Terroja

When defining atheism, we run into a little bit of a problem because there is a conflict in its meaning. As with the debates on whose religion is true worldwide, the atheist belief can also be seen in the same light. Except Atheism is surrounded by even more controversy because this belief simply rebukes the existence of a central being, an omniscient force that determines the way one’s life unfolds.

Ask a non-atheist or refer to a dictionary and you will find that an atheist is someone who denies even the remotest possibility of existence of any God, Angels, Satan, Demons, heaven, hell etc. However, if you talk to an atheist, he/she would simply say that they do not believe in any form of supernatural being that can control the universe or determine the path of one’s life. You will find countless arguments ranging from scientific examples to something as trivial as that you can’t prove or disprove the existence of pink unicorns as well. Atheists do not hold any belief in Allah, Trinity, Buddhism, Yahweh, etc.

Many religious followers, no matter which religion they are following, claim that the reason one tries to convert themselves into Atheism is for an ulterior motive. They don’t want to be governed by the rules and regulations various religions follow. They don’t want to be pious, obedient and nor do they want to be answerable to anyone for their actions. So what better way than to eliminate the one you need to answer to from the equation? Instead of yielding to God’s criticism of their immoral behavior and trying to live a morally higher life style, they tend to rebuke the existence of any God who they might be accountable to.
On the other hand, if you speak to an atheist you will find a variety of reasons for their conversion to atheism, mostly to do with their mind and dependence on themselves. They become very reluctantly censure their faith by birth as they become unconvinced of the existence of God. Frequently, this transformation is quite reluctantly pursued as letting go of the guilt of committing sin according to ones religion for rebuking their God is something no one is willing to take on. Some people will proudly announce ‘I’m an Atheist’ and are probably believers in the ‘strong atheism’ concept. Others however, call themselves a variety of things such as religious skeptics, agnostics, freethinkers, humanists, etc.

Despite the fact that since historic times, religion has said to be conquered by efforts to prove
that God exists, there are a number of opinions that ask for disproving theism. These vary from
primary opinions that the notion of God is rationally illogical, followed by arguments that if
God was real, human race would have been different than as of now. Although some of these
arguments may be prone to criticism, all of them believe to object the fact that a God may exist
or it may be superior to all.

Atheists time and again suggest that their position is default, that atheism itself is a belief. This
presents proof on the believers; if they are unable to prove God’s existence, then atheists are
acceptable in their atheism. The argument for the conjecture of atheism is possible to be proven
by two means, one ensuing in an assumption of frail atheism, and the other in a belief of brawny
atheism.

The trouble with evil is the difficulty of unification of an all-powerful and compassionate God’s
existence with the reality of a world filled with evil and anguish. If God is all-powerful then he
can discern on how to remove evil and suffering. But if God does know, and is able to do so, then
why doesn’t he act? The plain response is that God does not act so he doesn’t exist. This till date
the most accepted dispute by atheists.

The principle that God is the most powerful is sometimes disputed; nevertheless, that the notion
of being all superior is absurd, logically disjointed, and hence, it is rationally not possible for any
form of life to exist that is omnipotent. These standpoints, if it can be persistent, preclude the
subsistence of God. The principle of divine all-powerful, though, faces quite a lot of objections;
there are numeral philosophical points of view that claim to reveal that God may not possibly
know all. These comprise arguments that the canon of godly omniscience is logically rambling,
that it is not consistent with the added Christian doctrine that God can’t commit a wrongdoing,
and that it is disproved by the fact of individual liberty. Whichever argument is successful, they
both prove that there cannot be an all-powerful God.

Even though the expression atheism – based on an ancient Greek word, refuting the gods, started off in the 16th century, an unbolt permit to constructive atheism in recent history was not made before the late 18th century, atheistic thoughts and ideas, like their political authority, have a more liberal history.

The unprompted intention that no gods may exist after all is understandably as mature as atheism itself. Rational atheist reflections emerge in Europe and Asia from the fifth or sixth century BC. Will Durant a known anthropologist elucidates the fact that some Pigmy families originated in Africa were found to have no particular religious groups or cremation. There were no religious characters, gods, or feelings. The deceased were buried with no extraordinary rituals or associated bits and pieces received no added consideration. They even seemed to be deficient in uncomplicated fallacies, according to travelers’ hearsay. Vedas of Ceylon only acknowledged the likelihood of existing gods, but said no more. No pleas or sacrifice were recommended in any mode.

