter godlesnes. Godd would not longe suffer this impietie, or rather atheonisme. The later and now obsolete words athean and atheal are dated to and respectively. The Oxford English Dictionary Second ed. The Anatomy of Melancholy. His opinion concerning the difference between the Church of England and Geneva [etc.

To have said my office.. An universal etymological English dictionary. The true intellectual system of the universe.

2. Definitions of “Agnosticism”

Chapter V Section II p. A clear distinction is rarely drawn in modern writings between these two definitions, but some archaic uses of atheism encompassed only disbelief in the singular God, not in polytheistic deities. It is on this basis that the obsolete term adevism was coined in the late 19th century to describe an absence of belief in plural deities.

India, that is, sidd. A history of Indian philosophy, Volume 1. A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy. An Introduction to Indian Philosophy. Philosophy East and West. Atheism in Antiquity , in Martin , pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Everyday Life in the Birthplace of Western Civilization. A Contribution to the History of Ancient Atheism.

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Thomas Library, Bryn Mawr College, , p. Reason and Religion in Socratic Philosophy. In particular, he argues that the claim he is a complete atheist contradicts the other part of the indictment, that he introduced "new divinities". Testimonies, especially in the context of polemical criticism, are found e. In McBrayer, Justin P. An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism. Backgrounds of Early Christianity second ed. Past and Present Inquisition from Its Establishment to the Great Schism: Schriften und Materialien , p. The System of Nature. God, Locke, and Equality: Atheism and Agnosticism in Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche.

A Very Short Introduction. The Origin and Nature of Secularism. A Short History of Christianity ; Viking; p. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism.

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