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Atheism
Atheism (“not believing in god“) refers in its broadest sense to a denial of theism (the belief in the existence of a single deity or deities). Atheism has many shades and types. Some atheists strongly deny the existence of God (or any form of deity) and attack theistic claims. Yet certainty as to the non-existence of God is as much a belief as is religion and rests on equally unprovable claims. Just as religious believers range from the ecumenical to the narrow-minded, atheists range from those for whom it is a matter of personal philosophy to those who are militantly hostile to religion.
Atheism often buttresses its case on science, yet many modern scientists, far from being atheists, have argued that science is not incompatible with theism.
General atheism conceptsMain article: Atheism and What is Atheism?
Related positions
What type of thing is atheism?
Types of atheism
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Atheistic arguments
History of atheismAtheism organizationsAtheism publicationsPersons influential in atheism |
Evil God Challenge The Evil God Challenge is a thought experiment. The challenge is to explain why an all-good god should be more likely than an all-evil god. Those who advance this challenge assert that, unless there is a satisfactory answer to the challenge, there is no reason to accept God is good or...
Hitchens’s Razor Hitchens’s razor is an epistemological razor expressed by writer Christopher Hitchens. It says that the burden of proof regarding the truthfulness of a claim lies with the one who makes the claim; if this burden is not met, then the claim is unfounded, and its opponents need not argue further in order to dismiss it....
God of The Gaps “God of the gaps” is a theological perspective in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God’s existence. The term “gaps” was initially used by Christian theologians not to discredit theism but rather to point out the fallacy of relying on teleological arguments for God’s existence. Origins of the term...
Argument from Nonbelief An argument from nonbelief is a philosophical argument that asserts an inconsistency between the existence of God and a world in which people fail to recognize him. It is similar to the classic argument from evil in affirming an inconsistency between the world that exists and the world that would exist if God had certain...
Argument From Inconsistent Revelations The argument from inconsistent revelations, also known as the avoiding the wrong hell problem, is an argument against the existence of God. It asserts that it is unlikely that God exists because many theologians and faithful adherents have produced conflicting and mutually exclusive revelations. The argument states that since...
![Countries in which apostasy or blasphemy against the local or state religion was punishable by execution under the law as of 2013. Currently, this occurs only in some Muslim-majority countries and Muslim-majority states in Northern Nigeria.[1][2][3][4]](https://slife.org/wp-content/uploads/Map_of_countries_with_death_penalty_for_atheists.svg_-520x267.png)
Discrimination Against Atheists Discrimination against atheists, both at present and historically, includes persecution of and discrimination against people identified as atheists. Discrimination against atheists may also comprise negative attitudes, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear, or intolerance towards atheists and atheism. Because atheism can be defined in various ways, those discriminated against or persecuted on the grounds...
Antitheism Antitheism, sometimes spelled anti-theism, is the opposition to theism. The term has had a range of applications. In secular contexts, it typically refers to direct opposition to the belief in any deity. Etymology The word antitheism (or hyphenated anti-theism) has been recorded in English since 1788. The etymological roots of the word are the Greek anti and theos. Opposition to theism The Oxford English Dictionary defines antitheist...
Incompatible-properties Argument The incompatible-properties argument is the idea that no description of God is consistent with reality. For example, if one takes the definition of God to be described fully from the Bible, then the claims of what properties God has described therein might be argued to lead to a contradiction. Evil vs. good and omnipotence The problem...
Ultimate Boeing 747 Gambit The Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit is a counter-argument to modern versions of the argument from design for the existence of God. It was introduced by Richard Dawkins in chapter 4 of his 2006 book The God Delusion, “Why there almost certainly is no God”. The argument is a play on the notion of a...
Theological Noncognitivism Theological noncognitivism is the position that religious language – specifically, words such as “God” – are not cognitively meaningful. It is sometimes considered synonymous with ignosticism. Overview Theological noncognitivists argue in different ways, depending on what one considers the “theory of meaning” to be. One argument holds to the claim that definitions of God (Image...
Agnostic Atheism Agnostic atheism is a philosophical position that encompasses both atheism and agnosticism. Agnostic atheists are atheistic because they do not hold a belief in the existence of any deity, and are agnostic because they claim that the existence of a deity is either unknowable in principle or currently unknown in fact. The agnostic atheist may be...
Atheist’s Wager The Atheist’s Wager, popularised by the philosopher Michael Martin and published in his 1990 book Atheism: A Philosophical Justification, is an atheistic response to Pascal’s Wager regarding the existence of God. One version of the Atheist’s Wager suggests that since a kind and loving god would reward good deeds – and that if no gods exist, good deeds...
Russell’s Teapot Russell’s teapot is an analogy, formulated by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of disproof to others. Russell specifically applied his analogy in the context of religion. He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering...
Argument From Poor Design The argument from poor design, also known as the dysteleological argument, is an argument against the existence of a creator God, based on the reasoning that an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God would not create organisms with the perceived suboptimal designs that can be seen in nature. The argument is structured as a basic modus...
Hindu Atheism Atheism (निरीश्वरवाद, nir-īśvara-vāda, lit. “statement of no Lord“, “doctrine of godlessness”) or disbelief in god or gods has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the orthodox and heterodox streams of Indian philosophy. There are six major orthodox (astika) schools of Hindu philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta, and five major heterodox (nāstika) schools of Śramaṇa— Ajivika, Ajñana, and Cārvāka. The...
Outline of Atheism Atheism – rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief...
Marxist–Leninist Atheism Marxist–Leninist atheism, also known as Marxist–Leninist scientific atheism, is the irreligious and anti-clerical element of Marxism–Leninism, the official state ideology of the Soviet Union. Based upon a dialectical-materialist understanding of humanity’s place in nature, Marxist–Leninist atheism proposes that religion is the opium of the people, meant to promote a person’s passive acceptance of...
Atheism Atheism (“not believing in god“) refers in its broadest sense to a denial of theism (the belief in the existence of a single deity or deities). Atheism has many shades and types. Some atheists strongly deny the existence of God (or any form of deity) and attack theistic claims. Yet certainty as...
Christian Atheism Christian atheism is a form of cultural Christianity and ethics system drawing its beliefs and practices from Jesus‘ life and teachings as recorded in the New Testament Gospels and other sources, whilst rejecting supernatural claims of Christianity. Christian atheism takes many forms: some Christian atheists take a theological position in which the belief in the transcendent or interventionist...
Jewish Atheism Jewish atheism refers to the atheism of people who are ethnically and (at least to some extent) culturally Jewish. Because Jewish identity is ethnoreligious (i.e., it encompasses ethnic as well as religious components), the term “Jewish atheism” does not inherently entail a contradiction. Based on Jewish law’s emphasis...
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