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#alternate Wikipedia (en)
Atheism
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Absence of belief in the existence of deities
"Atheist" redirects here. For other uses, see Atheist (disambiguation).
Part of a series on
Atheism
* Concepts
* History
* Antitheism
* Nontheism
* Atheism and religion
(Criticism of atheism / of religion)
* History of atheism
* State atheism
Types
* Implicit and explicit
* Negative and positive
* Feminist
* New Atheism
* Christian
* India
* Hindu (Adevism)
* Buddhist
* Jewish
* Muslim
Arguments for atheism
Against God's existence
* Atheist's Wager
* Evil God Challenge
* Fate of the unlearned
* Free will
* God of the gaps
* Hitchens's razor
* Incompatible properties
* Inconsistent revelation
* Nonbelief
* Omnipotence paradox
* Poor design
* Problem of evil
* Problem of Hell
* Russell's teapot
* Theological noncognitivism
* Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit
People
Lists of atheists
* Mikhail Bakunin
* Jean Baudrillard
* Albert Camus
* Richard Dawkins
* Daniel Dennett
* Ludwig Feuerbach
* Sam Harris
* Christopher Hitchens
* Baron d'Holbach
* Bertrand Russell
Related stances
Agnosticism
* Weak
* Strong
* Agnostic theism
* Agnostic atheism
* Ignosticism
* Apatheism
Irreligion
* Anti-clericalism
* Antireligion
* Freethought
* Parody religion
* Post-theism
* Secular humanism
Naturalism
* Humanistic
* Metaphysical
* Methodological
* Religious
* Secularism
* Outline
* Category
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* v
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* e
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the
existence of deities.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] Less broadly, atheism is a
rejection of the belief that any deities exist.^[5]^[6] In an even
narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no
deities.^[1]^[2]^[7]^[8] Atheism is contrasted with theism,^[9]^[10]
which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity
exists.^[10]^[11]^[12]
The etymological root for the word atheism originated before the 5th
century BCE from the ancient Greek a'theo*s (atheos), meaning "without
god(s)". In antiquity, it had multiple uses as a pejorative term
applied to those thought to reject the gods worshiped by the larger
society,^[13] those who were forsaken by the gods, or those who had no
commitment to belief in the gods.^[14] The term denoted a social
category created by orthodox religionists into which those who did not
share their religious beliefs were placed.^[14] The actual term atheism
emerged first in the 16th century.^[15] With the spread of freethought,
skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion,
application of the term narrowed in scope. The first individuals to
identify themselves using the word atheist lived in the 18th century
during the Age of Enlightenment.^[16]^[15] The French Revolution, noted
for its "unprecedented atheism", witnessed the first significant
political movement in history to advocate for the supremacy of human
reason.^[17]
Arguments for atheism range from philosophical to social and historical
approaches. Rationales for not believing in deities include the lack of
evidence,^[18]^[19] the problem of evil, the argument from inconsistent
revelations, the rejection of concepts that cannot be falsified, and
the argument from nonbelief.^[18]^[20] Nonbelievers contend that
atheism is a more parsimonious position than theism and that everyone
is born without beliefs in deities;^[1] therefore, they argue that the
burden of proof lies not on the atheist to disprove the existence of
gods but on the theist to provide a rationale for theism.^[21] Although
some atheists have adopted secular philosophies (e.g. secular
humanism),^[22]^[23] there is no ideology or code of conduct to which
all atheists adhere.^[24]
Since conceptions of atheism vary, accurate estimations of current
numbers of atheists are difficult.^[25] According to global Win-Gallup
International studies, 13% of respondents were "convinced atheists" in
2012,^[26] 11% were "convinced atheists" in 2015,^[27] and in 2017, 9%
were "convinced atheists".^[28] However, other researchers have advised
caution with WIN/Gallup figures since other surveys which have used the
same wording for decades and have a bigger sample size have
consistently reached lower figures.^[29] An older survey by the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2004 recorded atheists as comprising
8% of the world's population.^[30] Other older estimates have indicated
that atheists comprise 2% of the world's population, while the
irreligious add a further 12%.^[31] According to these polls, Europe
and East Asia are the regions with the highest rates of atheism. In
2015, 61% of people in China reported that they were atheists.^[32] The
figures for a 2010 Eurobarometer survey in the European Union (EU)
reported that 20% of the EU population claimed not to believe in "any
sort of spirit, God or life force", with France (40%) and Sweden (34%)
representing the highest values.^[33] According to the 2017 WIN Gallup
poll, China and Sweden were the most atheistic countries.^[34]
[ ]
Contents
* 1 Definitions and types
+ 1.1 Range
+ 1.2 Implicit vs. explicit
+ 1.3 Positive vs. negative
+ 1.4 Definition as impossible or impermanent
* 2 Etymology
* 3 Arguments
+ 3.1 Epistemological arguments
+ 3.2 Metaphysical arguments
+ 3.3 Logical arguments
+ 3.4 Reductionary accounts of religion
+ 3.5 Atheism, religions and spirituality
+ 3.6 Atheism and negative theology
* 4 Atheistic philosophies
* 5 Religion and morality
+ 5.1 Association with world views and social behaviors
+ 5.2 Irreligion
+ 5.3 Divine command
+ 5.4 Criticism of religion
* 6 History
+ 6.1 Early Indian religions
+ 6.2 Classical antiquity
+ 6.3 Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance
+ 6.4 Early modern period
+ 6.5 Since 1900
+ 6.6 Other developments
+ 6.7 New Atheism
* 7 Demographics
+ 7.1 Europe
+ 7.2 Asia
+ 7.3 Australasia
+ 7.4 United States
+ 7.5 Arab world
+ 7.6 Wealth and education
+ 7.7 Attitudes toward atheism
* 8 See also
* 9 Notes
* 10 References
+ 10.1 Citations
+ 10.2 Sources
* 11 Further reading
* 12 External links
Definitions and types
A diagram showing the relationship between the definitions of
weak/strong and implicit/explicit atheism.
Explicit strong/positive/hard atheists (in purple on the right) assert
that "at least one deity exists" is a false statement.
Explicit weak/negative/soft atheists (in blue on the right) reject or
eschew belief that any deities exist without actually asserting that
"at least one deity exists" is a false statement.
Implicit weak/negative atheists (in blue on the left), according to
authors such as George H. Smith, would include people (such as young
children and some agnostics) who do not believe in a deity but have not
explicitly rejected such belief.
(Sizes in the diagram are not meant to indicate relative sizes within a
population.)
Writers disagree on how best to define and classify atheism,^[35]
contesting what supernatural entities are considered gods, whether
atheism is a philosophic position in its own right or merely the
absence of one, and whether it requires a conscious, explicit
rejection. However the norm is to define atheism in terms of an
explicit stance against theism.^[36]^[37]^[38]
Atheism has been regarded as compatible with
agnosticism,^[39]^[40]^[41]^[42] but has also been contrasted with
it.^[43]^[44]^[45]
Range
Some of the ambiguity and controversy involved in defining atheism
arises from difficulty in reaching a consensus for the definitions of
words like deity and god. The variety of wildly different conceptions
of God and deities lead to differing ideas regarding atheism's
applicability. The ancient Romans accused Christians of being atheists
for not worshiping the pagan deities. Gradually, this view fell into
disfavor as theism came to be understood as encompassing belief in any
divinity.^[46]
With respect to the range of phenomena being rejected, atheism may
counter anything from the existence of a deity, to the existence of any
spiritual, supernatural, or transcendental concepts, such as those of
Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Taoism.^[47]
Implicit vs. explicit
Main article: Implicit and explicit atheism
Definitions of atheism also vary in the degree of consideration a
person must put to the idea of gods to be considered an atheist.
Atheism is commonly defined as the simple absence of belief that any
deities exist. This broad definition would include newborns and other
people who have not been exposed to theistic ideas. As far back as
1772, Baron d'Holbach said that "All children are born Atheists; they
have no idea of God."^[48] Similarly, George H. Smith suggested that:
"The man who is unacquainted with theism is an atheist because he does
not believe in a god. This category would also include the child with
the conceptual capacity to grasp the issues involved, but who is still
unaware of those issues. The fact that this child does not believe in
god qualifies him as an atheist."^[49] Implicit atheism is "the absence
of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it" and explicit
atheism is the conscious rejection of belief. For the purposes of his
paper on "philosophical atheism", Ernest Nagel contested including the
mere absence of theistic belief as a type of atheism.^[50] Graham Oppy
classifies as innocents those who never considered the question because
they lack any understanding of what a god is. According to Oppy, these
could be one-month-old babies, humans with severe traumatic brain
injuries, or patients with advanced dementia.^[51]
Positive vs. negative
Main article: Negative and positive atheism
Philosophers such as Antony Flew^[52] and Michael Martin^[46] have
contrasted positive (strong/hard) atheism with negative (weak/soft)
atheism. Positive atheism is the explicit affirmation that gods do not
exist. Negative atheism includes all other forms of non-theism.