Atheism in the twentieth century was recognized in an extensive selection of other, expansive philosophies in the Western practice, such as secular humanism, Marxism, and the general systematic and rationalist associations. Proponents such as Errand Russell vigorously rejected faith in God. In his early work, he tried to split meta-physical as well as super-natural speech from rational dialogue. He discredited both the thought that science and religion are well-suited, and the idea that science is a rigid belief system similar to any religion.

The recent 21st century has persistently seen secularism along with atheism supported in the Western community, with the universal consent being that the amount of public not associated by any meticulous faith has augmented. This has been made possible by non-profit clubs such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation located in the US which encourages the division of church and state, and the Brights interest group which strives to support public indulgent and recognition of the naturalistic perspective fo the world. Moreover, a huge amount of reachable antitheist books, many of which turned out to be bestsellers, were made available in print by writers such as Michel Onfray, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens. This mounted to the New Atheism interest group, a neologist idea that has been quoted, now and then critically, to mark frank criticism of theism. Edward Dawkins also advocates a more noticeable outline of atheist movements which he cheerfully portrays as radical atheism’.

If you ask a religious believer-no matter which religion-what their opinion is about the character and morals of a person who proclaims to be an atheist, you will unanimously get answers. They would paint an atheist as a woebegone, character-less individual who does what he/she wants, when they want to. Having no one to answer to expect for themselves, it is easy to assume that the individual will go off path and indulge in inexcusable activities.

However, recent surveys of the atheist world reveal facts that religious believers would either find hard to believe or simply negate, themselves. There is an expanding amount of data available that demonstrates the correlation between Atheism and social health. Facts such as lower homicide rates, lower poverty rates, lower illiteracy rates, lower infant mortality rates and extremely high levels of educational attainment have been noticed in Atheist communities.

Experiments conducted by Sociologist Phil Zuckerman provided results that are quite astonishing to the believing world. Results in regards to criminal activities and the people indulging in them reveal that only 0.2% of the U.S’s prisoners are atheists while the rest belong to some religion or the other. However one can argue that this is due to a small minority that is actually atheist in this world. Another interesting fact is that the states that have the highest crime rates also have the lowest number of atheists amongst them but a similar counter argument can be placed here too. Meanwhile the opposite is true for the states that have the lowest crime rates. Intriguing?

Of course with the lack of religious beliefs, accepting all sorts of people should come naturally. Perhaps that’s the reason why atheists are known to be most tolerant in terms of homosexual’s rights, rights of minorities, etc. Also, they recognize woman’s rights more than ‘religious’ devotees. Findings of the research also suggested that Atheists encourage and appreciate children thinking freely and allow them to express themselves without mach retribution of physical beatings, scolding, etc.  Along with low levels of racial prejudice, atheists are very charitable as well. Examples in Mr. Zuckerman’s research were of Sweden which is the world’s most secular country; their charitable aid makes up the highest in the world in terms of the country’s GDP.
An interesting fact is that more than 40 studies have been carried out since 1927 that show the more educated an individual is, the more likely is the possibility of him/her being an atheist. Atheism correlates with high levels of education.

There seems to be a general fear of atheists and atheism in many cultures. Both the media and many average people seem to be frightened to even speak about the concept of atheism. Indeed popular culture and the news media in the United States generally refuse to acknowledge that atheists exist or pay them any attention.

The fear of atheism is based not on the belief that atheism is destructive or amoral but on the doubts that the believers themselves have. A large percentage, if not a majority of the self proclaimed Christians in the United States have serious doubts about their faith.

These people are afraid of atheists because atheists challenge their world view. Atheists who are ethical people challenge the idea that faith in God or church attendance is necessary for a person to be good. The existence of ethical atheists also seriously undermines one of the major apologies for religion: the idea that faith makes people ethical or good.

If people can do good without faith or god, much of religion’s justification is gone. All the time, effort, money and faith put into religion is challenged. Obviously the believers don’t like the idea of admitting that they are wrong so they simply ignore the atheists.

Similar attitudes are taken by the politicians and the news media. Politicians like to give lip service to faith but don’t like to talk about it because they don’t want to admit what they believe. Indeed part of the reason why neither politicians, or journalists like to discuss atheism is that a large percentage of them would have to admit they are atheists themselves.

