Atheism

From New World Encyclopedia

Atheism, (from privative a- + Greek theos "god") refers in its broadest sense to a denial of theism (the belief in the existence of deities). While the term can be used to describe those who make no claim about whether gods exist or not, narrower definitions of atheism typically label only those people who affirmatively assert the nonexistence of gods as atheists, and classify less pointed nonbelievers as agnostics or simply non-theists. Many people who self-identify as atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding the evidence (or lack thereof) for the many deities and creation stories of popular religion. Further, they often question the goodness and morality of religions, which have brought holy wars, inquisitions and factionalism as often as they have brought peace. Yet while some adhere to philosophies such as humanism, naturalism and materialism, there is no single ideology that all atheists share, nor does atheism as a whole have any institutionalized rituals or behaviors. Atheism is inspired by many rationales, encompassing personal, scientific, social, philosophical, and historical reasoning. Although atheism is commonly equated with irreligion in Western culture, some forms of religious beliefs (such as Buddhism and Jainism), can be described as atheistic. A 2004 survey estimates about 12.5% of the world's population are non-religious and about 2.4% are specifically atheist.

History

Ideas that would be recognized as atheistic today existed even before Classical Antiquity. In the Far East, a contemplative life not centered on the idea of gods was promoted in the 6th century B.C.E. by the Daoist philosopher Lao Zi and his contemporary Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. By way of contrast, in Ancient Greece, where secular power was tied to institutional religion, punishments for atheism were severe. Socrates was sentenced to death partly on the grounds that he was an atheist. With the rise of Christianity in the 4th century CE, atheism largely disappeared from the Greek and Roman philosophical traditions, though the criminal connotation attached to atheistic ideas would persist until the Renaissance. Due the climate of persecution in Europe during the Middle Ages, hardly any expression of strong atheism is known from this period, save for the proclamations of Pope Boniface VIII, who noted that Christianity was a fully human invention while still insisting on the political primacy of the church. In contrast, the non-Western world saw a flourishing of atheistic philosophies at this time, including the hedonistic and atheistic Carvaka and Jain schools of India, and certain streams of Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism in China.

During the Age of Enlightenment, the stigmatized concept of atheism re-emerged as an accusation against those who questioned the religious status quo, such as Thomas Hobbes and Christopher Marlowe. However, by the late 18th century it had become the philosophical position of a growing minority, headed by the openly atheistic works of Paul Baron d'Holbach. In the 19th century, atheism became a powerful political tool through the writings of Ludwig Feuerbach, who claimed God was a fictional projection fabricated by man. This idea greatly influenced economist Karl Marx, the founding father of Communism, who believed that labourers turn to religion in order to dull the pain caused by the reality of social situations. The overall popularity of atheism in the 19th century led Friedrich Nietzsche to coin the aphorism "God is dead." By the 20th century, along with the spread of rationalism and secular humanism, atheism had become common, particularly among scientists. Regardless, atheists were still persecuted on occassion. Most notably, during World War II the Nazis placed atheists alongside socialists, communists and Jews by lumping these groups together in a complex global conspiracy. By the late 20th century, atheism also became a staple of the various Communist states, which helped to resurrect some of the negative connotations of atheism in places where anti-communism was widespread. This was particularly common in the United States during the Cold War, where atheism became synonymous with a lack of patriotism.

Reasons for atheism

Philosophical and logical reasons

Some atheists base their stance on rational or philosophical grounds, arguing that their position is based on logical rejection of theistic claims. Indeed, many atheists claim that their view is merely the absence of a certain belief, suggesting that the burden of proving such an unlikely phenomenon is upon theists. In this line of thought, it follows that if theism's arguments can be refuted, nontheism becomes the default position. Many atheists have argued for centuries against the most popular "proofs" of God's existence, noting problems in the theist line of reasoning. Chief among these problems is absence of evidence supporting theistic claims. The theist must show that there are spiritual facts beyond the world of common experience to prove god's existence, and atheists assert such facts have not been provided. Also, atheists claim that theism tremendously complicates any understanding of the workings of the universe by introducing new questions like origin of and properties of god(s). In addition, there are also many atheists who attack specific forms of theism as being self-contradictory. One of the most common arguments against the existence of a specific God is the problem of evil, which Christian apologist William Lane Craig has referred to as "atheism's killer argument." This line of reasoning claims that the presence of evil in the world is logically inconsistent with the existence of a benevolent God. Instead, atheists claim it is more coherent to conclude that God does not exist than to believe that He/She does exist but readily allows the promulgation of evil.