According to this categorization, anyone who is not a theist is either
a negative or a positive atheist. The terms weak and strong are
relatively recent, while the terms negative and positive atheism are of
older origin, having been used (in slightly different ways) in the
philosophical literature^[52] and in Catholic apologetics.^[53]
While Martin, for example, asserts that agnosticism entails negative
atheism,^[41] many agnostics see their view as distinct from
atheism,^[54]^[55] which they may consider no more justified than
theism or requiring an equal conviction.^[54] The assertion of
unattainability of knowledge for or against the existence of gods is
sometimes seen as an indication that atheism requires a leap of
faith.^[56]^[57] Common atheist responses to this argument include that
unproven religious propositions deserve as much disbelief as all other
unproven propositions,^[58] and that the unprovability of a god's
existence does not imply an equal probability of either
possibility.^[59] Australian philosopher J.J.C. Smart even argues that
"sometimes a person who is really an atheist may describe herself, even
passionately, as an agnostic because of unreasonable generalized
philosophical skepticism which would preclude us from saying that we
know anything whatever, except perhaps the truths of mathematics and
formal logic."^[60] Consequently, some atheist authors, such as Richard
Dawkins, prefer distinguishing theist, agnostic, and atheist positions
along a spectrum of theistic probability--the likelihood that each
assigns to the statement "God exists".^[61]
Definition as impossible or impermanent
Before the 18th century, the existence of God was so accepted in the
Western world that even the possibility of true atheism was questioned.
This is called theistic innatism--the notion that all people believe in
God from birth; within this view was the connotation that atheists are
simply in denial.^[62] There is also a position claiming that atheists
are quick to believe in God in times of crisis, that atheists make
deathbed conversions, or that "there are no atheists in foxholes".^[63]
There have, however, been examples to the contrary, among them examples
of literal "atheists in foxholes".^[64] Some atheists have challenged
the need for the term "atheism". In his book Letter to a Christian
Nation, Sam Harris wrote:
In fact, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. No one ever
needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or a
"non-alchemist". We do not have words for people who doubt that
Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only
to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than
the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified
religious beliefs.^[65]
Etymology
The Greek word atheoi (atheoi), as it appears in the Epistle to the
Ephesians 2:12^[66] on the early 3rd-century Papyrus 46. It is usually
translated into English as "[those who are] without God".^[a]
In early ancient Greek, the adjective atheos (a'theo*s, from the
privative a- + theo'*s "god") meant "godless". It was first used as a
term of censure roughly meaning "ungodly" or "impious". In the 5th
century BCE, the word began to indicate more deliberate and active
godlessness in the sense of "severing relations with the gods" or
"denying the gods". The term aseby%*s (asebes) then came to be applied
against those who impiously denied or disrespected the local gods, even
if they believed in other gods. Modern translations of classical texts
sometimes render atheos as "atheistic". As an abstract noun, there was
also atheo'ty*s (atheotes), "atheism". Cicero transliterated the Greek
word into the Latin atheos. The term found frequent use in the debate
between early Christians and Hellenists, with each side attributing it,
in the pejorative sense, to the other.^[13]
The term atheist (from the French athee), in the sense of "one who ...
denies the existence of God or gods",^[68] predates atheism in English,
being first found as early as 1566,^[69] and again in 1571.^[70]
Atheist as a label of practical godlessness was used at least as early
as 1577.^[71]
The term atheism was derived from the French atheisme,^[72] and appears
in English about 1587.^[73] An earlier work, from about 1534, used the
term atheonism.^[74]^[75]
Related words emerged later: deist in 1621,^[76] theist in 1662,^[77]
deism in 1675,^[78] and theism in 1678.^[79]
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.^[80]
Karen Armstrong writes that "During the 16th and 17th centuries, the
word 'atheist' was still reserved exclusively for polemic ... The term
'atheist' was an insult. Nobody would have dreamed of calling himself
an atheist."^[16]
Atheism was first used to describe a self-avowed belief in late
18th-century Europe, specifically denoting disbelief in the
monotheistic Abrahamic god.^[b]
In the 20th century, globalization contributed to the expansion of the
term to refer to disbelief in all deities, though it remains common in
Western society to describe atheism as simply "disbelief in God".^[46]
Arguments
Paul Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, an 18th-century advocate of atheism.
"The source of man's unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature. The
pertinacity with which he clings to blind opinions imbibed in his
infancy, which interweave themselves with his existence, the consequent
prejudice that warps his mind, that prevents its expansion, that
renders him the slave of fiction, appears to doom him to continual
error."^[81]
Epistemological arguments
Further information: Agnostic atheism and Theological noncognitivism
Skepticism, based on the ideas of David Hume, asserts that certainty
about anything is impossible, so one can never know for sure whether or
not a god exists. Hume, however, held that such unobservable
metaphysical concepts should be rejected as "sophistry and
illusion".^[82] The allocation of agnosticism to atheism is disputed;
it can also be regarded as an independent, basic worldview.^[83]
There are three main conditions of epistemology: truth, belief and
justification. Michael Martin argues that atheism is a justified and
rational true belief, but offers no extended epistemological
justification because current theories are in a state of controversy.
Martin instead argues for "mid-level principles of justification that
are in accord with our ordinary and scientific rational practice."^[84]
Other arguments for atheism that can be classified as epistemological
or ontological, including ignosticism, assert the meaninglessness or
unintelligibility of basic terms such as "God" and statements such as
"God is all-powerful." Theological noncognitivism holds that the
statement "God exists" does not express a proposition, but is
nonsensical or cognitively meaningless. It has been argued both ways as
to whether such individuals can be classified into some form of atheism
or agnosticism. Philosophers A. J. Ayer and Theodore M. Drange reject
both categories, stating that both camps accept "God exists" as a
proposition; they instead place noncognitivism in its own
category.^[85]^[86]
Metaphysical arguments
Further information: Monism and Physicalism
Philosopher, Zofia Zdybicka writes:
Metaphysical atheism ... includes all doctrines that hold to
metaphysical monism (the homogeneity of reality). Metaphysical
atheism may be either: a) absolute -- an explicit denial of God's
existence associated with materialistic monism (all materialistic
trends, both in ancient and modern times); b) relative -- the
implicit denial of God in all philosophies that, while they accept
the existence of an absolute, conceive of the absolute as not
possessing any of the attributes proper to God: transcendence, a
personal character or unity. Relative atheism is associated with
idealistic monism (pantheism, panentheism, deism).^[87]
Epicurus is credited with first expounding the problem of evil. David
Hume in his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1779) cited Epicurus
in stating the argument as a series of questions:^[88] "Is God willing
to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not
willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then
whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him
God?"
Most atheists lean toward metaphysical monism: the belief that there is
only one kind of ultimate substance. Historically, metaphysical monism
took the form of philosophical materialism, the view that matter formed
the basis of all reality; this naturally omitted the possibility of a
non-material divine being.^[89] Describing the world as "basically
matter" in the twenty-first century would be contrary to modern
physics, so it is generally seen as an older term that is sometimes
mistakenly used interchangeably with physicalism. Physicalism can
incorporate the non-matter based physical phenomena, such as light and
energy, into its view that only physical entities with physical powers
exist, and that science defines and explains what those are.^[89]
Physicalism is a monistic ontology: one ultimate substance exists, and
it exists as a physical reality.^[90]
Physicalism opposes dualism (the view that there's physical substance
and separate mental activities): there is no such thing as a soul, or
any other abstract object (such as a mind or a self) that exists
independently of physicality. It also opposes neutral monism, which
holds to one kind of substance for the universe but makes no claim
about its nature, holding to the view that the physical and the mental
are both just differing kinds of the same fundamental substance that is
in itself neither mental nor physical.^[91]^[87] Physicalism also
opposes idealism (the view that everything known is based on human
mental perception).^[92]
Naturalism is also used by atheists to describe the metaphysical view
that everything that exists is fundamentally natural, and that there
are no supernatural phenomena.^[89] Naturalism focuses on how science
can explain the world fully with physical laws and through natural
phenomena. It's about the idea that the universe is a closed system.
