Atheism

"Atheist" redirects here. For the band, see [[:Atheist (band)]].

Atheism, in its broadest sense, is a lack of belief in a deity or deities: the opposite of theism. This encompasses both people who assert that there are no gods and those who make no claim about whether gods exist or not. Narrower definitions of atheism typically regard as atheists only those people who assert the nonexistence of gods, leaving other nonbelievers classified as agnostics or non-theists.

Although many of those who identify themselves as atheists share a common skeptical attitude regarding spiritual or supernatural claims, atheism is taken from variety of rationales; personal, philosophical, social and historical. While there is a tendency among self-described atheists toward secular philosophies such as humanism, naturalism and materialism, there is no single system of philosophy to which all atheists can be said to adhere, nor does atheism have any institutionalized rituals or behaviors.

Etymology

In early Ancient Greek, the adjective atheos (from privative α- + θεος 'god') meant 'without gods' or 'lack of belief in gods'. The word acquired an additional meaning in the 5th century BC, expressing a total lack of relations with the gods; that is, 'denying the gods, godless, ungodly', with more active connotations than asebēs, or 'impious'. Modern translations of classical texts sometimes translate atheos as 'atheistic'. As an abstract noun, there was also atheotēs: 'atheism'. Cicero transliterated atheos into Latin. The shape of the debate concerning early atheism was transformed in the debate between early Christians and pagans, each of whom attributed it to the other, in the pejorative sense, despite the fact that they were merely arguing about how many gods there actually were.

A.B. Drachmann (1922) notes:

Atheism and atheist are words formed from Greek roots and with Greek derivative endings. Nevertheless they are not Greek; their formation is not consonant with Greek usage. In Greek they said atheos and atheotes; to these the English words ungodly and ungodliness correspond rather closely. In exactly the same way as ungodly, atheos was used as an expression of severe censure and moral condemnation; this use is an old one, and the oldest that can be traced. Not till later do we find it employed to denote a certain philosophical creed. (p.5)

In English, the term atheism is the result of the adoption of the French athéisme in about 1587. The term atheist in the sense of 'one who denies or disbelieves' actually predates atheism in English, being first attested in about 1571 (the phrase Italian atheoi is recorded as early as 1568). Atheist in the sense of practical godlessness was first attested in 1577. The French word is derived from athée, 'godless, atheist', which in turn is from the Greek atheos. The words deist and theist entered English after atheism, being first attested in 1621 and 1662, respectively, with theism and deism following in 1678 and 1682, respectively. Deism and theism changed meanings slightly around 1700, due to the influence of atheism. (Deism was originally used as a synonym for today's theism, but came to denote a separate philosophical doctrine.)

The Oxford English Dictionary also records an earlier (irregular) formation, atheonism, dated from about 1534. The later and now obsolete words athean and atheal are dated to 1611 and 1612, respectively.

History

Main article: History of atheism

Although the actual term atheism originated in 16th Century France, ideas that would today be recognized as atheistic existed before the advent of Classical Antiquity. Epicurus proposed theories that can be classified as atheistic, such as a lack of belief in an afterlife, though he remained ambiguous concerning the actual existence of deities. Before him, Socrates was sentenced to death partly on the grounds that he had denied the existence of the gods, and was therefore guilty of impiety, (although he did express belief in several forms of divinity, as recorded in Plato's Apology). This criminal connotation attached to atheistic ideas would long remain. (Given the right circumstances, in which 'wrong belief' might be equated with 'unbelief', even those deeply committed to a god could find themselves condemned as 'atheists'.)

Atheism all but disappeared (in practice, if not as an accusation) from the philosophy of the Greek and Roman traditions as Christianity gained influence. During the Age of Enlightenment, the concept of atheism re-emerged. It was, at first, a shockingly provocative stance and was not taken publicly, even by men of wealth and some political influence. (For example, the Baron d'Holbach published perhaps the first atheistic work since antiquity, The System of Nature, in 1770, but he did so under a pseudonym). Atheism retained a measure of danger as an accusation, and was hurled at those who questioned the religious status quo during the rising tide of Revolution and Reason in France. By the late 18th century, however, it had become the philosophical position of a growing minority, especially within the intelligentsia.

