Atheism

Atheism, in its broadest sense, is a lack of belief in a deity or deities: the opposite of theism. This encompasses both people who assert that there are no gods and those who make no claim about whether gods exist or not. Narrower definitions of atheism typically regard as atheists only those people who assert the nonexistence of gods, leaving other nonbelievers classified as agnostics or non-theists.

Although many of those who identify themselves as atheists share a common skeptical attitude regarding spiritual or supernatural claims, atheistic beliefs may derive from a variety of personal, philosophical, social, and historical rationales. While there is a tendency among self-described atheists toward secular philosophies such as humanism, naturalism and materialism, there is no single system of philosophy to which all atheists can be said to adhere, nor does atheism have any institutionalized rituals or behaviors.

Etymology

In early Ancient Greek, the adjective atheos (from privative α- + θεος 'god') meant 'without gods' or 'lack of belief in gods'. The word acquired an additional meaning in the 5th century BC, expressing a total lack of relations with the gods; that is, 'denying the gods, godless, ungodly', with more active connotations than asebÄ"s, or 'impious'. Modern translations of classical texts sometimes translate atheos as 'atheistic'. As an abstract noun, there was also atheotÄ"s: 'atheism'. Cicero transliterated atheos into Latin. The shape of the debate concerning early atheism was transformed in the debate between early Christians and pagans, each of whom attributed it to the other, in the pejorative sense, despite the fact that they were merely arguing about how many gods there actually were.

A.B. Drachmann (1922) notes:

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. In Greek they said atheos and atheotes; to these the English words ungodly and ungodliness correspond rather closely. In exactly the same way as ungodly, atheos was used as an expression of severe censure and moral condemnation; this use is an old one, and the oldest that can be traced. Not till later do we find it employed to denote a certain philosophical creed. (p.5)

In English, the term atheism is the result of the adoption of the French athéisme in about 1587. The term atheist in the sense of 'one who denies or disbelieves' actually predates atheism in English, being first attested in about 1571 (the phrase Italian atheoi is recorded as early as 1568). Atheist in the sense of practical godlessness was first attested in 1577. The French word is derived from athée, 'godless, atheist', which in turn is from the Greek atheos. The words deist and theist entered English after atheism, being first attested in 1621 and 1662, respectively, with theism and deism following in 1678 and 1682, respectively. Deism and theism changed meanings slightly around 1700, due to the influence of atheism. (Deism was originally used as a synonym for today's theism, but came to denote a separate philosophical doctrine.)

The Oxford English Dictionary also records an earlier (irregular) formation, atheonism, dated from about 1534. The later and now obsolete words athean and atheal are dated to 1611 and 1612, respectively.

History

Although the actual term atheism originated in 16th Century France, ideas that would today be recognized as atheistic existed before the advent of Classical Antiquity. Epicurus proposed theories that can be classified as atheistic, such as a lack of belief in an afterlife, though he remained ambiguous concerning the actual existence of deities. Before him, Socrates was sentenced to death partly on the grounds that he had denied the existence of the gods, and was therefore guilty of impiety, (although he did express belief in several forms of divinity, as recorded in Plato's Apology). This criminal connotation attached to atheistic ideas would long remain; given the right circumstances, in which 'wrong belief' might be equated with 'unbelief', even those deeply committed to a god could find themselves condemned as 'atheists'.

By the late 20th century, along with the rationalist movement and secular humanism, atheism had become common in some countries, particularly among scientists. Furthermore, atheism also became a staple of the various Communist states: Russia was officially an atheistic country, China remains so to the present day. This helped to reinforce some of the negative connotations concerning atheism, especially in places where anti-communist sentiment was widespread. In the United States, the term became synonymous with being unpatriotic ('godless commie') during the Cold War.

Demographics

The percentage of people in European countries who said in 2005 that they believe in a god.

Statistics regarding the number of atheists in the world are difficult to interpret because different people interpret "atheist" and related terms differently, boundary-drawing problems with non-theistic religious and spiritual beliefs, the lack of a unified belief system, lumping together of atheists and non-religious people, and due to social stigma, discrimination, and persecution in some countries. Though atheists are in the minority in most countries, they are relatively common in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, in former and present Communist states, and, to a lesser extent, in the United States. A 1995 survey attributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica indicates that the non-religious are about 14.7% of the world's population, and atheists around 3.8%.Atheists and atheism have received much criticism, opposition, and persecution, chiefly from theistic sources, throughout human history.

Some criticisms include:
*Against atheism are those in favor of the existence of specific deities, which would imply that atheism is simply untrue. For examples of this type of argument, see Existence of God.
*The lack of belief in a deity who administers justice may lead to poor morals or ethics. This has been countered by atheists who have pointed to the lack of morality in many acts inspired by religion. Also, moral principles may be based on secular philosophies such as utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics.
*That atheism leads to nihilism; In 1670, in his book Pensées, Pascal argued that without a God, life would be meaningless and miserable. People would only be able to create obstacles and overcome them in an attempt to escape boredom. These token victories would ultimately become meaningless, since people would eventually die, and this was good enough reason not to choose to become an atheist.