Naturalism can be interpreted to allow for a dualist ontology of the
mental and physical.^[93] Philosopher Graham Oppy references a
PhilPapers survey that says 56.5% of philosophers in academics lean
toward physicalism; 49.8% lean toward naturalism.^[94]
According to Graham Oppy, direct arguments for atheism aim at showing
theism fails on its own terms, while indirect arguments are those
inferred from direct arguments in favor of something else that is
inconsistent with theism. For example, Oppy says arguing for naturalism
is an argument for atheism since naturalism and theism "cannot both be
true".^[95]^: 53 Fiona Ellis says that while Oppy's view is common, it
is dependent on a narrow view of naturalism. She describes the
"expansive naturalism" of John McDowell, James Griffin and David
Wiggins as giving "due respect to scientific findings" while also
asserting there are things in human experience which cannot be
explained in such terms, such as the concept of value, leaving room for
theism.^[96] Christopher C. Knight asserts a theistic naturalism that
relies on what he terms an "incarnational naturalism" (the doctrine of
immanence) and does not require any special mode of divine action that
would put it outside nature.^[97] Nevertheless, Oppy argues that a
strong naturalism favors atheism, though he finds the best direct
arguments against theism to be the evidential problem of evil, and
arguments concerning the contradictory nature of God were He to
exist.^[95]^: 55-60
Logical arguments
Further information: Arguments against the existence of God, Problem of
evil, and Divine hiddenness
A statue of the Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu, 1208, Kofukuji Temple,
Nara, Japan
Some atheists hold the view that the various conceptions of gods, such
as the personal god of Christianity, are ascribed logically
inconsistent qualities. Such atheists present deductive arguments
against the existence of God, which assert the incompatibility between
certain traits, such as perfection, creator-status, immutability,
omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, omnibenevolence, transcendence,
personhood (a personal being), non-physicality, justice, and
mercy.^[18]
Theodicean atheists believe that the world as they experience it cannot
be reconciled with the qualities commonly ascribed to God and gods by
theologians. They argue that an omniscient, omnipotent, and
omnibenevolent God is not compatible with a world where there is evil
and suffering, and where divine love is hidden from many people.^[20]
A similar argument is attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of
Buddhism.^[98] The medieval Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (4/5th
century) who outlined numerous Buddhist arguments against God, wrote in
his Sheath of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakosha):
Besides, do you say that God finds joy in seeing the creatures which
he has created in the prey of all the distress of existence,
including the tortures of the hells? Homage to this kind of God! The
profane stanza expresses it well: "One calls him Rudra because he
burns, because he is sharp, fierce, redoubtable, an eater of flesh,
blood and marrow.^[99]
Reductionary accounts of religion
Further information: Evolutionary origin of religions, Evolutionary
psychology of religion, and Psychology of religion
Philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach^[100] and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud have
argued that God and other religious beliefs are human inventions,
created to fulfill various psychological and emotional wants or needs,
or a projection mechanism from the 'Id' omnipotence; for Vladimir
Lenin, in 'Materialism and Empirio-criticism', against the Russian
Machism, the followers of Ernst Mach, Feuerbach was the final argument
against belief in a god. This is also a view of many Buddhists.^[101]
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, influenced by the work of Feuerbach,
argued that belief in God and religion are social functions, used by
those in power to oppress the working class. According to Mikhail
Bakunin, "the idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and
justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and
necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind, in theory, and
practice." He reversed Voltaire's aphorism that if God did not exist,
it would be necessary to invent him, writing instead that "if God
really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him."^[102]
Atheism, religions and spirituality
Further information: Nontheistic religions
Atheism is not mutually exclusive with respect to some religious and
spiritual belief systems, including Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism,
Syntheism, Raelism,^[103] and Neopagan movements^[104] such as
Wicca.^[105] Astika schools in Hinduism hold atheism to be a valid path
to moksha, but extremely difficult, for the atheist cannot expect any
help from the divine on their journey.^[106] Jainism believes the
universe is eternal and has no need for a creator deity, however
Tirthankaras are revered beings who can transcend space and time^[107]
and have more power than the god Indra.^[108] Secular Buddhism does not
advocate belief in gods. Early Buddhism was atheistic as Gautama
Buddha's path involved no mention of gods. Later conceptions of
Buddhism consider Buddha himself a god, suggest adherents can attain
godhood, and revere Bodhisattvas.^[109]
Atheism and negative theology
Further information: Atheism and negative theology
Apophatic theology is often assessed as being a version of atheism or
agnosticism, since it cannot say truly that God exists.^[110] "The
comparison is crude, however, for conventional atheism treats the
existence of God as a predicate that can be denied ("God is
nonexistent"), whereas negative theology denies that God has
predicates".^[111] "God or the Divine is" without being able to
attribute qualities about "what He is" would be the prerequisite of
positive theology in negative theology that distinguishes theism from
atheism. "Negative theology is a complement to, not the enemy of,
positive theology".^[112]
Atheistic philosophies
Further information: Atheist existentialism and Secular humanism
Axiological, or constructive, atheism rejects the existence of gods in
favor of a "higher absolute", such as humanity. This form of atheism
favors humanity as the absolute source of ethics and values, and
permits individuals to resolve moral problems without resorting to God.
Marx and Freud used this argument to convey messages of liberation,
full-development, and unfettered happiness.^[83] One of the most common
criticisms of atheism has been to the contrary: that denying the
existence of a god either leads to moral relativism and leaves one with
no moral or ethical foundation,^[113] or renders life meaningless and
miserable.^[114] Blaise Pascal argued this view in his Pensees.^[115]
French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre identified himself as a
representative of an "atheist existentialism"^[116] concerned less with
denying the existence of God than with establishing that "man needs ...
to find himself again and to understand that nothing can save him from
himself, not even a valid proof of the existence of God."^[117] Sartre
said a corollary of his atheism was that "if God does not exist, there
is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence, a being who
exists before he can be defined by any concept, and ... this being is
man."^[116] Sartre described the practical consequence of this atheism
as meaning that there are no a priori rules or absolute values that can
be invoked to govern human conduct, and that humans are "condemned" to
invent these for themselves, making "man" absolutely "responsible for
everything he does".^[118]
Religion and morality
See also: Atheism and religion, Criticism of atheism, Secular ethics,
and Secular morality
Joseph Baker and Buster Smith assert that one of the common themes of
atheism is that most atheists "typically construe atheism as more moral
than religion".^[119]
Association with world views and social behaviors
Sociologist Phil Zuckerman analyzed previous social science research on
secularity and non-belief and concluded that societal well-being is
positively correlated with irreligion. He found that there are much
lower concentrations of atheism and secularity in poorer, less
developed nations (particularly in Africa and South America) than in
the richer industrialized democracies.^[120]^[121] His findings
relating specifically to atheism in the US were that compared to
religious people in the US, "atheists and secular people" are less
nationalistic, prejudiced, antisemitic, racist, dogmatic, ethnocentric,
closed-minded, and authoritarian, and in US states with the highest
percentages of atheists, the murder rate is lower than average. In the
most religious states, the murder rate is higher than
average.^[122]^[123]
Irreligion
Main article: Irreligion
Buddhism is sometimes described as nontheistic because of the absence
of a creator god, but that can be too simplistic a view.^[124]^[125]
People who self-identify as atheists are often assumed to be
irreligious, but some sects within major religions reject the existence
of a personal, creator deity.^[126] In recent years, certain religious
denominations have accumulated a number of openly atheistic followers,
such as atheistic or humanistic Judaism^[127]^[128] and Christian
atheists.^[129]^[130]^[131] The strictest sense of positive atheism
does not entail any specific beliefs outside of disbelief in any deity;
as such, atheists can hold any number of spiritual beliefs. For the
same reason, atheists can hold a wide variety of ethical beliefs,
ranging from the moral universalism of humanism, which holds that a
moral code should be applied consistently to all humans, to moral
nihilism, which holds that morality is meaningless.^[132] Atheism is
accepted as a valid philosophical position within some varieties of
Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.^[133] Philosophers such as Alain de
Botton^[134] and Alexander Bard and Jan Soederqvist,^[135] have argued
that atheists should reclaim useful components of religion in secular
society.^[136]
Divine command
According to Plato's Euthyphro dilemma, the role of the gods in
determining right from wrong is either unnecessary or arbitrary. The
argument that morality must be derived from God, and cannot exist
without a wise creator, has been a persistent feature of political if
not so much philosophical debate.^[137]^[138]^[139] Moral precepts such
as "murder is wrong" are seen as divine laws, requiring a divine
lawmaker and judge. However, many atheists argue that treating morality