By the late 20th century, along with the rationalist movement and secular humanism, atheism had become exceptionally common, particularly among scientists (see international survey of contemporary atheism). Furthermore, atheism also became a staple of the various Communist states: Russia was officially an atheistic country, China remains so to the present day. This helped to reinforce some of the negative connotations concerning atheism, especially in places where anti-communist sentiment was widespread; In the United States, the term became synonymous with being unpatriotic ('godless commie') during the Cold War; also similar to Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler.

Reasons for atheism

Atheists assert various reasons for their position, including a lack of empirical evidence for dieties, or the conviction that the non-existence of deities (in general or particular) is better supported rationally.

Philosophical and logical reasons

Some atheists may argue that their position is based on logical analysis, and subsequent rejection, of theistic claims. The arguments against the existence of deities aim at showing that some particular conception of a god either is inherently meaningless, contradictory, or contradicts known scientific and/or historical facts, and that therefore a god thus described does not exist.

"Within the framework of scientific rationalism one arrives at the belief in the nonexistence of God, not because of certain knowledge, but because of a sliding scale of methods. At one extreme, we can confidently rebut the personal Gods of creationists on firm empirical grounds: science is sufficient to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that there never was a worldwide flood and that the evolutionary sequence of the Cosmos does not follow either of the two versions of Genesis. The more we move toward a deistic and fuzzily defined God, however, the more scientific rationalism reaches into its toolbox and shifts from empirical science to logical philosophy informed by science. Ultimately, the most convincing arguments against a deistic God are Hume's dictum and Occam's razor. These are philosophical arguments, but they also constitute the bedrock of all of science, and cannot therefore be dismissed as non-scientific. The reason we put our trust in these two principles is because their application in the empirical sciences has led to such spectacular successes throughout the last three centuries."

Other arguments include:

• The problem of evil.

"The problem of evil is probably the most enduring and the most potent argument atheism has to offer against many varieties of theism. Christian apologist William Lane Craig aptly styled it atheism's killer argument. In brief, it seeks to establish that the existence of evil in the world is logically incompatible with the existence of a benevolent God, and that it is more reasonable to conclude that God does not exist than that he does exist but does nothing to stop evil."

• Theological noncognitivism which is the argument that religious language, and specifically words like "God" (capitalized), are not cognitively meaningful.

• Incoherency arguments like the argument from nonbelief, also known as the argument from divine hiddenness, a recently-developed argument against the existence of God. It states that if God were to exist he would have brought about a situation in which everyone believes in him, but there are unbelievers, so God does not exist.

• Transcendental argument for the non-existence of God (TANG) was first intended as a reply to the Transcendental argument for the existence of God, which argues that logic, science and morality can only be justified by appealing to the theistic worldview. TANG, however, argues that the reverse is true.

• God of the Gaps refers to a common theistic position that anything that can be explained by human knowledge is not in the domain of God, so the role of God is therefore confined to the 'gaps' in scientific explanations of nature. Most religions involve supernatural entities and forces, and are linked to an unexplained physical phenomenon. In Ancient Greece, for instance, Hades was the god of the dead, Helios the god of the sun, Zeus the god of thunder, and Poseidon the god of earthquakes and the sea. In the absence of any scientific theory that could explain a given phenomenon, people who sought an explanation attributed its cause to those supernatural forces. Throughout history, most of these phenomena have been explained through the scientific method; i.e. Galileo.

Scientific reasons

Science is based on the observation that the universe is governed by natural laws that can be tested and replicated through experiment and is used as a reliable and rational basis for prediction and engineering. Like a scientist, a scientific skeptic aims to decide claims based on verifiability and falsifiability rather than accepting claims on faith or relying on unfalsifiable categories, by utilizing critical thinking. (Opposite of what is known as the true-believer syndrome.)

Most theistic religions teach that mankind and the universe were created by one or more deities and that this deity continues to act in the universe. Many people, including both atheists and theists, feel that this view is in conflict with both the discoveries of modern science (especially in cosmology, astronomy, biology and quantum physics) and also the fundamental principles of science; Science and theistic religions are mutually exclusive philosophies. Many believers in the validity of science, acknowledging this contradiction, deny the existence of a deity or deities actively involved in the universe.