Since both politicians and journalists are basically in the popularity business they will not do anything that undermines their popularity. So instead of questioning religion they pay lip service to it.

The fear of atheism also extends to tens of millions of ordinary people who are afraid that they will be ostracized or driven out of society if they admit they don’t believe in God. There are many atheists out there who are afraid admit it in their public because they are afraid of what the neighbors will think of them.

There are also more than a few atheists who are afraid they would loose their jobs, friends or families if they admitted what they really believe. This fear of what society will think is the basis of fear against atheism.

Most people have heard the term in the closet as it refers to gay people. Closet usually means a person who is gay but pretends to be straight to “fit in,” in society. The same concept applies to the majority of atheists in today’s world.

The truth is that are many atheists than most people think. The problem is that most atheists are still in the closet, they are afraid to come out because they think doing so will ruin their lives.

Even in countries like the United States there are many people who fear that they would loose their job, their friends or even their families if they admitted they were atheists. There are many people who fear coming out of the closet because their parents would condemn for not believing in God.

Others stay in the closet because religion is popular and challenging it is uncomfortable and unfashionable. Persons in jobs that depend on popularity such as politicians often profess faith in public even though they obviously have no faith to get votes or support.

There are of course nations where atheists who would come out of the closet would be murdered or imprisoned. At least those atheists have a good excuse for staying in the closet.

It must also be remembered that there many corrupt or dishonest individuals who pretend to profess faith because religion can be a very profitable business. Quite a few of the religious leaders out there are non believers whose only real faith lies in the collection plate. In the United States, these people have the added incentive that religion is largely tax exempt.

Atheists should remember that they are not alone, there are many more atheists out there than most people would suppose. Indeed many of the people who are the biggest condemners of atheism and professors of faith are atheists themselves.

Believers should also remember that a lot of the people they call brother and sister are actually atheists. There are many more atheists sitting in church pews, praying in mosques and standing behind the pulpit than most people want to admit.

The only difference between these and the atheists who admit in public is that the public atheists are out of the closet. The day will come when it will be safe for atheists come out of the closet. When that day comes many people will be shocked by the number of atheists that there actually are. They will also be shocked by the number of believers who will step out of the closet.

The concepts of atheism and agnosticism are often confused in the public mind. The reason people get these two belief systems confused is that both are based on non-belief and skepticism in religion.

The major difference between atheists and agnostics is that atheists believe there is no God while agnostics admit that there might be a God. Contrary to popular belief agnostics don’t necessarily believe in God, instead agnostics generally don’t believe in a traditional God as postulated by faiths like Islam or Christianity.

Both agnostics and atheists are often very hostile towards religion, particularly traditional religion. Agnostics are often much more hostile to religion than atheists are because they often skeptical of all belief systems. Indeed agnostics are often completely hostile to the whole idea of faith or belief.

It must be noted that there are many people who call themselves agnostics who are really atheists. Some of them simply can’t work up the courage to admit there is no God while others are afraid of the stigma attached to atheism in many cultures. Others simply don’t like the idea of identifying themselves with atheists or atheism.

Hostility to Religion
There are also some atheists who might really be agnostics. These would be people who have abandoned traditional religion for some reason but not the concept of God. Some of these people side with atheism because atheists oppose traditional religion.

In the United States at least some people are identifying themselves as atheists or agnostics because they associate religion with far right political positions. Quite a few younger Americans now associate traditional faith with reactionary politics, xenophobia, homophobia and racism.

These people are not really atheists, instead they are simply average folk who have been turned off by religion. Media attention given to the atrocities of Islamic terrorists, the excesses of the Iranian government and the child molestation scandal in the Catholic Church seems to increase the number of those turned off by religion.

Something atheists must remember is that a person who refused to participate in faith or believe in a religion is not necessarily an atheist. Instead such a person could be an agnostic or just an individual that doesn’t like religion.

Another thing that atheists should remember is that many agnostics being nonbelievers will be sympathetic to their position. This means that agnostics could be some of the best friends that atheists have.

Atheism is not a new or original belief it has been around as long as humanity has been around. Atheism as an organized belief system and an alternative to religious faith is a modern development that’s only a couple of centuries old.

In 18th Century Europe and America, many thinkers including Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson rejected religion but accepted the idea of God. These people called themselves deists they believed that God had created the world but rejected the basic tenets of organized religions like Christianity and Islam.