legalistically involves a false analogy, and that morality does not
depend on a lawmaker in the same way that laws do.^[140] Friedrich
Nietzsche believed in a morality independent of theistic belief, and
stated that morality based upon God "has truth only if God is truth--it
stands or falls with faith in God".^[141]^[142]^[143]
There exist normative ethical systems that do not require principles
and rules to be given by a deity. Some include virtue ethics, social
contract, Kantian ethics, utilitarianism, and Objectivism. Sam Harris
has proposed that moral prescription (ethical rule making) is not just
an issue to be explored by philosophy, but that we can meaningfully
practice a science of morality. Any such scientific system must,
nevertheless, respond to the criticism embodied in the naturalistic
fallacy.^[144]
Philosophers Susan Neiman^[145] and Julian Baggini^[146] (among others)
assert that behaving ethically only because of a divine mandate is not
true ethical behavior but merely blind obedience. Baggini argues that
atheism is a superior basis for ethics, claiming that a moral basis
external to religious imperatives is necessary to evaluate the morality
of the imperatives themselves--to be able to discern, for example, that
"thou shalt steal" is immoral even if one's religion instructs it--and
that atheists, therefore, have the advantage of being more inclined to
make such evaluations.^[147] The contemporary British political
philosopher Martin Cohen has offered the more historically telling
example of Biblical injunctions in favor of torture and slavery as
evidence of how religious injunctions follow political and social
customs, rather than vice versa, but also noted that the same tendency
seems to be true of supposedly dispassionate and objective
philosophers.^[148] Cohen extends this argument in more detail in
Political Philosophy from Plato to Mao, where he argues that the Qur'an
played a role in perpetuating social codes from the early 7th century
despite changes in secular society.^[149]
Criticism of religion
See also: Criticism of religion
Some prominent atheists--most recently Christopher Hitchens, Daniel
Dennett, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins, and following such thinkers
as Bertrand Russell, Robert G. Ingersoll, Voltaire, and novelist Jose
Saramago--have criticized religions, citing harmful aspects of
religious practices and doctrines.^[150]
Karl Marx
The 19th-century German political theorist and sociologist Karl Marx
called religion "the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a
heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium
of the people". He goes on to say, "The abolition of religion as the
illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real
happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their
condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires
illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the
criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo."^[151]
Lenin said that "every religious idea and every idea of God is
unutterable vileness ... of the most dangerous kind, 'contagion' of the
most abominable kind. Millions of sins, filthy deeds, acts of violence
and physical contagions ... are far less dangerous than the subtle,
spiritual idea of God decked out in the smartest ideological
costumes ..."^[152]
Sam Harris criticizes Western religion's reliance on divine authority
as lending itself to authoritarianism and dogmatism.^[153] There is a
correlation between religious fundamentalism and extrinsic religion
(when religion is held because it serves ulterior interests)^[154] and
authoritarianism, dogmatism, and prejudice.^[155] These
arguments--combined with historical events that are argued to
demonstrate the dangers of religion, such as the Crusades,
inquisitions, witch trials, and terrorist attacks--have been used in
response to claims of beneficial effects of belief in religion.^[156]
Believers counter-argue that some regimes that espouse atheism, such as
the Soviet Union, have also been guilty of mass murder.^[157]^[158] In
response to those claims, atheists such as Sam Harris and Richard
Dawkins have stated that Stalin's atrocities were influenced not by
atheism but by dogmatic Marxism, and that while Stalin and Mao happened
to be atheists, they did not do their deeds in the name of
atheism.^[159]^[160]
History
Main article: History of atheism
While the earliest-found usage of the term atheism is in 16th-century
France,^[72]^[73] ideas that would be recognized today as atheistic are
documented from the Vedic period^[161] and the classical
antiquity.^[162]
Early Indian religions
Main article: Atheism in Hinduism
Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
-- Nasadiya Sukta, concerning the origin of the universe, Rig Veda,
10:129-6^[163]^[164]^[165]
Atheistic schools are found in early Indian thought and have existed
from the times of the historical Vedic religion.^[161] Among the six
orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, Samkhya, the oldest philosophical
school of thought, does not accept God, and the early Mimamsa also
rejected the notion of God.^[166] The thoroughly materialistic and
anti-theistic philosophical Carvaka (or Lokayata) school that
originated in India around the 6th century BCE is probably the most
explicitly atheistic school of philosophy in India, similar to the
Greek Cyrenaic school. This branch of Indian philosophy is classified
as heterodox due to its rejection of the authority of Vedas and hence
is not considered part of the six orthodox schools of Indian
philosophy. It is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement in
ancient India.^[167]^[168]
Chatterjee and Datta explain that our understanding of Carvaka
philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of the ideas by
other schools, and that it is not a living tradition:^[169]
Though materialism in some form or other has always been present in
India, and occasional references are found in the Vedas, the
Buddhistic literature, the Epics, as well as in the later
philosophical works we do not find any systematic work on
materialism, nor any organized school of followers as the other
philosophical schools possess. But almost every work of the other
schools states, for refutation, the materialistic views. Our
knowledge of Indian materialism is chiefly based on these.
Other Indian philosophies generally regarded as atheistic include
Classical Samkhya and Purva Mimamsa. The rejection of a personal
creator "God" is also seen in Jainism and Buddhism in India.^[170]
Classical antiquity
In Plato's Apology, Socrates (pictured) was accused by Meletus of not
believing in the gods.^[171]^[172]
Western atheism has its roots in pre-Socratic Greek
philosophy,^[173]^[162] but atheism in the modern sense was extremely
rare in ancient Greece.^[174]^[175]^[162] Pre-Socratic Atomists such as
Democritus attempted to explain the world in a purely materialistic way
and interpreted religion as a human reaction to natural
phenomena,^[171] but did not explicitly deny the gods' existence.^[171]
Anaxagoras, whom Irenaeus calls "the atheist",^[176] was accused of
impiety and condemned for stating that "the sun is a type of
incandescent stone", an affirmation with which he tried to deny the
divinity of the celestial bodies.^[177] In the late fifth century BCE,
the Greek lyric poet Diagoras of Melos was sentenced to death in Athens
under the charge of being a "godless person" (a'theo*s) after he made
fun of the Eleusinian Mysteries,^[175]^[171] but he fled the city to
escape punishment.^[175]^[171] In antiquity, philosophers such as
Epicurus, Philodemus and Cicero described Diagoras as an "atheist" who
categorically denied the existence of the gods,^[178]^[179] but this
assessment has varied in modern classical scholarship. Marek Winiarczyk
has defended the view that Diagoras was not an atheist in the modern
sense,^[175] but this has been challenged by others, including Tim
Whitmarsh.^[180]
A fragment from the lost satyr play Sisyphus, which has been attributed
to both Critias and Euripides, claims that a clever man invented "the
fear of the gods" in order to frighten people into behaving
morally.^[181]^[175]^[182]^[162] This statement, however, originally
did not mean that the gods themselves were nonexistent, but rather that
their powers were a hoax.^[162] Atheistic statements have also been
attributed to the philosopher Prodicus. Philodemus reports that
Prodicus believed that "the gods of popular belief do not exist nor do
they know, but primitive man, [out of admiration, deified] the fruits
of the earth and virtually everything that contributed to his
existence". Protagoras has sometimes been taken to be an atheist, but
rather espoused agnostic views, commenting that "Concerning the gods I
am unable to discover whether they exist or not, or what they are like
in form; for there are many hindrances to knowledge, the obscurity of
the subject and the brevity of human life."^[183]^[174]
The Athenian public associated Socrates (c. 470-399 BCE) with the
trends in pre-Socratic philosophy towards naturalistic inquiry and the
rejection of divine explanations for phenomena.^[171]^[172]
Aristophanes' comic play The Clouds (performed 423 BCE) portrays
Socrates as teaching his students that the traditional Greek deities do
not exist.^[171]^[172] Socrates was later tried and executed under the
charge of not believing in the gods of the state and instead
worshipping foreign gods.^[171]^[172] Socrates himself vehemently
denied the charges of atheism at his trial^[171]^[172]^[184] and all
the surviving sources about him indicate that he was a very devout man,
who prayed to the rising sun and believed that the oracle at Delphi
spoke the word of Apollo.^[171] Euhemerus (c. 300 BCE) published his
view that the gods were only the deified rulers, conquerors and
founders of the past, and that their cults and religions were in
essence the continuation of vanished kingdoms and earlier political
structures.^[185] Although not strictly an atheist, Euhemerus was later
criticized for having "spread atheism over the whole inhabited earth by
obliterating the gods".^[186]
The most important Greek thinker in the development of atheism was
Epicurus (c. 300 BCE).^[162] Drawing on the ideas of Democritus and the
Atomists, he espoused a materialistic philosophy according to which the
universe was governed by the laws of chance without the need for divine
intervention (see scientific determinism).^[187] Although Epicurus
still maintained that the gods existed,^[188]^[162]^[187] he believed
that they were uninterested in human affairs.^[187] The aim of the
Epicureans was to attain ataraxia ("peace of mind") and one important
way of doing this was by exposing fear of divine wrath as irrational.