Scientific reasons

As a further development of the rationalist position elucidated above, many feel that theories of Divine creation blatantly conflict with modern science, especially evolution. For some atheists, this conflict is reason enough to reject theism. Evolutionary science, supported by a large body of paleontological and genomic evidence and accepted by the overwhelming majority of biologists, describes how complex life has developed through a slow process of random mutation and natural selection. It is now known that humans share 98% of our genetic code with chimpanzees, 90% with mice, 21% with roundworms, and 7% with the bacterium E. coli. This humbling perspective is quite different from that of most theistic traditions, such as the Abrahamic religions, in which humans are thought to be created "in God's image" and are existentially distinguished from the other "beasts of the Earth". Similarly, astronomical facts, such as the recognition of Earth's Sun as only one undistinguished star among billions in the Milky Way, are seen by some atheists as rendering implausible the proposition that this universe was created with mankind in mind. Finally, some atheists argue that religion emerged as a pseudo-scientific explanation for natural phenomena and that, with the progress of human scientific endeavour, these explanatory myths have been rendered unneccessary.

Personal and Practical reasons

In addition to atheists with philosophical concerns, there are those who cite social, psychological, and practical reasons for their beliefs. Many people are atheists not as a result of philosophical deliberation, but rather because of the means by which they were brought up or educated. Some people are atheists at least partly because of growing up in an environment where atheism is relatively common, such as those who are raised by atheist parents. Also, they may simply adopt the predominant beliefs of the culture in which they grew up. Just as people who grow up in a predominantly Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Christian community or culture are most likely to adopt the prevalent religion of that given locale, atheists contend that the same is true for themselves. Conversely, many others are led to atheism by unpleasant experiences with their inherited traditions.

Some atheists claim that their beliefs have positive practical effects on their lives. For instance, atheism may allow one to open their mind to a wide variety of perspectives and worldviews since they are not committed to dogmatic beliefs. Furthermore, some claim atheism to be more ethical or useful than theism. Such atheists may hold that searching for explanations through natural science is more beneficial than searching through faith, the latter of which often draws irreconcilable dividing lines between individuals with different beliefs.

Types and typologies of atheism

Weak and strong atheism

The broadest definition of atheism is found in the dichotomy of weak and strong atheism. Weak atheism, sometimes called soft atheism, negative atheism or neutral atheism, is the absence of belief in the existence of deities without the positive assertion that deities do not exist. Strong atheism, also known as hard atheism or positive atheism, is the positive assertion that no deities exist. In earlier philosophical publications, the terms negative atheism and positive atheism were more common, most notbaly used by Antony Flew in 1972, although Jacques Maritain (1953, Chapter 8, p.104) used the phrases in a similar context as early as 1949.

Theists claim that a single deity or group of deities exists. Weak atheists do not assert the contrary; instead, they only refrain from assenting to theistic claims. In this sense, weak atheism may be considered a form of agnosticism. Some weak atheists are without any opinion regarding the existence of deities, either because of a lack of interest in the matter (a viewpoint referred to as apatheism), or a belief that the arguments and evidence provided by both theists and strong atheists are equally unpersuasive. Others may doubt or dispute claims for the existence of deities, while not actively asserting that deities do not exist, a position commonly classified as explicit weak atheism. Similarly, some weak atheists feel that theism and strong atheism are equally untenable, on the grounds that faith is required both to assert and to deny the existence of deities. They conclude that both theism and strong atheism have inherited the burden of proof as to whether or not a god does or doesn't exist. Some also base their belief on the notion that it is impossible to prove a negative, in this case, the fact that god does not exist. A strong atheist has the additional view that positive statements of nonexistence are merited when evidence or arguments indicate that a deity's nonexistence is certain or probable. Strong atheism may be based on arguments that the concept of a deity is self-contradictory and therefore impossible (positive ignosticism), or that one or more attributes of a deity are incompatible with what we observe in the world.

Implicit and explicit atheism

The terms implicit and explicit atheism were coined by George H. Smith in 1979 for purposes of understanding atheism more narrowly. This conceptualization does not consider mere absence of theistic belief or suspension of judgment concerning theism to be forms of atheism, instead placing emphasis on conscious rejection of theism. Implicit atheism is defined by Smith as the lack of theistic belief without conscious rejection of it. This rejection, according to Smith, is not actually regarded as atheistic at all, and the umbrella term nontheism is typically used in its place. Explicit atheism, meanwhile, is defined by a conscious rejection of theistic belief, and is sometimes called antitheism (see below).

File:Atheismimplicitexplicit2.PNG
A chart showing the relationship between the weak/strong (positive/negative) and implicit/explicit dichotomies. Strong atheism is always explicit, and implicit atheism is always weak.