Evolutionary science, describes how complex life has developed through a very slow process of mutation, adaptation and natural selection. It asserts that every species of life on this planet, past and present, are products of a stochastic process. Similarly modern humans have only existed for the last 0.0015% (approximately 100,000 years) of the age of the universe, the Earth's Sun is one star among billions in the Milky Way, which is a galaxy among billions of others. It is also now known that humans share 98% of our genetic code with chimpanzees, 90% with mice, 21% with roundworms, and fully 7% with the bacterium E. coli. This scientific perspective is quite different from that of most theistic religions, which give humans a unique and central status (anthropic principle). In the Abrahamic religions, for instance, humans are thought to be created 'in God's image' and to be of a qualitatively different order of life than the 'beasts of the Earth'.

Scientific progress has been offered as a means to disprove religious claims. Most religions that involve supernatural entities and forces are linked to unexplained physical phenomena. In Ancient Greece, for instance, Hades was the god of the dead, Helios the god of the sun, Zeus the god of thunder, and Poseidon the god of earthquakes and the sea. In the absence of any scientific theory that could explain a given phenomenon, people who sought an explanation attributed its cause to supernatural forces, an argument that has come to be known as God of the gaps. Throughout history, most of these phenomena have been explained through the scientific method and found to conform to natural laws.

Personal and social reasons

There are also atheists who have found social, psychological, practical, and other personal reasons for their beliefs.

Some people hold atheistic beliefs on the grounds that they feel it is more conducive to living well, or that it is more ethical and has more utility than theism. Such atheists hold that searching for explanations in natural science is more beneficial than doing it through supernatural means. Atheism allows a person to take responsiblity for their own actions as opposed to many religions that require scare tactics and blind faith to keep a person moral and socially acceptable.

Arguments that theism promotes immorality, or, at the very least, eases the setting aside of conscience, often center around the contention that a great deal of violence (warfare, executions, murders and terrorism), has been brought about, condoned and justified by religious beliefs and practices. Such arguments also highlight the wealth of various religious organizations, something that often specifically contravenes the teachings of the various founders, and attack this hypocrisy as inseparable from the nature of the organization itself.

Some people may be atheists partly because of growing up in an environment where atheism is relatively common, such as being raised by atheist parents; in much the same way some people adopt the ideas and beliefs of their surrounding environment. For instance, some people who grow up in a predominantly Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Christian country or culture adopt the prevalent religion of their country or culture.

Some authors have suggested that there may be psychological reasons for having either belief or disbelief in atheistic or theistic ideas. The possibility that the tendency to have religious beliefs is biologically hard-wired into our brains has been suggested by a number of authors, (see: Dean H. Hamer in his book, The God Gene). A sense of the psychological origins of faith may have contributed to some atheists' lack of religious belief; see: true-believer syndrome and psychology of religion. However, neither the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders nor the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems list either atheism or theism as a mental disorder.

Types and typologies of atheism

There are many discrepancies in the use of terminology between proponents and opponents of atheism, and even divergent definitions among those who share near-identical beliefs.

Opponents of atheism have frequently associated atheism with immorality and evil, often characterizing it as a willful and malicious repudiation of God or gods. This is the original definition and sense of the word, but changing sensibilities and the normalization of non-religious viewpoints have caused the term to lose its negative connotations in general parlance.

Among proponents of atheism and neutral parties, there are three major traditions in defining atheism and its subdivisions. In the first tradition, atheism is defined very broadly, as including both those who believe gods don't exist (strong atheism) and those who are simply not theists (weak atheism).

The second tradition understands atheism more narrowly, as the conscious rejection of theism, and does not consider absence of theistic belief or suspension of judgment concerning theism to be forms of atheism.Implicit atheism, a lack of theism without the conscious rejection of it, may not be regarded as atheistic at all, and the umbrella term non-theism may be used in its place.

In a third tradition atheism is defined in the strongest possible terms, as the belief that there is no god and never was. Under this definition, all weak atheism, whether implicit or explicit, may be considered non-atheistic.