The Epicureans also denied the existence of an afterlife and the need
to fear divine punishment after death.^[187]
In the 3rd-century BCE, the Greek philosophers Theodorus
Cyrenaicus^[179]^[189] and Strato of Lampsacus^[190] did not believe in
the existence of gods.
The Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus (approx. 160-210 CE)^[191]
compiled a large number of ancient arguments against the existence of
gods, recommending that one should suspend judgment regarding the
matter.^[192] His relatively large volume of surviving works had a
lasting influence on later philosophers.^[193]
The meaning of "atheist" changed over the course of classical
antiquity.^[175] Early Christians were widely reviled as "atheists"
because they did not believe in the existence of the Graeco-Roman
deities.^[194]^[175]^[195]^[196] During the Roman Empire, Christians
were executed for their rejection of the Roman gods in general and the
Imperial cult of ancient Rome in particular.^[196]^[197] There was,
however, a heavy struggle between Christians and pagans, in which each
group accused the other of atheism, for not practicing the religion
which they considered correct.^[198] When Christianity became the state
religion of Rome under Theodosius I in 381, heresy became a punishable
offense.^[197]
Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance
During the Early Middle Ages, the Islamic world experienced a Golden
Age. Along with advances in science and philosophy, Arab and Persian
lands produced rationalists and freethinkers who were skeptical about
prophecy and revealed religion, such as Muhammad al Warraq (fl. 9th
century), Ibn al-Rawandi (827-911), and Abu Bakr al-Razi (c.
865-925),^[199] as well as outspoken atheists such as al-Maarri
(973-1058). Al-Ma'arri wrote and taught that religion itself was a
"fable invented by the ancients"^[200] and that humans were "of two
sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but
no brains."^[201] Despite the fact that these authors were relatively
prolific writers, little of their work survives, mainly being preserved
through quotations and excerpts in later works by Muslim apologists
attempting to refute them.^[202]
In Europe, the espousal of atheistic views was rare during the Early
Middle Ages and Middle Ages (see Medieval Inquisition); metaphysics and
theology were the dominant interests pertaining to religion.^[203]
There were, however, movements within this period that furthered
heterodox conceptions of the Christian god, including differing views
of the nature, transcendence, and knowability of God. Individuals and
groups such as Johannes Scotus Eriugena, David of Dinant, Amalric of
Bena, and the Brethren of the Free Spirit maintained Christian
viewpoints with pantheistic tendencies. Nicholas of Cusa held to a form
of fideism he called docta ignorantia ("learned ignorance"), asserting
that God is beyond human categorization, and thus our knowledge of him
is limited to conjecture. William of Ockham inspired anti-metaphysical
tendencies with his nominalistic limitation of human knowledge to
singular objects, and asserted that the divine essence could not be
intuitively or rationally apprehended by human intellect. Followers of
Ockham, such as John of Mirecourt and Nicholas of Autrecourt furthered
this view. The resulting division between faith and reason influenced
later radical and reformist theologians such as John Wycliffe, Jan Hus,
and Martin Luther.^[203]
The Renaissance did much to expand the scope of free thought and
skeptical inquiry. Individuals such as Leonardo da Vinci sought
experimentation as a means of explanation, and opposed arguments from
religious authority. Other critics of religion and the Church during
this time included Niccolo Machiavelli, Bonaventure des Periers, Michel
de Montaigne, and Franc,ois Rabelais.^[193]
Early modern period
Historian Geoffrey Blainey wrote that the Reformation had paved the way
for atheists by attacking the authority of the Catholic Church, which
in turn "quietly inspired other thinkers to attack the authority of the
new Protestant churches".^[204] Deism gained influence in France,
Prussia, and England. The philosopher Baruch Spinoza was "probably the
first well known 'semi-atheist' to announce himself in a Christian land
in the modern era", according to Blainey. Spinoza believed that natural
laws explained the workings of the universe. In 1661 he published his
Short Treatise on God.^[205]
Criticism of Christianity became increasingly frequent in the 17th and
18th centuries, especially in France and England, where there appears
to have been a religious malaise, according to contemporary sources.
Some Protestant thinkers, such as Thomas Hobbes, espoused a materialist
philosophy and skepticism toward supernatural occurrences, while
Spinoza rejected divine providence in favor of a panentheistic
naturalism. By the late 17th century, deism came to be openly espoused
by intellectuals such as John Toland who coined the term
"pantheist".^[206]
The first known explicit atheist was the German critic of religion
Matthias Knutzen in his three writings of 1674.^[207] He was followed
by two other explicit atheist writers, the Polish ex-Jesuit philosopher
Kazimierz L/yszczynski and in the 1720s by the French priest Jean
Meslier.^[208] In the course of the 18th century, other openly
atheistic thinkers followed, such as Baron d'Holbach, Jacques-Andre
Naigeon, and other French materialists.^[209] John Locke in contrast,
though an advocate of tolerance, urged authorities not to tolerate
atheism, believing that the denial of God's existence would undermine
the social order and lead to chaos.^[210]
The philosopher David Hume developed a skeptical epistemology grounded
in empiricism, and Immanuel Kant's philosophy has strongly questioned
the very possibility of metaphysical knowledge. Both philosophers
undermined the metaphysical basis of natural theology and criticized
classical arguments for the existence of God.^[citation needed]
Ludwig Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity (1841) would greatly
influence philosophers such as Engels, Marx, David Strauss, Nietzsche,
and Max Stirner. He considered God to be a human invention and
religious activities to be wish-fulfillment. For this he is considered
the founding father of modern anthropology of religion.
Blainey notes that, although Voltaire is widely considered to have
strongly contributed to atheistic thinking during the Revolution, he
also considered fear of God to have discouraged further disorder,
having said "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent
him."^[211] In Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), the
philosopher Edmund Burke denounced atheism, writing of a "literary
cabal" who had "some years ago formed something like a regular plan for
the destruction of the Christian religion. This object they pursued
with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only in the
propagators of some system of piety ... These atheistical fathers have
a bigotry of their own ...". But, Burke asserted, "man is by his
constitution a religious animal" and "atheism is against, not only our
reason, but our instincts; and ... it cannot prevail long".^[212]
Baron d'Holbach was a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment who
is best known for his atheism and for his voluminous writings against
religion, the most famous of them being The System of Nature (1770) but
also Christianity Unveiled. One goal of the French Revolution was a
restructuring and subordination of the clergy with respect to the state
through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Attempts to enforce it
led to anti-clerical violence and the expulsion of many clerics from
France, lasting until the Thermidorian Reaction. The radical Jacobins
seized power in 1793, ushering in the Reign of Terror. The Jacobins
were deists and introduced the Cult of the Supreme Being as a new
French state religion. Some atheists surrounding Jacques Hebert instead
sought to establish a Cult of Reason, a form of atheistic
pseudo-religion with a goddess personifying reason. The Napoleonic era
further institutionalized the secularization of French
society.^[citation needed]
In the latter half of the 19th century, atheism rose to prominence
under the influence of rationalistic and freethinking philosophers.