For Smith, explicit atheism is subdivided further according to whether or not the rejection of theism is based upon rational grounds. The term critical atheism is used to label the view that belief in god is irrational, and is itself subdivided into a) the view usually expressed by the statement "I do not believe in the existence of a god or supernatural being"; b) the view usually expressed by the statement, "god does not exist" or "the existence of god is impossible"; and c) the view which "refuses to discuss the existence or nonexistence of a god" because "the concept of a god is unintelligible" (p.17). As it happens, Smith's definition of explicit atheism is also the most common among laypeople. For laypersons, atheism is defined in the strongest possible terms, as the belief that there is no god. Thus, most laypeople would not recognize mere absence of belief in deities (implicit atheism) as a type of atheism at all, and would tend to use other terms, such as skepticism, agnosticism, or "non-atheistic nontheism" to describe this position. Such usage is not exclusive to laypeople, however, as many atheist philosophers, including Theodore Drange, use the narrow definition.

The aforementioned terms weak atheism and strong atheism are often used as synonyms of Smith's less-well-known implicit and explicit categories. However, the original and technical meanings of implicit and explicit atheism are quite different and distinct from weak and strong atheism, having to do with conscious rejection and unconscious rejection of theism rather than with positive belief and negative belief. Although explicit atheists who consciously reject theism may subscribe to either weak or strong atheism, weak atheism also includes implicit atheists: nontheists who have not consciously rejected theism, but lack theistic belief, arguably including persons newborns.

Ignosticism

Ignosticism is a variation of explicit atheism which asserts that the question of whether or not deities exist is inherently meaningless. It is a popular view among many logical positivists such as Rudolph Carnap and A. J. Ayer, who claim that talk of gods is literally nonsensical. Theological statements such as those affirming god's existence cannot have any truth value, since they lack falsifiability. This refers to the fact that claims of transendence and metaphysic properties cannot be tested by empirical means and potentially rejected as null hypotheses. This is because the terminology being used by theologians has not been properly or consistently defined, dealing with word use and technicalities rather than observable physical realities. In Language, Truth and Logic, Ayer stated that theism, atheism and agnosticism were equally meaningless terms, insofar as they treat the question of the existence of God as a real question. However, there are varieties of atheism and agnosticism which do not necessarily agree that the question is meaningless, especially those using the "lack of theism" definition of atheism. Despite Ayer's criticism of atheism as a concept (perhaps using the definition typically associated with strong atheism), ignosticism is still considered as a form of atheism in most religious classifications.

Gnostic and agnostic atheism

Agnostic atheism is a fusion of atheism or nontheism with varying degrees of agnosticism. It may be a combination of lack of theism with strong agnosticism, the view that it is impossible to know whether deities exist to any reliable degree. It may also be a combination of lack of theism with weak agnosticism, the view that there is not currently enough information to decide whether or not a deity exists, but that such information may be available in the future. Apatheism often overlaps with agnostic atheism, as is the case with apathetic agnosticism. Unlike ignostics, apathetic agnostics do not deny the question of God's existence. However, they are apathetic in regards to the answer of this question, claiming that God's existence or non-existence will have little effect on the human condition. Agnostic atheism is typically contrasted with agnostic theism, the belief that deities exist even though it is impossible to know for sure (see fideism).

Agnostic atheism is also placed in contrast with gnostic atheism, the belief that there is enough information to determine that deities do not exist. Gnostic atheism (not be confused with Gnosticism) is used less frequently, however, because anyone who is not labeled as agnostic is typically assumed to be gnostic by default. Gnostic atheism also has a variety meanings. The combination of nontheism with strong gnosticism constitutes the belief that it is rational to be absolutely certain that deities do not, and perhaps cannot, exist. When nontheism is coupled with weak gnosticism, it denotes the belief that there is enough information to be reasonably sure that deities do not exist, but not absolutely certain. In addition, Gnostic atheism is sometimes used as a synonym of strong atheism, and thus agnostic atheism is occasionally a synonym for weak atheism. This is similar to the more common confusion of the terms implicit atheism and explicit atheism with strong and weak atheism.

Atheism in philosophical naturalism

Despite the fact that many, if not most, atheists have preferred to claim that atheism is a lack of a belief rather than a belief in its own right, some atheist writers identify atheism with the naturalistic world view and defend it on that basis. The case for naturalism is used as a positive argument for atheism. According to James Thrower, negative atheism is understood primarily as a function of the current variation of theism which it rejects. This, in Thrower's eyes, renders such atheism as relative. As an alternative, he proposes a way of looking at and interpreting events in the world which he refers to as "naturalistic", in that it concerns nature as paramount. However, this worldview does not assert belief in any god beyond nature, and therefore is atheistic. Similarly, Julian Baggini argues that atheism must be understood not as a denial of religion, but instead as an affirmation of and commitment to the one world of nature. For Baggini, therefore, the abundant evidence for the reality of the natural world and the lack thereof for any other phenomena confirms atheism. This other kind of phenomena for which there is no evidence is not limited to god by any means, however, as Baggini writes: "God is just one of the things that atheists don't believe in, it just happens to be the thing that, for historical reasons, gave them their name. (p.17). This variation of atheism, then, denies not only god but also the existence of souls and other supernatural entities.