During the 19th Century scientific progress particularly Darwin’s Theory of Evolution raised the possibility that humanity could have evolved without God’s help. This led some people to reject the idea of God entirely. This led to modern Atheism which gained many followers in Europe and America.

Atheists and Communists
In the 20th Century, atheism was given a bad name by the Communists who committed numerous atrocities against innocent people and those who disagreed with their philosophy. The Communists called themselves atheists but behaved more like religious fanatics than real atheists

Like other religious fanatics, the Communists persecuted religious believers in the same way that the faithful once persecuted heretics. Like Christians and other believers, the Communists even tried to suppress scientific facts that ran counter to their faith.

The collapse of Communism in the late 20th Century has led to something of a revival of atheism. Defenders of faith can no longer brand atheists Communists or Communist sympathizers.

Atheism Today
With the decline of religious belief in Europe in recent decades, atheism has become an acceptable belief system among people of all races, political beliefs and economic classes. Organized atheist movements have appeared and began to spread in America and other countries.

The latest development in atheism in countries like the United States is an effort for atheists to come “out of the closet.” Modeled on the gay rights movement this effort is designed to make atheism an acceptable philosophy and lifestyle choice. There is also a strong effort to defend the rights of atheists.

One aspect of this movement has been to give atheists the title “bright” which sounds better than atheist. It is hoped this term could become as popular as the term gay as a substitute for the word homosexual.

Other efforts include demands for recognition of atheists by politicians and lobbying efforts to get governments to protect and defend the rights of atheists. Whether this movement will be as successful as the gay rights movement remains to be seen.

The biggest and perhaps most popular misconception about atheism is that atheists have no morals or values. Nothing could be further from the truth: refusal to believe in a God or gods is not refusing to believe in right and wrong.

Indeed it can be argued that the atheist has a stronger set of ethics than the self proclaimed believers. Many believers claim to follow a strict code of morals or ethics but use God or faith as an excuse to commit all manner of crimes including murder. History is full of people of faith who committed every manner of crime in the name of their God.

Unlike the person of faith the atheist does not have the excuse of God or faith to justify a crime. The atheist can not wage holy war in the name or God or execute people because they broken some Biblical law.

The atheist unlike the believer must do the right thing because it is the right thing. The believer only has to do the right thing because God commands it. This means that if the voice of God or some individual claiming to speak for God comes along and tells the believer to do the wrong thing the believer has to do it.

An atheist must not steal, kill, commit adultery or lie because those things are wrong. Unlike the believer the atheist does not need “God” to tell him that something is wrong. The atheist has to use her mind and determine whether something is wrong.

The atheist does not have the excuse of God to justify wrongdoing. Instead the atheist has to hold everybody accountable for his or her actions including the people of faith.

The atheist’s morality will be stronger and deeper because it is based on rational thought and use of the mind rather than faith. A person of faith has a very limited kind of morality because no thought is required in their ethical judgments.

This means that the atheist has to have a much stronger and deeper sense of morality than the believer. Decisions of right and wrong based upon values and rational thought will always be superior to those based on blind faith in any sort of “God.”

Perhaps it should be the atheists who are asking the believers why they need God to tell them what is right and what is wrong.

In theology, making an argument for atheism takes place when a person makes an argument that God does not exist. Although discussions can range far and wide, they are usually based on two types of arguments.

Evidence-based – when a person tries to prove that something that appears to support the concept of theism based on available facts actually provides evidence to the contrary instead. An example of such an argument would be ecological disasters, which some might take to happen because “it is God’s will”, thus establishing the presence of God. On the other hand, the scale of human suffering that results from such natural disasters can be taken as proof that God does not exist, based on the assumption that God would not visit such tragedy on humanity.

Based on this argument, the likelihood that God does not exist is higher than the likelihood God exists, lending more credence to the stance of the atheist.

Logical – these arguments try to prove that the concept or existence of God is self-denying or whose logic does not gel with an established fact. Logical arguments are also known as incompatible-properties arguments in theology, where the purpose of the argument serves to reveal an inconsistency in the idea of God’s existence.

A successful incompatible-properties argument would mean that it has demonstrated that the probability of God existing is zero, meaning it is impossible that God exists.

There are a number of ways these types of arguments can be used. One of the most well-known example is the argument from evil, which is also known as “the problem of evil”.