Many prominent German philosophers of this era denied the existence of
deities and were critical of religion, including Ludwig Feuerbach,
Arthur Schopenhauer, Max Stirner, Karl Marx, and Friedrich
Nietzsche.^[213]
In 1842, George Holyoake was the last person imprisoned in Great
Britain due to atheist beliefs. Stephen Law notes that he may have also
been the first imprisoned on such a charge. Law states that Holyoake
"first coined the term 'secularism'".^[214]^[215]
Since 1900
Further information: Marxism and religion
Atheism, particularly in the form of practical atheism, advanced in
many societies in the 20th century. Atheistic thought found recognition
in a wide variety of other, broader philosophies, such as
existentialism, Objectivism, secular humanism, nihilism, anarchism,
logical positivism, Marxism, feminism,^[216] and the general
scientific^[217] and rationalist movement.^[citation needed]
1929 cover of the USSR League of Militant Atheists magazine, showing
the gods of the Abrahamic religions being crushed by the Communist
five-year plan
In addition, state atheism emerged in Eastern Europe and Asia during
that period, particularly in the Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin and
Joseph Stalin,^[218] and in Communist China under Mao Zedong. Atheist
and anti-religious policies in the Soviet Union included numerous
legislative acts, the outlawing of religious instruction in the
schools, and the emergence of the League of Militant
Atheists.^[219]^[220] After Mao, the Chinese Communist Party remains an
atheist organization, and regulates, but does not forbid, the practice
of religion in mainland China.^[221]^[222]^[223]
While Geoffrey Blainey has written that "the most ruthless leaders in
the Second World War were atheists and secularists who were intensely
hostile to both Judaism and Christianity",^[224] Richard Madsen has
pointed out that Hitler and Stalin each opened and closed churches as a
matter of political expedience, and Stalin softened his opposition to
Christianity in order to improve public acceptance of his regime during
the war.^[225] Blackford and Schueklenk have written that "the Soviet
Union was undeniably an atheist state, and the same applies to Maoist
China and Pol Pot's fanatical Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the
1970s. That does not, however, show that the atrocities committed by
these totalitarian dictatorships were the result of atheist beliefs,
carried out in the name of atheism, or caused primarily by the
atheistic aspects of the relevant forms of communism."^[226]
Logical positivism and scientism paved the way for neopositivism,
analytical philosophy, structuralism, and naturalism. Neopositivism and
analytical philosophy discarded classical rationalism and metaphysics
in favor of strict empiricism and epistemological nominalism.
Proponents such as Bertrand Russell emphatically rejected belief in
God. In his early work, Ludwig Wittgenstein attempted to separate
metaphysical and supernatural language from rational discourse. A.J.
Ayer asserted the unverifiability and meaninglessness of religious
statements, citing his adherence to the empirical sciences. Relatedly
the applied structuralism of Levi-Strauss sourced religious language to
the human subconscious in denying its transcendental meaning. J.N.
Findlay and J.J.C. Smart argued that the existence of God is not
logically necessary. Naturalists and materialistic monists such as John
Dewey considered the natural world to be the basis of everything,
denying the existence of God or immortality.^[60]^[227]
Other developments
Other leaders like Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, a prominent atheist leader of
India, fought against Hinduism and Brahmins for discriminating and
dividing people in the name of caste and religion.^[228] This was
highlighted in 1956 when he arranged for the erection of a statue
depicting a Hindu god in a humble representation and made antitheistic
statements.^[229]
Atheist Vashti McCollum was the plaintiff in a landmark 1948 Supreme
Court case that struck down religious education in US public
schools.^[230] Madalyn Murray O'Hair was one of the most influential
American atheists; she brought forth the 1963 Supreme Court case Murray
v. Curlett which banned compulsory prayer in public schools.^[231] In
1966, Time magazine asked "Is God Dead?"^[232] in response to the Death
of God theological movement, citing the estimation that nearly half of
all people in the world lived under an anti-religious power, and
millions more in Africa, Asia, and South America seemed to lack
knowledge of the Christian view of theology.^[233] The Freedom From
Religion Foundation was co-founded by Anne Nicol Gaylor and her
daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor, in 1976 in the United States, and
incorporated nationally in 1978. It promotes the separation of church
and state.^[234]^[235]
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the number of actively
anti-religious regimes has declined considerably. In 2006, Timothy Shah
of the Pew Forum noted "a worldwide trend across all major religious
groups, in which God-based and faith-based movements in general are
experiencing increasing confidence and influence vis-`a-vis secular
movements and ideologies."^[236] However, Gregory S. Paul and Phil
Zuckerman consider this a myth and suggest that the actual situation is
much more complex and nuanced.^[237]
A 2010 survey found that those identifying themselves as atheists or
agnostics are on average more knowledgeable about religion than
followers of major faiths. Nonbelievers scored better on questions
about tenets central to Protestant and Catholic faiths. Only Mormon and
Jewish faithful scored as well as atheists and agnostics.^[238]
In 2012, the first "Women in Secularism" conference was held in
Arlington, Virginia.^[239] Secular Woman was organized in 2012 as a
national organization focused on nonreligious women.^[240] The atheist
feminist movement has also become increasingly focused on fighting
sexism and sexual harassment within the atheist movement itself.^[241]
In August 2012, Jennifer McCreight (the organizer of Boobquake) founded
a movement within atheism known as Atheism Plus, or A+, that "applies
skepticism to everything, including social issues like sexism, racism,
politics, poverty, and crime".^[242]^[243]^[244]
In 2013 the first atheist monument on American government property was
unveiled at the Bradford County Courthouse in Florida: a 1,500-pound
granite bench and plinth inscribed with quotes by Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Franklin, and Madalyn Murray O'Hair.^[245]^[246]^[247]
New Atheism
Main article: New Atheism
"New Atheism" is a movement among some early-21st-century atheist
writers who have advocated the view that "religion should not simply be
tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational
argument wherever its influence arises."^[248] The movement is commonly
associated with Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Victor J.
Stenger, Christopher Hitchens, and to some extent Ayaan Hirsi
Ali.^[249]^[250] Several best-selling books by these authors, published
between 2004 and 2007, form the basis for much of the discussion of
"New" Atheism.^[250] In best-selling books, the religiously-motivated
terrorist events of 9/11 and the partially successful attempts of the
Discovery Institute to change the American science curriculum to
include creationist ideas, together with support for those ideas from
George W. Bush in 2005, have been cited by authors such as Harris,
Dennett, Dawkins, Stenger, and Hitchens as evidence of a need to move
toward a more secular society.^[251]
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of atheism
Further information: Religiosity and education
Nonreligious population by country, 2010.^[252]
It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists in the world.
Respondents to religious-belief polls may define "atheism" differently
or draw different distinctions between atheism, non-religious beliefs,
and non-theistic religious and spiritual beliefs.^[253] A Hindu atheist
would declare oneself as a Hindu, although also being an atheist at the
same time. Most of the time this happens because atheism and irreligion
are not officially recognised in India. Apostasy is allowed under the
right to freedom of religion in the Constitution (but blasphemy is
prohibited), there are no specific laws catering to atheists and they
are considered as belonging to the religion of their birth for
administrative purposes.^[254]^[255] A 2010 survey published in
Encyclopaedia Britannica found that the non-religious made up about
9.6% of the world's population, and atheists about 2.0%, with a very
large majority based in Asia. This figure did not include those who
follow atheistic religions, such as some Buddhists.^[256] The average
annual change for atheism from 2000 to 2010 was -0.17%.^[256] Broad
estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a god range from
500 million to 1.1 billion people worldwide.^[257]^[258] Scholars have
indicated that global atheism may be in decline as a percentage of the
global population due to irreligious countries having the lowest birth
rates in the world and religious countries generally having higher
birth rates.^[259]^[260]^[261]
According to global Win-Gallup International studies, 13% of
respondents were "convinced atheists" in 2012,^[262] 11% were
"convinced atheists" in 2015,^[27] and in 2017, 9% were "convinced
atheists".^[28] As of 2012^[update], the top 10 surveyed countries with
people who viewed themselves as "convinced atheists" were China (47%),
Japan (31%), the Czech Republic (30%), France (29%), South Korea (15%),
Germany (15%), Netherlands (14%), Austria (10%), Iceland (10%),
Australia (10%), and the Republic of Ireland (10%).^[263] A 2012 study
by the NORC found that East Germany had the highest percentage of
atheists while Czech Republic had the second highest amount.^[264]
Europe
Percentage of people in various European countries who said: "I don't
believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force." (2010)^[265]
According to the 2010 Eurobarometer Poll, the percentage of those
polled who agreed with the statement "you don't believe there is any
sort of spirit, God or life force" varied from a high percentage in
France (40%), Czech Republic (37%), Sweden (34%), Netherlands (30%),
and Estonia (29%); medium-high percentage in Germany (27%), Belgium
(27%), UK (25%); to very low in Poland (5%), Greece (4%), Cyprus (3%),
Malta (2%), and Romania (1%), with the European Union as a whole at
20%.^[33] In a 2012 Eurobarometer poll on discrimination in the
European Union, 16% of those polled considered themselves
non-believers/agnostics, and 7% considered themselves atheists.^[266]
According to a Pew Research Center survey in 2012, about 18% of
Europeans are religiously unaffiliated, including agnostics and
atheists.^[267] According to the same survey, the religiously
unaffiliated are the majority of the population only in two European
countries: Czech Republic (75%) and Estonia (60%).^[267]
Asia
There are another three countries, and one special administrative
region of China or regions where the unaffiliated make up a majority of
the population: North Korea (71%), Japan (57%), Hong Kong (56%), and
China (52%).^[267]
Australasia
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 30% of Australians
have "no religion", a category that includes atheists.^[268]
In a 2013 census, 42% of New Zealanders reported having no religion, up
from 30% in 1991.^[269]
United States
According to the World Values Survey, 4.4% of Americans self-identified
as atheists in 2014.^[270] However, the same survey showed that 11.1%
of all respondents stated "no" when asked if they believed in
God.^[270] In 1984, these same figures were 1.1% and 2.2%,
respectively. According to a 2014 report by the Pew Research Center,
3.1% of the US adult population identify as atheist, up from 1.6% in
2007; and within the religiously unaffiliated (or "no religion")
demographic, atheists made up 13.6%.^[271] According to the 2015
General Sociological Survey the number of atheists and agnostics in the
US has remained relatively flat in the past 23 years since in 1991 only
2% identified as atheist and 4% identified as agnostic and in 2014 only
3% identified as atheists and 5% identified as agnostics.^[272]
According to the American Family Survey, 34% were found to be
religiously unaffiliated in 2017 (23% 'nothing in particular', 6%
agnostic, 5% atheist).^[273]^[274] According to the Pew Research
Center, in 2014, 22.8% of the American population does not identify
with a religion, including atheists (3.1%) and agnostics (4%).^[275]
According to a PRRI survey, 24% of the population is unaffiliated.