Antitheism

Antitheism typically refers to a direct opposition to theism. In this sense, it is a form of critical strong atheism. While in other senses atheism merely denies the existence of deities, antitheists may go so far as to believe that theism is actually harmful for human beings. As well, they may simply be atheists who have little tolerance for theistic views which they perceive to be irrational. Strong atheists who are not antitheists may believe positively that deities do not exist, while not believing that theism is directly harmful or requiring opposition. Antitheism may sometimes overlap with ignosticism, the view that theism is inherently meaningless, and may directly contradict apatheism, the view that theism is irrelevant rather than dangerous. However, antitheism is also sometimes used, particularly in religious contexts, to refer to opposition to God or divine things, rather than an opposition to the belief in God. Using the latter definition, it may be possible — or perhaps even necessary — to be an antitheist without being an atheist or nontheist.

Pejorative Definitions

The first attempts to define or develop a typology annotating the varieties of atheism occurred in religious apologetics, which typically depicted atheism as a licentious belief system. Regardless, a diversity of atheist opinion has been recognized at least since Plato, and common distinctions have been established between practical atheism and contemplative or speculative atheism. Practical atheism was said to be caused by moral failure, hypocrisy, or willful ignorance. Atheists in the practical sense were those who behaved as though God, morals, ethics and social responsibility did not exist. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the word atheist had what were perhaps its most polemical connotations. For instance, John Wingfield, an author from that period, claimed that the wicked, proud, and inscrutable were all atheists at heart, presumably denying God through their imperious actions. Similarly, English dramatist Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) put forward the idea that ambitious, greedy, and gluttonous were all essentially deniers of god. At this time, the term 'atheist' was a severe insult, and by no means would be a title one bestowed upon themselves. These negative connotations have persisted and still exist in contemporary times. According to the French Catholic philosopher Étienne Borne, for instance, "Practical atheism is not the denial of the existence of God, but complete godlessness of action; it is a moral evil, implying not the denial of the absolute validity of the moral law but simply rebellion against that law" (1961 p. 10).

On the other hand, the existence of speculative atheism, which involves deep philosophical contemplation as to whether or not god actually exists, was often denied by theists throughout history. That anyone might reason their way to atheism was thought to be impossible. Thus, speculative atheism was collapsed into a form of practical atheism, or conceptualized as a hateful fight against God. This is why Borne found it necessary to say, "to put forward the idea, as some apologists rashly do, that there are no atheists except in name but only 'practical atheists' who through pride or idleness disregard the divine law, would be, at least at the beginning of the argument, a rhetorical convenience or an emotional prejudice evading the real question." (p. 18) When denial of the existence of "speculative" atheism became unsustainable, atheism was nevertheless repressed and criticized by narrowing definitions, applying charges of dogmatism, and otherwise misrepresenting atheist positions. One of the reasons for the popularity of euphemistic alternative terms like secularist, empiricist, agnostic, or bright in recent history is due to the fact that atheism still has pejorative connotations arising from attempts at suppression and from its association with practical atheism. For example, the term godless is still used as an abusive epithet. Thinkers such as J.C.A. Gaskin have abandoned the term atheism in favor of unbelief, citing the fact that both the derogatory associations of the term and its vagueness in the public eye have rendered atheism an undesireable label. Despite these considerations, for others atheist has always been the preferred title.

Religion and atheism

Ancient Greek and Roman

Socrates

The oldest known variation of atheism as we now understand it is attributed to the ancient Greek philosopherEpicurus around 300 B.C.E. The aim of the Epicureans was mainly to alleviate fear of divine wrath by portraying it as irrational. One of the most eloquent expressions of Epicurean thought is Lucretius' On the Nature of Things (1st century B.C.E.), where the author grandly proclaims the importance of each human's personal responsibility in a universe independent of god's aid. Lucretius was not an atheist as he did believe in the existence of gods, and Epicurus was ambiguous on this topic as well. However, both denied the existence of an afterlife and thought for certain that if gods existed they were uninterested in human existence. For these reasons, they may be better described as materialists than atheists. Epicureans were not persecuted, but their teachings were controversial, and were harshly attacked by the mainstream schools of Stoicism and Neoplatonism. For these reasons, the movement remained marginal, and gradually died out at the end of the Roman Empire.