Atheism as absence of theism

Atheist writer, d'Holbach, defines atheism so broadly that uninformed children are counted as atheists:

"All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God"

and according to George H. Smith:

The man who is unacquainted with theism is an atheist because he does not believe in a god. This category would also include the child without the conceptual capacity to grasp the issues involved, but who is still unaware of those issues. The fact that this child does not believe in god qualifies him as an atheist.

An atheist writer who disagrees with such a broad definition is Ernest Nagel who thinks atheism is the rejection of theism, not just the absence of theistic belief:

Atheism is not to be identified with sheer unbelief... Thus, a child who has received no religious instruction and has never heard about God, is not an atheist—for he is not denying any theistic claims. (p.460-461)

Weak and strong atheism

Main articles: Weak atheism, Strong atheism

Weak atheism (also called negative atheism) is the lack of belief in the existence of deities, without a commitment to the necessary non-existence of deities. Weak atheism contrasts with strong atheism, which is the belief that no deities exist, and theism, which asserts that there is at least one deity. The weak atheist generally gives a broad definition of atheism as a lack or absence of evidence justifying a belief in any deity, which defines atheism as a range of positions that entail non-belief, disbelief, doubt of theism.

Strong atheism, sometimes called positive atheism, hard atheism or gnostic atheism, is the philosophical position that no deity exists. It is a form of explicit atheism, meaning that it consciously rejects theism. It is contrasted with weak atheism, which is the lack or absence of belief in deities, without the additional claim that deities do not exist. The strong atheist positively asserts, at the very least, that no deities exist, and may go further and claim that the existence of certain deities is logically impossible.

While the terms weak and strong are relatively recent, the concepts they represent have been in use for some time. In earlier philosophical publications, the terms negative atheism and positive atheism were more common; these terms were used by Antony Flew in 1972, although Jacques Maritain (1953, Chapter 8, p.104) used the phrases in a similar, but strictly Catholic apologist, context as early as 1949.

Agnosticism is distinct from strong atheism, though many weak atheists may be agnostics, and those who are strong atheists with regard to a particular deity might be weak atheists or agnostics with regard to other deities.

Ignosticism

Main article: Ignosticism

Ignosticism is the view that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because it has no verifiable (or testable) consequences and should therefore be ignored. (See scientific method.) The term was coined by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. Ignosticism is often considered synonymous with theological noncognitivism. It is a popular view among many logical positivists such as Rudolph Carnap and A. J. Ayer, who hold that talk of gods is literally nonsense. According to ignostics, 'Does a god exist?' has the same logical status as 'What color is Saturday?'; they are both nonsensical, and thus have no meaningful answers.

In Language, Truth and Logic, Ayer stated that theism, atheism and agnosticism were equally meaningless, 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 using the 'lack of theism' definition of atheism. Despite Ayer's criticism of atheism (perhaps using the definition typically associated with strong atheism), ignosticism is usually counted as a form of atheism; Ayer (1966) was clear on his position:

I do not believe in God. It seems to me that theists of all kinds have very largely failed to make their concept of a deity intelligible; and to the extent that they have made it intelligible, they have given us no reason to think that anything answers to it. (p226)

Ignosticism is distinct from apatheism in that while ignostics hold questions and discussions of whether deities exist to be meaningless, apatheists hold that even a hypothetical answer to such questions would be completely irrelevant to human existence.

Gnostic and agnostic atheism

Main article: Agnostic atheism

Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the (truth) values of certain claims,(particularly theological claims regarding the existence of God, gods, or deities), are unknown, inherently unknowable, or incoherent, and therefore, (some agnostics may go as far as to say) irrelevant to life. The term and the related agnostic were coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869, and are also used to describe those who are unconvinced or noncommittal about the existence of deities as well as other matters of religion. The word agnostic comes from the Greek a (without) and gnosis (knowledge). Agnosticism is not to be confused with a view specifically opposing the doctrine of gnosis and Gnosticism—these are religious concepts that are not generally related to agnosticism.

Antitheism

Main article: Antitheism

Antitheism (Anti-theism) typically refers to a direct opposition to theism. In this use, it is a form of critical strong atheism. 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 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.