Atheists and agnostics combined make up about a quarter of this
unaffiliated demographic.^[276]
Arab world
In recent years, the profile of atheism has risen substantially in the
Arab world.^[277] In major cities across the region, such as Cairo,
atheists have been organizing in cafes and social media, despite
regular crackdowns from authoritarian governments.^[277] A 2012 poll by
Gallup International revealed that 5% of Saudis considered themselves
to be "convinced atheists."^[277] However, very few young people in the
Arab world have atheists in their circle of friends or acquaintances.
According to one study, less than 1% did in Morocco, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, or Jordan; only 3% to 7% in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain,
Kuwait, and Palestine.^[278] When asked whether they have "seen or
heard traces of atheism in [their] locality, community, and society"
only about 3% to 8% responded yes in all the countries surveyed. The
only exception was the UAE, with a percentage of 51%.^[278]
Wealth and education
Various studies have reported positive correlations between levels of
education, wealth and IQ with atheism.^[279]^[280]^[281]^[122] In a
2008 study, researchers found intelligence to be negatively related to
religious belief in Europe and the United States. In a sample of 137
countries, the correlation between national IQ and disbelief in God was
found to be 0.60.^[281] According to evolutionary psychologist Nigel
Barber, atheism blossoms in places where most people feel economically
secure, particularly in the social democracies of Europe, as there is
less uncertainty about the future with extensive social safety nets and
better health care resulting in a greater quality of life and higher
life expectancy. By contrast, in underdeveloped countries, there are
far fewer atheists.^[282]
The relationship between atheism and IQ, while statistically
significant, is not a large one, and the reason for the relationship is
not well understood.^[279] One hypothesis is that the negative
relationship between IQ and religiosity is mediated by individual
differences in nonconformity; in many countries, religious belief is a
conformist choice, and there is evidence that more intelligent people
are less likely to conform.^[283] Another theory is that people of
higher IQ are more likely to engage in analytical reasoning, and that
disbelief in religion results from the application of higher-level
analytical reasoning to the assessment of religious claims.^[279]
In a 2017 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.^[284] In a 2015 study, researchers found that
atheists score higher on cognitive reflection tests than theists, the
authors wrote that "The fact that atheists score higher agrees with the
literature showing that belief is an automatic manifestation of the
mind and its default mode. Disbelieving seems to require deliberative
cognitive ability."^[285] A 2016 study, in which 4 new studies were
reported and a meta-analysis of all previous research on the topic was
performed, found that self-identified atheists scored 18.7% higher than
theists on the cognitive reflection test and there is a negative
correlation between religiosity and analytical thinking. The authors
note that recently "it has been argued that analytic thinkers are not
actually less religious; rather, the putative association may be a
result of religiosity typically being measured after analytic thinking
(an order effect)," however, they state "Our results indicate that the
association between analytical thinking and religious disbelief is not
caused by a simple order effect. There is good evidence that atheists
and agnostics are more reflective than religious believers."^[286]
Attitudes toward atheism
See also: Discrimination against atheists
Countries with punishment for blasphemy.
Repealed
Local restrictions
Fines and restrictions
Prison sentences
Death sentences
Countries with the death penalty for apostasy^[287]
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.^[288] In addition, according to a
2016 Pew Research Center publication, 15% of French people, 45% of
Americans, and 99% of Indonesians explicitly believe that a person must
believe in God to be moral. Pew furthermore noted that, in a U.S. poll,
atheists and Muslims tied for the lowest rating among the major
religious demographics on a "feeling thermometer".^[289] Also, a study
of religious college students found that they were more likely to
perceive and interact with atheists negatively after considering their
mortality, suggesting that these attitudes may be the result of death
anxiety.^[290]
See also
* Philosophy portal
* Antireligion
* A Rough History of Disbelief
* Brights movement
* Dysteleology
* Lists of atheists
* National Day of Reason
* Outline of atheism
* Religious trauma syndrome
Notes
1. ^ The word atheoi--in any of its forms--appears nowhere else in the
Septuagint or the New Testament.^[67]
2. ^ In part because of its wide use in monotheistic Western society,
atheism is usually described as "disbelief in God", rather than
more generally as "disbelief in deities". 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.
References
Citations
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different definitions. 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 the 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
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3. ^ Most dictionaries (see the OneLook query for "atheism" Archived
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+
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5. ^ Nielsen 2013: "Instead of saying that an atheist is someone who
believes that it is false or probably false that there is a God, a
more adequate characterization of atheism consists in the more
complex claim that to be an atheist is to be someone who rejects
belief in God for the following reasons ... : for an
anthropomorphic God, the atheist rejects belief in God because it
is false or probably false that there is a God; for a
nonanthropomorphic God ... because the concept of such a God is
either meaningless, unintelligible, contradictory,
incomprehensible, or incoherent; for the God portrayed by some
modern or contemporary theologians or philosophers ... because the
concept of God in question is such that it merely masks an
atheistic substance--e.g., "God" is just another name for love,
or ... a symbolic term for moral ideals."
6. ^ Edwards 2005: "On our definition, an 'atheist' is a person who
rejects belief in God, regardless of whether or not his reason for
the rejection is the claim that 'God exists' expresses a false
proposition. 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. 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."
7. ^ Rowe 1998: "As commonly understood, atheism is the position that
affirms the nonexistence of God. 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. ... an atheist, in the broader sense of the term, is
someone who disbelieves in every form of deity, not just the God of
traditional Western theology."
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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."
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neither believes nor disbelieves that God exists, while an atheist
disbelieves that God exists. 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."
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God's existence is unattainable."
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negative atheism in that agnosticism entails negative atheism.
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."
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weakens my certainty. I usually reply with a question like, "Well,
are you a Republican or an American?" The two words serve different
concepts and are not mutually exclusive. Agnosticism addresses
knowledge; atheism addresses belief. The agnostic says, "I don't
have a knowledge that God exists." The atheist says, "I don't have
a belief that God exists." You can say both things at the same
time. Some agnostics are atheistic and some are theistic."
43. ^ Nielsen 2013: "atheism, in general, the critique and denial of
metaphysical beliefs in God or spiritual beings. 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."