Despite the prevalence of henotheism featuring numerous gods in ancient Greece, criticisms were lodged against such belief by various philosophers. Xenophanes, for instance, claimed that anthropomorphic and often immoral portrayals of the many gods were merely projections of humanity upon the divine. As an alternative, Xenophanes suggested the notion of one, unchangable god to replace these prevailing conceptions. This set in motion a chain of thought which lead to the eventual denial of the gods. Ionic naturalists, for instance, provided naturalistic explanations for phenomena which had been previously explained by the gods. Democritus put forth the thesis that all phenomena in the world were merely transformations of eternal atoms, rather than anthropomorphic conceptions of divinity. The Sophists criticized the various gods as products of human society and imagination to the extent that Protagoras, who actually espoused an agnostic variation of doubt, was outlawed in Athens. Critias, a famed dramatist and contemporary of Socrates, had one of his characters put forth the view that gods were put in place merely to bolster and reify societal codes of morality. Atheist thought came to a head in the Greek tradition with Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who was the first to explicitly deny all forms of theism and the existence of any type of god.

Politically speaking, theism was the fundamental belief in that supported the divine right of the State, in both Greece and Rome. Historically, any person who did not believe in any deity supported by the State was fair game to accusations of atheism, a capital crime. For political reasons, Socrates in Athens (399 B.C.E.) was accused of being atheos (or "refusing to acknowledge the gods recognized by the state"). Despite the charges, he claimed inspiration from a divine voice and on his deathbed he asked that a rooster be sacrificed to the god Asclepius. Christians in Rome were also considered subversive to the state religion and thereby prosecuted as atheists. Christians rejected the Roman gods, and henotheists rejected the exclusivity of Christian monotheism. Thus, charges of atheism (referring to the subversion of religion) were often used as a political mechanism by which to eliminate religious diversity. During the late Roman Empire, atheism was a common legal prosecution against Christians by henotheists, leading to the deaths of many Christians for their beliefs.

Judaism

Belief in god is an indispensible requirement within Judaism. This is evident within Judaism's paramount prayer, the Shema, which fervently asserts the monotheistic nature of god. However, some strains of atheism have nonetheless originated out of the Judaic faith. One emerged in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Richard Rubinstein, a Conservative rabbi who spent three years of his youth imprisoned at Auschwitz, put forward the claim that God Himself died at that very concentration camp. God's failure to save the Jews, according to Rubinstein, marked a severance in the covenant between God and the Jewish people. Hence, the Jews were to face the universe alone as atheists; however, Rubenstein implored the Jewish people to retain their identity by continuing to follow moral imperatives laid out by God before his demise. Due to the extremely pessimistic tone of this notion, and the theological difficulties that arise with the claim that God can somehow cease to exist, Rubinstein's atheism was largely rejected.

In many modern movements in Judaism, rabbis have generally considered the behavior of a Jew to be the determining factor in whether or not one is considered an adherent of Judaism. Within these movements it is sometimes acknowledged that it is possible for a Jew to strictly practice Judaism as a faith, while at the same time being an agnostic or atheist. Some Jewish atheists reject Judaism altogther, but wish to continue identifying themselves with the Jewish people and culture. Jewish atheists who practice Humanistic Judaism embrace Jewish culture and history as the sources of their Jewish identity, rather than belief in a supernatural god. Reconstructionism is not dogmatic in many of its articles of faith, including belief in a deity, which is not required. As such, many Reconstructionist Jews adhere to deism, or else reject theism altogether and do not believe in any God. Sentiments toward atheist Jews are sometimes even quite positive. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, first Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in pre-state Israel, held that atheists do not actually deny God, but rather help toward a fuller realization of god. That is, atheist deny one of humanity's many images of God. Since any man-made image of God can be considered an idol, Kook held that, in practice, one could consider atheists as helping true religion eschew false images of God, in the end serving the purpose of true monotheism.

Christianity

By necessity, Christianity, as a theistic and proselytizing religion, views atheism as sinful. According to Psalm 14:1, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." Additionally, according to John 3:18-19, "He that believeth in him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." These passages suggest that those who reject the divinity of Jesus do so because of a proclivity to do evil, rather than evil being a consequence of their disbelief.

Regardless of such negative sentiments, atheism has still been found occassionally throughout the history of Christianity. Gnostic literature, which predates some of the gospel records, commonly put forward the idea that the physical world is a fallacious place rather than a triumph of a benevolent creator. The creator, therefore, should by no means receive worship from humanity; rather, the object of religiosity should be an escape from the physical world. Ultimate reality, in contrast to the creator, should not be thought of as God, but as an unknowable, ineffable One, which the gnostic writers often described as existing in non-being. While Gnosticism was rejected by orthodox Christianity, it still marks one branch of the faith which was somewhat atheistic.