Antitheists may believe that theism is harmful to human progression, or may simply be atheists who have little tolerance for views they perceive as irrational. Strong atheists who are not antitheists may believe positively that deities do not exist, but not believe that theism is directly harmful or necessitates opposition.

Atheism studies and statistics

As some governments have strongly promoted atheism, whilst others have strongly condemned it, atheism may be either over-reported or under-reported for different countries. There is a great deal of room for debate as to the accuracy of any method of estimation, as the opportunity for misreporting (intentionally or not) a belief system without an organized structure is high. Also, many surveys on religious identification ask people to identify themselves as "agnostics" or "atheists", which is potentially confusing, since these terms are interpreted differently, with some identifying themselves as being both atheist and agnostic. Additionally, many of these surveys only gauge the number of irreligious people, not the number of actual atheists, or group the two together.

Distribution of atheists

World estimates

Though atheists are in the minority in most countries, they are relatively common in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, in former and present Communist states, and, to a lesser extent, in the United States. A 1995 survey attributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica indicates that the non-religious are about 14.7% of the world's population, and atheists around 3.8%. This is similar to a 2002 survey by Adherents.com, which estimates the proportion of the world's people who are "secular, non-religious, agnostics and atheists" as about 14%. A 2004 survey by the BBC in 10 countries showed the proportion of the population "who don't believe in God" varying between 0% and 44%, with an average close to 17% in the countries surveyed. About 8% of the respondents stated specifically that they consider themselves to be atheists. A 2004 survey by the CIA in the World Factbook estimates about 12.5% of the world's population are non-religious, and about 2.4% are atheists. A 2004 survey by the Pew Research Center showed that in the United States, 12% of people under 30 and 6% of people over 30 could be characterized as non-religious. A 2005 poll by AP/Ipsos surveyed ten countries. Of the developed nations, people in the United States had most certainty about the existence of God or a higher power (2% atheist, 4% agnostic), while France had the most skeptics (19% atheist, 16% agnostic). On the religion question, South Korea had the greatest percentage without a religion (41%) while Italy had the smallest (5%).

Some studies have suggested that atheism is particularly prevalent among scientists, a tendency already quite marked at the beginning of the 20th century, developing into a dominant one during the course of the century. In 1914, James H. Leuba found that 58% of 1,000 randomly selected U.S. natural scientists expressed "disbelief or doubt in the existence of God". The same study, repeated in 1996, gave a similar percentage of 60.7%; this number is 93% among the members of the National Academy of Sciences. Expressions of positive disbelief rose from 52% to 72%. However, studies following Leuba's methods and questions only demonstrate disbelief in a specific type of God - a personal God which interacts directly with human beings. Restriction to this version of "God" makes the study unlikely to give a true sense of the percentage of atheists, and instead gives only a percentage of those rejecting this particular type of deity. Based on the questions in the study, many deists would have been classified as atheists. (See also The relationship between religion and science.)

Atheism in Pacific nations

The 2001 Australian Census showed that a total of 15.5% were categorized as having "No Religion" (which includes non theistic belief systems such as Humanism, atheism, agnosticism and the rationalist movement). 15.5% of respondents ticked "no religion", and a further 11.7% either did not state their religion or were deemed to have described it inadequately (there was a popular and successful campaign at the time to have people describe themselves as Jedi).Despite the low atheism percentage weekly attendance at church services is only about 1.5 million, or about 7.5% of the population. According to the 2001 Census, nearly 40% of the New Zealand population has no religious affiliation.

Atheism in Asia

The philosophy of Positive Atheism was begun by Gora (Shri Goparaju Ramachandra Rao) (1902-1975) in India. Gora founded the "Atheist Centre" and worked with Mahatma Gandhi to end untouchability and to work toward India's independence. He also worked with India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, an atheist, urging him to support the formation of a secular government in the then predominantly Hindu nation of India.

The modern Atheist Centre, run by Gora's children, incorporates many but not all of Gora's philosophies. It works to overturn the religious caste system and debunk pseudoscience and miracles. It hosts regular firewalking events, explaining the physics and allowing ordinary villagers to do something only holy men claimed to be able to do.