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"atheism," and how I am construing the theme of this paper. I shall
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of all varieties of theism. ... atheism is not to be identified
with sheer unbelief, or with disbelief in some particular creed of
a religious group. 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 ..."
reprinted in Critiques of God, edited by Peter A. Angeles,
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no gods, by the fact that they have given consideration to the
question of whether there are gods. Innocents are those who have
never considered the question of whether there are gods. Typically,
innocents have never considered the question of whether there are
gods because they are not able to consider that question. How could
that be? Well, in order to consider the question of 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. Other plausible cases of innocents include chimpanzees,
human beings who have suffered severe traumatic brain injuries, and
human beings with advanced dementia
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practical concern, for "Morality, by itself, constitutes a system,
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intelligible world only under a wise author and ruler. Reason
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implications of godlessness and come to the conclusion that a fatal
contradiction lay at the heart of modern theological enterprise: it
thought that Christian morality, which it wished to preserve, was
independent of Christian dogma, which it rejected. This, in
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than dismissing the architect while trying to keep the building or
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riven by ignorance, only the atheist refuses to deny the obvious:
Religious faith promotes human violence to an astonishing degree."
^ Feinberg, John S.; Feinberg, Paul D. (2010). Ethics for a Brave New
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2007. "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: 'Men have forgotten God;
that's why all this has happened.' Since then I have spent well-nigh 50
years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have
read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and
have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of
clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. 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: 'Men have forgotten
God; that's why all this has happened.'"
^ D'Souza, Dinesh. "Answering Atheist's Arguments". Catholic
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^ Satischandra Chatterjee and Dhirendramohan Datta. An Introduction
to Indian Philosophy. Eighth Reprint Edition. (University of Calcutta:
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Religion. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Bremmer, Jan. Atheism in Antiquity, in Martin 2006,
pp. 14-19
^ Baggini 2003, pp. 73-74. "Atheism had its origins in Ancient Greece
but did not emerge as an overt and avowed belief system until late in
the Enlightenment."
^ ^a ^b Garland, Robert (2008). Ancient Greece: Everyday Life in the
Birthplace of Western Civilization. New York City: Sterling. p. 209.
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^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Winiarczyk, Marek (2016). Diagoras of Melos: A
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^ Irenaeus. Against Heresies II 14, 2 (D. 171) = 59 B 113 DK. See on
this topic: Duran, Martin (2019). Wondering About God: Impiety,
Agnosticism, and Atheism in Ancient Greece. Barcelona. Independently
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^ Flavius Josephus. Against Apion II, 265 = 59 A 19 DK; Plutarch. On
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^ Phld. De Pietate col. 19, 519-26 ka psan m[ani'an -]pi'kouro*s
m.[e'mqa-] to to*s t [theon -]k tn ntwn [anai-] rosin, *s ka[n ti]
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edition of Dirk Obbink, On piety. Part 1 : critical text with
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^ ^a ^b ... nullos esse omnino Diagoras et Theodorus Cyrenaicus ...
Cicero, Marcus Tullius: De natura deorum. Comments and English text by
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ii
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^ While strongly critical of revealed religion, Abu Bakr al-Razi did
accept the existence of God, who was one of his five 'eternal
principles' (next to soul, matter, time, and place); see Adamson 2021.
Whether Muhammad al Warraq and Ibn al-Rawandi were merely skeptical
freethinkers or full-blown atheists is not clear; see Stroumsa 1999.
^ Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, 1962, A Literary History of the Arabs,
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^ Freethought Traditions in the Islamic World Archived February 14,
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Further reading
Library resources about
Atheism
__________________________________________________________________
* Resources in your library
* Resources in other libraries
*
Berman, David (1990). A History of Atheism in Britain: From Hobbes to
Russell. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-04727-2.
Bradlaugh, Charles, Annie Besant and others. (1884) The Atheistic
Platform: 12 Lectures. London: Freethought Publishing. [1]
Buckley, M.J. (1990). At the Origins of Modern Atheism. New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-04897-1.
Bullivant, Stephen; Ruse, Michael, eds. (2013). The Oxford Handbook
of Atheism. Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0-19-964465-0.
Duran, Martin (2019). Wondering About God: Impiety, Agnosticism, and
Atheism in Ancient Greece. Barcelona: Independently Published.
ISBN 978-1-08-061240-6.
Flew, Antony (2005). God and Philosophy. Prometheus Books.
ISBN 978-1-59102-330-2.
Tom Flynn, ed. (2007). The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief. Buffalo, New
York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-391-3.
Gaskin, J. C. A., ed. (1989). Varieties of Unbelief: From Epicurus to
Sartre. o New York: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-02-340681-2.
Germani, Alan (September 15, 2008). "The Mystical Ethics of the New
Atheists". The Objective Standard. 3 (3). Archived from the original on
April 28, 2011. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
Gray, John (2018). Seven Types of Atheism. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
ISBN 978-0-241-19941-1.
Harbour, Daniel (2003). An Intelligent Person's Guide to Atheism.
London: Duckworth. ISBN 978-0-7156-3229-1.
Harris, Sam (October 2, 2007). "The Problem with Atheism". The
Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved
April 9, 2011.
Howson, Colin (2011). Objecting to God. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-18665-0
Inglehart, Ronald F., "Giving Up on God: The Global Decline of
Religion", Foreign Affairs, vol. 99, no. 5 (September / October 2020),
pp. 110-118.
Jacoby, Susan (2004). Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.
Metropolitan Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-7442-0.
Krueger, D.E. (1998). What is Atheism?: A Short Introduction. New
York: Prometheus. ISBN 978-1-57392-214-2.
Ledrew, S. (2012). "The evolution of atheism: Scientific and
humanistic approaches". History of the Human Sciences. 25 (3): 70-87.
doi:10.1177/0952695112441301. S2CID 145640287.
Le Poidevin, R. (1996). Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Religion. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-09338-5.
Mackie, J.L. (1982). The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against
the Existence of God. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-824682-4.
Maritain, Jacques (1952). The Range of Reason. London: Geoffrey Bles.
Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2013.
Michael Martin & Ricki Monnier, ed. (2003). The Impossibility of God.
Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-120-9.
Michael Martin & Ricki Monnier, ed. (2006). The Improbability of God.
Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-381-4.
McTaggart, John; McTaggart, Ellis (1930) [1906]. Some Dogmas of
Religion (New ed.). London: Edward Arnold & Co. ISBN 978-0-548-14955-3.
Nielsen, Kai (1985). Philosophy and Atheism. New York: Prometheus.
ISBN 978-0-87975-289-7.
Nielsen, Kai (2001). Naturalism and Religion. New York: Prometheus.
ISBN 978-1-57392-853-3.
Onfray, Michel (2007). Atheist Manifesto. New York: Arcade
Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55970-820-3. Archived from the original on
October 30, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
Oppy, Graham (2006). Arguing about Gods. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-86386-5.
Rafford, R.L. (1987). "Atheophobia--an introduction". Religious
Humanism. 21 (1): 32-37.
Robinson, Richard (1964). An Atheist's Values. Oxford: Clarendon
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-824191-1. Archived from the original on April 25,
2011. Retrieved April 9, 2011.
Rosenberg, Alex (2011). The Atheist's Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life
Without Illusions. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-08023-0
Russell, Paul (2013). "Hume on Religion". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab.
Retrieved November 24, 2013.
Sharpe, R.A. (1997). The Moral Case Against Religious Belief. London:
SCM Press. ISBN 978-0-334-02680-8.
Shermer, Michael (1999). How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the
Search for God. New York: William H Freeman. ISBN 978-0-7167-3561-8.
Smolkin, Victoria. A Sacred Space is Never Empty: A History of Soviet
Atheism (Princeton UP, 2018) online reviews
Thrower, James (1971). A Short History of Western Atheism. London:
Pemberton. ISBN 978-0-301-71101-0.
Walters, Kerry (2010). Atheism: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York:
Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-2493-8
Whitmarsh, Tim. (2015), Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient
World
Zuckerman, Phil, ed. (2010). Atheism and secularity. Santa Barbara,
California: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-35183-9.
Zuckerman, Phil (2010). Society without God: What the Least Religious
Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment. NYU Press.
ISBN 978-0-8147-9723-5.
External links
* Atheism at PhilPapers
* Atheism at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project
*
Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Atheism and Agnosticism". Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Atheism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The New Atheists. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Atheism at Curlie. Includes links to organizations and websites.
Religion & Ethics--Atheism at bbc.co.uk.
Secular Web library. Library of both historical and modern writings,
a comprehensive online resource for freely available material on
atheism.
Is Agnosticism Just Timid Atheism? A Dialogue by Ted Cadsby 2017,
HuffPost
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