Another famous but idiosyncratic atheistic belief in the Christian tradition is that of Thomas Altizer. His book The Gospel of Christian Atheism (1967) proclaims the unusual view that God has literally died, or self-annihilated. According to Altizer, this is nevertheless "a Christian confession of faith" (p. 102). Differentiating his position from that of both Nietzsche and theological non-realists, Altizer says: "To confess the death of God is to speak of an actual and real event, not perhaps an event occurring in a single moment of time or history, but notwithstanding this reservation an event that has actually happened both in a cosmic and in a historical sense."(p.103). However, many would dispute whether this is an atheist position at all, as belief in a dead God implies that God once existed in "living" form. Atheism typically entails a lack of belief that any gods ever existed, as opposed to not existing currently.

It should be noted that although Christianity as a faith has to be construed as irreconcilable with atheism, this is not the case regarding church institutions which currently are nominally Christian. Indeed the great positivist luminaries in all earnestness encompassed a Catholic Church which would retain all its ceremonies and ecclesiastical structures, whilst transforming into a purely atheistic church, much in the same way that Christianity has co-opted the organizational traditions of the native faiths it has encountered around the world, and through the ages. similarly, Liberal Christian atheists follow the teaching of Jesus, but may not believe in the literal existence of God. In this case, however, many would dispute whether the atheists in question are truly Christians, though they certainly are by some of the looser definitions of the word.

Islam

In Islam, atheists are categorized as kafir (كافر). This term translates roughly to "denier" or "concealer" and is also used to describe polytheists. In Islam, denial of god in such a way is one of the paramount transgressions, and as such, the noun kafir carries connotations of blasphemy and utter disconnection from the Islamic community. In Arabic, "atheism" is generally translated ilhad (إلحاد), which also means "heresy". The Quran is silent on the punishment for apostasy, though not on the subject itself. The Quran speaks repeatedly of people going back to unbelief after believing, but does not say that they should be killed or punished. Nonetheless, atheists have been subjected to such punishments throughout history in Islamic countries. Hence, atheists in such places frequently conceal their non-belief. The surveys mentioned above that indicate percentage of Muslim believers at or approaching 100% in certain Islamic countries should be interpreted in light of this fact.

Hinduism

Several explicitly atheist schools emerged out of the writings of the Vedas, the primary texts in Indian philosophy which form the core teachings of Hinduism. Of the six orthodox (astika) schools, Samkhya and Mimamsa can be characterized as atheistic. Unlike other astika schools, Samkhya lacks the notion of a 'higher being' that is the ground of all existence. Instead, Samkhya proposes a thoroughly dualistic understanding of the Cosmos, in which two coexisting realities form the basis of reality: Purusha, the spiritual and Prakriti, the physical. The aim of life is the attainment of liberating Self-knowledge of the Purusha and becomes pure spirit. Here, no God is present, yet Ultimate Reality in the form of the Purusha does exist. Therefore, Samkhya can be said to be a variety of Hinduism which falls into the classification of theistic atheism.

The Mimamsa schools focused their primary enquiry more upon the nature of dharma than the properties of a supreme deity. In doing so, they rejected theistic conceptions of the cosmos more outwardly than Samkhya. These rejections were developed in counterpoint to arguments for theism prevalent at that time. Between the sixth and tenth centuries C.E., the Nyaya school based in logic and the Vaisesika school based in atomism merged in order to develop said arguments. The Purva Mimamsa school attacked these lines of reasoning vehemently, asserting no such god existed. Uttara Mimamsa, a sister school, was less forceful in its rejection of theism, and admitted that arguments for the existence of god are only important on the level of everyday understanding. On the level of transcendent religious knowledge, adherents of Uttara Mimamsa viewed the concept of God to be ultimately illusory.

As well, the three heterodox schools in Indian philosophy, Buddhism, Jainism and Carvaka, defined as such because of their rejection of the Vedas, all adopted some form of atheism. While Buddhism and Jainism developed into their own unique religious traditions, Carvaka (also Charvaka) persisted in India as late as the sixteenth century but no further. Further, Charvaka left no writings and is understood principally from fragments cited by its opponents. Carvaka was not a religious tradition but rather an exclusively materialist and atheist school of thought in India, rejecting all sources of knowledge other than the senses. For the Charvakan, only the sensible world exists, and therefore the only purpose of life is to live long and enjoy physical pleasures. There is no afterlife, no soul, and no cosmic suffering other than the hardships of the present life; closely related to these affirmations of physical and nothing else was a pervasive disbelief in God.

