• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Atheism Overview

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rex

Founder
Atheism Overview


Atheism is a nonbelief in all deities, including both the impersonal divinity of the cosmos, itself, and in the supreme Personal beings of monotheist beliefs all often referred to as being "God."

Etymology


The term atheism (French athéisme, from athée, meaning atheist, from Greek 'Αθεος, atheos, meaning godless : a-, without; + Θεός, theos, meaning god; it has Indo-European Roots) is formed of the Greek prefix α- (a-), meaning "without" or "not," and the Greek-derived theism (from Θεϊσμός, theismos), meaning a belief in a god. The literal meaning of the term is therefore "without belief in a god."

Definition and scope


Atheism is generally defined by most dictionaries and encyclopedias as the "denial of the existence of God or gods and of any supernatural existence." [1]
Some atheists [2] [3] distinguish between two variants:


Strong atheism is an explicit belief that there are no deities. (They may, for example, be considered an impossibility.) Such a position usually commits one to having, or at least allowing for, positive assertions about and explanations of the natural world which do not require a deity.
Weak atheism is a mere lack of belief in any deity. (One may hold that there is not enough evidence to support a decision, or one may simply not have a position). This is related but not equivalent to agnosticism, which affirms that a person cannot have firm knowledge of the existence nor the inexistence of any deity. Nonetheless the two terms are often used interchangeably.
("Weak atheism" as defined above is also referred to in some circles as "soft agnosticism" while "agnosticism" as defined above is specified as "hard agnosticism." Moreover, in the freethought tradition, strong and weak atheism are also called positive and negative atheism.)



Atheism is not necessarily synonymous with irreligion. There are religious belief systems including various branches of Buddhism including Zen,other systems such as Unitarian Universalism which do not require a belief in any deity. Members of theistic religious organizations could secretly hold atheist views, too. Additionally, a number of atheistic 'churches' have sprung up, as have religious organizations which allow atheists as members. The "pan-atheists" who call themselves Naturalistic Pantheists are one example, while Brianism is another.


Atheism, morality, and philosophy


Atheism does not prescribe any specific moral outlook, it is simply absence of any god belief. Many atheists however are also involved in other catagories of thought including secular humanism, Marxism and Rationalism.
For most religious people, religion is an important part of their morality, therefore, it is possible to think that without religion, there is no morality. Most atheists vehemently deny the charge that they are amoral and consider that the moral code of Secular humanism is superior to codes allowing the torture or execution of people who believe differently from what the authorities want. Others see this as an inaccurate assessment, pointing out the number of charitable religious organizations such as the Salvation Army. Atheists and other secularists would point to useful secular charities like Oxfam and Médicins Sans Frontières[4]. Since atheists very rarely contribute to charities "in the name of atheism" but may contribute just as much as theists for other reasons, it may be inaccurate to measure overall charitability in this manner.

Many atheists and indeed some theists consider that morality does not require a religion. Francis Bacon explains: "Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men." [5].


Atheism and persecution


Atheism has also been used to describe the position of someone who does not believe in some particular deity, even if they do believe in another. An example would be its use as an accusation of the pagan Romans against the early Christians, and vice versa. It was also used against Socrates [6] [7] for attacking established beliefs.
In Europe's Middle Ages and even up to the 18th century, atheism was regarded as amoral, often criminal; atheists could be sentenced to death by burning, especially in countries where the Inquisition was active. While Protestants and many others suffered from discrimination and persecution by the then dominant Roman Catholic Church, Calvin was also in favor of burning atheists and heretics [8] [9]. It must be noted that the witch hunters as well as the inquisition were quite eager to practise profoundly cruel and shocking tortures and deaths upon those whom they found imperfect, atheist, witches, or otherwise. (See for instance the fate of Jean-François de la Barre.)

In some cultures, promoting atheism has been criminalized, and even many western European countries such as Spain and Germany still have (rarely enforced) anti-blasphemy laws on the books. Those who hold theistic views often consider those without a belief in a deity to be amoral or untrustworthy—unfit as members of society. The scriptures of most religions contain denunciations of non-believers; see, for example, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 in the Christian Bible.


Atheism, Marxism and the Cold War


Atheism has been the official stance of most communist countries, including the People's Republic of China and the former Soviet Union . Karl Marx, an atheist, wrote that religion is "the opium of the people," which is often interpreted to mean that it exists in order to blind people to the true state of affairs in a society, and thus make them more amenable to social control and exploitation. Others suggest that communism itself can be seen as religion.
In the Soviet Union and in the People's Republic of China, some churches that submitted to strict state control were tolerated. Because of the communists' goal to eradicate traditional religion as what they perceived to be an irrational belief system, powerful religious groups such as the Catholic Church were among the strongest enemies of communism since its very inception. See also China mounts 'atheist propaganda' drive in Tibet. Communist doctrine aside, many dictatorships have regulated or forbidden religious groups which were viewed as possible centers of opposition against their totalitarian rule. On the other hand, western intelligence agencies have often cooperated with local religious groups in order to build up opposition in hostile countries (an extreme example being the training and funding of the radical fundamentalist Mujaheddin in Afghanistan by the CIA in the 1980s).

Every military buildup in the United States since World War II has been accompanied by frequent use of the saying "There are no atheists in foxholes." During the Cold War, the fact that the communist enemies of the United States were officially atheists ("Godless Communists") added to the view that atheists were unreliable and unpatriotic. As recently as the 1987 presidential campaign in the (officially secular) United States, George H. W. Bush said "I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God." [10] Similar statements were made during the controversy surrounding the inclusion of the phrase "under God" in the American Pledge of Allegiance, words which were added to the pledge early in the Cold War period.

Notwithstanding Cold War attitudes, atheists are legally protected from discrimination in the United States and they have been among the strongest advocates of the legal separation of church and state. American courts have regularly, if controversially, interpreted the constitutional requirement for separation of church and state as protecting the freedoms of non-believers, as well as prohibiting the establishment of any state religion. Atheists often sum up the legal situation with the phrase: "Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion." [11]


Atheism today


Atheism is more common in the secular countries of Western Europe and in former or present communist nations than in the United States, and more common among scientists, particularly natural scientists, than among the general population (see the relationship between religion and science).
In early 2004, it was announced [12] [13] that atheism would be taught during religious education classes in Britain. A spokesman of the 'Qualifications and Curriculum Authority' stated the following about the decision: "There are many children in England who have no religious affiliation and their beliefs and ideas, whatever they are, should be taken very seriously."


Statistics


Due to some societies strongly promoting atheism, and some strongly condemning it, atheism may both be over reported and underreported in different countries. There is a great deal of room for debate as to the accuracy of any method of measurement, as the opportunity for misreporting (intentional and otherwise) a belief system without an organized structure is high.
The following surveys are in chronological order, but as they are different studies with different methodologies it would be inaccurate to infer trends on the prevalence of atheism from them:

A 1995 survey [14] attributed to the Encyclopedia Britannica indicates that non-religious are about 14.7% of the world's population, and atheists around 3.8%.

A 2001 survey by the CIA in the World Factbook [15] estimates about 12.5% non-religious and about 2.4% for atheists.

A 2002 survey by Adherents.com [16] estimates the number of "secular, non-religious, agnostics and atheists" as about 14%.

A 2004 survey by the BBC [17] in 10 countries showed the proportion of "people who don't believe in God nor in a higher power" varying between 0% and 30%, with an average close to 10% in the countries surveyed. About 8% of the respondents stated specifically that they consider themselves atheists.


<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org</a>
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top