Atheism

120px

Atheism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is the denial of the existence of any God.

The term "atheism" often is used to include uncertainty about whether God exists or not, that is, people who never believe in God or actively deny His existence (see also agnosticism). There are two kinds of atheism, strong atheism, or someone who believes strongly that there is no God, and weak atheism, or someone who believes that there probably is no God. Atheists often equivocate that they actually have a lack of belief in any God, as opposed to having the positive belief that there is no God. This equivocation stems from the fact that if they hold positive beliefs, then their worldview can be categorized as a religion.

Biblical Statements Regarding Atheism

The Bible states:

"The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God. - Psalm 14:1 (KJV)}}

In addition, the Bible states:

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse..." - Romans 1:20 (KJV)}}

Inherent Illogicalness of Atheism

Proponents of atheism, most notably atheist debaters, have been attempting to dilute the definition of atheism to a mere lack of belief there is a God or gods. This definition, however, is not in accordance with how encyclopedias of philosophy define the term atheism which is a denial there is a God or gods. One of the reasons why some proponents of atheism have been attempting to dilute the definition of the term atheism is to shift the burden of proof since atheism is inherently a illogical position.

Dr. D. James Kennedy wrote the following regarding the illogicalness of atheism:

Atheism is what is called a "universal negative." One of the laws of logic is that you can't prove a universal negative....You would have to examine every part of the universe....

By the way, you would have to be very, very fast because, who knows, this God, these angels....may be very, very fast, and just after you get somewhere, they may have left for another part of the universe.

This means that you would have to be omnipresent. You would also have to know everything about every part of the universe, so you would be omniscient. Then, just at the point when you proved that there was no God, you would also have proven that you were one.

Atheistic Ethics and Humanism

Although it is difficult to generalize about atheism because it has no creed in a way that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam do, atheists typically hold that no religious text can be the only source of morality; they do not look for their morality in revelation, but rather in reason or some other internal force. However, many atheists believe that religious texts contain useful ideas and principles, such as the Golden Rule. Such people would, however, assert that useful principles entered religion because they are useful, and not the other way around. As atheists do not believe in any form of deity, books purported to be based upon the revealed words of such deities are not considered to have any more inherent moral authority than books written by people, as they consider them to be one and the same.

One pervading theme in atheistic moral systems is that of humanism, the belief that humans have an intrinsic value of their own independent of any external entity. Humanism, in its basis, is a belief in celebrating, embracing and protecting human life. Humanists can embrace different rationalistic ethical systems such as Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Hedonism, and others.

The Existence of Evil

Atheists often claim that the existence of evil is a problem for theism which holds to a good and powerful God. Theodicy is the branch of study in theology and philosophy that defends the goodness of God despite the existence of evil. In traditional Christianity and Judaism the book of Job is used to explain the existence of evil. In recent times Christian apologetists often cite Alvin Plantinga's free will defense in regards to the existence of evil. The work of St. Augustine is also cited in regards to theodicy.

Atheism and Communism

Karl Marx coined the saying "[Religion] is the opium of the people". Karl Marx also wrote: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."

Vladimir Lenin similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."

Atheism and Questions of Origins

Atheism provides no useful input in regards to origins. Creationists scientist claim that the first law of thermodynamics and the second law of thermodyamics argues against an eternal universe, a universe created by natural processes, and for creation by God. A majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the naturalistic evolutionary position since World War II have been atheists. Creationist scientists also assert the theory of evolution is an inadequate explanation for the variety of life forms on earth.

Creationists also state that the origin of life is not possible though natural processes and the origin of life is the result of God.

Atheist Population

It is difficult to accurately determine the proportion of the population that is atheist because survey definitions, and even real life definitions, are often unclear. Some people are unsure of the existence of God, but they are sometimes counted as atheists. People who think that the existence of god cannot be proven or disproven are called agnostics (see Agnosticism). There are people who, despite being Atheists, refuse to categorize themselves as such due to the negative social stigma attached to atheism. Furthermore, surveys containing an option for "no religion" are not necessarily identifying atheists. Individuals may believe in some form of god but not subscribe to any particular religion.

Specific research on atheists conducted in 2006 suggests that the true proportion of atheists is 4% in the United States, 17% in Great Britain and 32% in France.

Concern about Atheists in America

Research in the American Sociological Review finds that atheists are the group that Americans least relate to for shared vision or want to have marry into their family.

	This Group Does Not At All Agree with My Vision of American Society:	I Would Disapprove if My Child Wanted to Marry a Member of This Group:
Atheist	39.6%	47.6%
Muslim	26.3%	33.5%
Homosexual	22.6%	NA
Conservative Christian	13.5%	6.9%
Recent Immigrant	12.5%	Not Asked
Hispanic	7.6%	18.5%
Jew	7.4%	11.8%
Asian American	7.0%	18.5%
African American	4.6%	27.2%
White American	2.2%	2.3%

Well Known Atheists

In recorded history atheism has been a minority view, although there have been pockets of atheistic thought such as amongst the literati in pre-modern China who followed Confucian teachings.

Well-known atheists include Joseph Stalin, Bertrand Russell, Ayn Rand, Richard Dawkins, Douglas Adams, Ernest Hemingway, and David Hume.

External Links

• Decline of Atheism -CreationWiki
• European Commission report on Social values, Science and Technology, includes info on Religious beliefs

References

!

This article has an inadequate number of citations. You are encouraged to add sources for verifiability, but please abide by The Conservapedia Commandments & Style Guide.