Jainism

The other heterodox school in Indian thought which can be described as explicitly atheistic is that of Jainism. However, unlike the Carvakas, Jains acknowledge a spiritual realm beyond the physical, believing that the soul (jiva) is caught in an endless cycle of rebirth, and limited from its potential for eternal bliss by the material world. Jains follow a rigourous path of asceticism in order to release the soul from this cycle. The Jainist cosmos is eternal, having no beginning and no end, and therefore, having no creator, as well. Therefore, the notion of god is not necessary to explain Jain cosmology. Jains provide a plethora of other arguments as to why there is no need for a conception of god. For instance, they claim that if the world is an effect of a First Cause (god) and therefore subject to change, then the god who theists claim created it is supposedly prone to a state of flux, as well. Also, Jains question the motive of this cosmic being for creation of the world. If this creation was performed for the purposes of fulfilling some need within god, then it follows that god created due to lack of something, mitigating the doctrine of godly perfection. Furthermore, Jains claim that a god who bestows happiness upon people simply at his whim seems to be guilty of playing favourites. Hence, Jains deny all theistic sentiment. While Jains have to some extent venerated their founder Mahavira throughout history and still do at present, their gratitude toward their founder can hardly be considered worship of a god.

Buddhism

While Buddhism is not as outwardly atheistic as the other heterodox schools in Indian philosophy, early Buddhist texts suggest that theistic maxims are philosophically lacking. In the Pali Canon, earliest of the Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha criticizes the claim made by the brahmans that they possess a means for coming to union with a supreme divinity, the existence of which cannot be proven. Buddhists deny the reality of the material world, claiming all to be a function of impermanent and consistently changing dharmas. Under such a monistic world-view marked by change, the concept of a changeless deity is highly incoherent, and was never developed in the Buddhist tradition. Vasubandhu and Yasomitra, later Buddhist writers, note that if god is the singular cause of all things in existence, then all things should logically have been created at once. Since the world is constantly spawning new forms, however, one cause could never be considered adequate for the totality of existence. Further, since all things are created out of a succession of dharmas in a process called pratitya-samutpada, without exception everything is dependent on something else in order to come into existence. This precludes the possibility of an original cause without cause which was popular in Aristotelian conceptions of God. Like the Jains, Buddhists also question a creator god's motivation for rendering the world, noting that god must enjoy human suffering, having created a world replete with it.

However, all canonical Buddhist texts that mention the subject of god accept the existence (as distinct from the authority) of a great number of spiritual beings, including the Vedic deities. From the point of view of Western theism, certain concepts of the Buddha found in the Mahayana school of Buddhism, e.g. of Amitabha or the Adibuddha may seem to share characteristics with Western concepts of God, despite the fact that Shakyamuni Buddha himself denied that he was a god or divine. Furthermore, both the Nikaya/Mahayana schools of Buddhism provide deep spiritual regard to bodhissatvas, highly enlightened beings who are dedicated to assisting all sentient beings in achieving Buddhahood. In some ways, this veneration approaches theism. It should also be noted that Buddhists were commonly classified as atheistic in anti-Buddhist polemics produced by Hindus, since Buddhists opposed the authority of the Vedas, Vedic priests, and their rituals. Hence, the proclivity to label Buddhists as atheists may have been put in effect by such texts; with this in mind, as well as the recognition and veneration of spiritual beings in some Buddhist schools, Buddhism should only be considered somewhat atheistic.

Confucianism

In the Chinese classics from the Shang Dynasty (1750-1100 B.C.E.) frequent references are made to Shang-ti, the supreme ruler in heaven who is undeniably anthropomorphic. The Chou Dynasty (c. 1100) created counterpart concept of T'ien, which referred to "heaven" and "sky". Quickly, the anthropomorphic connotation of such concepts began to dissolve, and T'ien came to refer to a more universal conception of cosmic order or rule. Confucius viewed obedience to this will of heaven tantamount to no more than following moral maxims. Through living by the ways of the sage kings of the past and thereby nuturing social and familial relationships, Confucius taught that one can come into harmony with the order governing the heavens. Mo-tzu (468-390 B.C.E.) shifted this focus from an impersonal heaven back to the anthropomorphic conceptions reminiscent of the Shang dynasty, giving it such qualities as love and desire. In doing so, Mo-tzu also suggested the importance of dead ancestors and spirits in everyday life, which redeemed the importance of ceremonial religious practices. Hsun-tzu, however, hearkened back to the teachings of Confucius, and in doing so recorded the first atheistic system of thought in Confucianism. He claimed that heaven was little more than a designation for the natural processes of cosmos, whereby good is rewarded and evil punished. In this conceptualization of the universe, Hsun-tzu denied supernatural beings, spirits, and claimed that religious acts have no effect, a view somewhat congruent with atheism. Neo-Confucian writings, such as that of Chu Hsi, are considerably vaguer as to whether or not their conception of the Great Ultimate is like a personal deity or not, structuring the metaphysical world on impersonal forces such as material force (chi) and principle (li) rather than god-like entities.