Atheism and religion

The historical context of how each theistic sect has defined and dealt with atheism is significant. Although atheism is often accompanied by a total lack of spiritual beliefs, this is not an aspect, or even a necessary consequence, of atheism. Indeed, some atheists do believe in a spiritual realm (see afterlife) and may or may not belong to any religious group. Atheists can also be found in several sects of Buddhism and Taoism that do not have theism as a doctrine, and even in religions in which theism has been taught as doctrine.

See also

* List of atheists * Strong atheism * Weak atheism

} Related concepts * Agnosticism * Bright * Criticism of religion * Existence of God * Pascal's Wager * Faith and rationality * Religiosity and intelligence * Freedom of religion and belief * Freethought * Humanism * Infinitism * Irreligion * Nihilism * Objectivism * Pantheism * Rationalist movement * Scientific skepticism * Secular humanism * Secularism * Secular ethics Organizations * American Atheists * National Secular Society * Brights movement * Camp Quest * Atheist Foundation of Australia * Council for Secular Humanism * Freedom From Religion Foundation * Rationalist International * Internet Infidels * Society of the Godless * Secular Coalition for America * Secular Student Alliance Satire * Religious satire * Apatheism * Evil Atheist Conspiracy * Babel Fish * Flying Spaghetti Monster * Invisible Pink Unicorn * Russell's teapot External links Web sites * Associations **Atheist Alliance **American Atheists **Positive Atheism **Freedom From Religion Foundation **Atheist Foundation of Australia **National Secular Society (UK) **TheInfidels.org Site and Forum **The Brights **The Scottish Atheist Council (UK) **Idaho Atheists **Secular Coalition for America **Secular Student Alliance * Web communities **Atheist Parents Group **Freethinker's book discussion community **Church of Reality **FrostCloud.com . **NoReligion.ca **Freethinkers **Positive Atheism **The Secular Web **The Atheist Coalition **The Faithless Community **Ex-Christians **The Ethical Atheist **Atheistic Forum **Atheist Blog Aggregator **Local Atheist groups * Internet radio **Atheist Network (Internet Radio) **The Infidel Guy Radio Show **Freethought Radio * Miscellaneous **Atheist Empire: guide to Atheism on the web **Atheist Resource **Thinking And Moral Problems, Religions And Their Source, Purpose, and Developing A Universal Religion, Parts of Wikibook * **Ebon Musings: The Atheism Pages **Encouraging Ex-Christians **Links related to atheism by Atheists of Silicon Valley **Political and Atheist Thought **Camp Quest: A Secular Summer Camp for Children **Darwin Bedford, Atheist Messiah and Spiritual Reality Therapist **religioustolerance.org **Quentin Smith, atheist philosopher **God is imaginary **Web site of Jeffrey Grupp, atheist philosopher **Atheism page from the BBC website **How to be religion free - a code for the Resolute Atheist **article on The Psychology of Atheism Articles * History of **A Historical Outline of Modern Religious Criticism in Western Civilization * Definitions **AllRefer atheism article of polemic usage **"Atheism and Agnosticism" **"Definition of Atheism" **"Types of Atheistic Belief" **"What Is Atheism?" from Positive Atheism Magazine * Defence **The End of Faith by Sam Harris **Atheism defended **Atheism: The Capital Man **Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right **Lecture on Atheism **The Philosophy of Atheism by Emma Goldman **Why Atheism? **Understanding Delusion **An Atheist Manifesto by Sam Harris * Criticism **Catholic Encyclopedia: "atheism" **The Twilight of Atheism by Alister McGrath **Theism, Atheism, and Rationality by Alvin Plantinga **Intellectual Sophistication and Basic Belief in God by Alvin Plantinga *Statistics **Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns by Phil Zuckerman **BBC Religion **Atheism growing **A collection of Atheist and non-believer stats Notes References *Altizer, Thomas J.J. 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(1995) Genetic variation in Tragopogan Species: Additional Origins of Allotetraploids T. mirius and T. miscellus (Compositae). American Journal of Botany. *Stenger, Victor J. (2003). Has science found God?. New York: Prometheus. *Stein, G. (Ed.) (1984). The Encyclopaedia of Unbelief (Vols. 1-2). New York: Prometheus. ISBN 0879753072. *Thrower, James (1971). A Short History of Western Atheism. London: Pemberton. ISBN 0301711011. *Vitz, Paul (1999). Faith of the fatherless: the psychology of atheism. Dallas, Texas: Spence. ISBN 1890626120.   Rate this Article    Was this article helpful? Not at all Definitely                  1 2 3 4 5    Related Articles • Myth: Atheists Attack Theism & Religion Because They Deny God - Do Atheists' Criticisms of Theism Prove that Atheism is More than Disbelief? • Atheism & Anti-Theism: What's the Difference? What is Anti-Theism? Are All Atheists Anti-Theists? 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