Taoism

The Tao, literally translated as "way" or "road", represents for Taoists the normative ontological and ethical standard by which the entire universe is constructed. According to Lao-Tzu, author of the Dao de ching, all things are shades of the Tao, from which they originate and eventually return. The Tao, however, cannot be described in words and can never be fully comprehended, though it can be perceived ever so vaguely in the processes of nature. Since the Tao is so impersonal and incomprehensible, and therefore in marked contrast to theistic belief systems, Taoists could be considered atheistic. Some scholars have claimed otherwise, accepting the concept of the Tao as sufficiently parallel with "god" in the Western understanding. Although the Western translation of the Tao as 'god' in some editions of the Tao-te-Ching is highly misleading, it is still a matter of debate whether the actual descriptions of the Tao have theistic or atheistic undertones.

Other Forms

Although atheistic beliefs are often accompanied by a total lack of spiritual beliefs, this is not an essential aspect, or even a necessary consequence, of atheism as is evident in the aforementioned religious traditions. In addition, there are many modern movements which do not believe in god, yet cannot be classified as irreligious or secular. The Thomasine Church, for example, teaches that rational illumination (or gnosis) is the ultimate goal of their sacraments and meditations, as opposed to relating to a conception of god. Hence, the church does not require belief in theism. The Fellowship of Reason is an organization based in Atlanta which does not believe in God or other supernatural entities, but nonetheless affirms that churches and other religious organizations function to provide a moral community for their followers. There is also an atheist presence in Unitarian Universalism, an extremely liberal and inclusivist religion which accepts Buddhist, Christian, pantheist and even atheist creeds into its fold, among others.

Another group of religious systems which should be included in this discussion of atheism are those which conceive of God as "non-being". In such instances, believers replace the typical montheistic Abrahamic conception of god as "God" with God as a philosophical category: the All, the One, the Ultimate, the absolute Infinite, the Divine Ground, Being or Existence itself. For example, such views are typical of pantheism, panentheism, and religious monism. One example of such a belief was developed by Protestant theologian Paul Tillich, who described God as the ground of being and made the statement that "God does not exist", which lead some to label him as an atheist. Nevertheless, for Tillich, God is not "a" being that exists among other beings, but Being itself. For him, God does not "exist" except as a concept or principle; God is the basis of Being, the metaphysical power by which Being triumphs over non-Being. However, most people who identify themselves as atheists would also deny this and similar conceptions of God as atheistic, or simply consider them incomprehensible. Also, it should be noted that many pantheists and panentheists resist being labelled as atheists, claiming that such labels are rooted in a mindset limiting God to anthropomorphic traits.

Criticisms of atheism

Throughout human history, atheists and atheism have received much criticism, opposition, and persecution, chiefly from theistic sources. These have ranged from mere philosophical contempt to full-fledge persecution, as in the case of medieval polemics against atheists and Hitler's vendetta against them. The most direct arguments against atheism are those in favor of the existence of deities, which would imply that atheism is simply untrue (for examples of these types of argument, see ontological argument, teleological argument and cosmological argument). However, more pointed criticisms exist. Both theists and weak atheists alike criticize the assertiveness of strong atheism, questioning whether or not one can assert the positive knowledge that something does not exist. While the strong atheist can make the claim that no evidence has been found for the existence of god, they cannot make the claim that it will never exist. Atheists who make such statements have often been accused of dogmatism. Ultimately, these critics beleive that atheism, if it is to remain philosophically coherent, should keep an open mind that evidence confirming a transcendent deity could appear in the future, rather than writing off the possibility entirely.

Another line of criticism has frequently associated atheism with immorality and evil, often characterizing it as a willful and malicious repudiation of divinity. This, in fact, is the original definition and sense of the word, but changing sensibilities and the normalization of nonreligious viewpoints have allowed the term to shed most of its negative connotations in general parlance. Although atheism has evolved and broadened beyond the narrow meaning of "wickedness", impiety, heresy and religious denial over the last few hundred years, some still attribute such transgression to the word. These opinions on atheism have no doubt been shaped largely by the negative connotation which term held for much of history, such as the label of practical atheists: those who behaved so incorrigibly as to deny god's existence. This view of atheism as inherently evil has been countered by atheists who have pointed to the acts of immorality which have in many instances been inspired by religion throughout history.

Regardless of the attempts made by atheists to defend their philosophical stance and alleviate negative mistunderstandings of their beliefs, sentiments towards atheism are still somewhat discouraging. A 2006 study by researchers at the University of Minnesota involving a poll of 2,000 households in the United States found atheists to be the most distrusted of minorities, outranking Muslims, recent immigrants, and homosexuals, among others. Not surprisingly, many of these respondents associated atheism with immorality, including criminal behaviour, extreme materialism, and elitism.

See also

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

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