In Israel, more than 30% of Israelis that were born Jewish are atheists (Hilonim).

Atheism in Europe

The percentage of people in European countries who believe in a God.

According to the most recent Eurostat "Eurobarometer" poll, in 2005 , 52% of European Union citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 27% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 18% that "they do not believe there is a spirit, God, nor life force". Results were widely varied between different countries, with 95% of Maltese respondents stating that they believe in God, on the one end, and only 16% of Estonians stating the same on the other. Several studies have found Sweden to be one of the most secular countries in the world. According to Davie (1999), 85% of Swedes do not believe in a God . In the Eurostat survey, 23% of Swedish citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 53% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 23% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force". This, according to the survey, would make Swedes the third least religious people in the 25-member European Union, after Estonia and the Czech Republic. In 2001, the Czech Statistical Office provided census information on the ten million people in the Czech Republic. 59% had no religion, 32.2% were religious, and 8.8% did not answer.

A 2006 survey in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten (on February 17), saw 1006 inhabitants of Norway answering the question "What do you believe in?". 29% answered "I believe in a god or deity", 23% answered "I believe in a higher power without being certain of what", 26% answered "I don't believe in God or higher powers", and 22% answered "I am in doubt". Depending on the definition of atheism, Norway thus has between 49% and 71% atheists. Still, some 85% of the population are members of the Norwegian state's official Lutheran Protestant church. Parts of this deviance is due to the fact that all non-affiliated Norwegians were signed into this church a few years before (without being asked), and that signing out, if they are even aware of being signed in, is a time-consuming, bureaucratic affair yielding no immediate gains.

In France, only about 12% of the population reportedly attends religious services more than once per month. In a 2003 poll 54% of those polled in France identified themselves as "faithful", 33% as atheist, 14% as agnostic, and 26% as "indifferent". (however, either the poll results appear to be flawed or the categories were not mutually exclusive, as the total percentages add up to 127%).

In Great Britain, a poll in 2004 by the BBC put the number of people who do not believe in a god to be 40%, In the YouGov poll men were less likely to believe in a god than women and younger people were less likely to believe in a god than older people.

In early 2004, it was announced that atheism would be taught during religious education classes in the United Kingdom. A spokesman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority stated: "There are many children in England who have no religious affiliation and their beliefs and ideas, whatever they are, should be taken very seriously." There is also considerable debate in the UK on the status of faith-based schools, which use religious as well as academic selection criteria.

Many prominent Britons are atheists, including scientists and philosophers such as Richard Dawkins.

As a former communist state, atheism is prevalent in Russia. According to a 2002 survey by the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) 32% of those surveyed self-described as non-religious, agnostic or atheist. Of the 58% self-describing as Russian Orthodox Christian, 42% said they had never been in a church. Much like Australia, the overwhelming majority of those self-identified as religious are non-practising.

Atheism in North America

A 2004 BBC poll showed the number of people in the US who don't believe in a god to be about 10%. A 2005 Gallup poll showed that a smaller 5% of the US population believed that a god didn't exist. The 2001 ARIS report found that while 29.5 million U.S. Americans (14.1%) describe themselves as "without religion", only 902,000 (0.4%) positively claim to be atheist, with another 991,000 (0.5%) professing agnosticism. Atheists are ostensibly legally protected from discrimination in the United States. They have been among the strongest advocates of the legal separation of church and state. U.S. courts have regularly 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 sum up the legal situation with the phrase: "Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion."

In Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, Justice Souter wrote in the opinion for the Court that: "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion." Everson v. Board of Education established that "neither a state nor the Federal Government can... pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another". This applies the Establishment Clause to the states as well as the federal government. Interestingly, several state constitutions make the protection of persons from religious discrimination conditional on their acknowledgment of the existence of a deity. These state constitutional clauses have not been tested. Additionally, some state constitutions (namely, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and North Carolina ) forbid atheists from holding public office, although most agree that, if challenged, these requirements would be ruled unconstitutional under Article Six of the United States Constitution. Civil rights cases are typically brought in federal courts; so such state provisions are mainly of symbolic importance.

In the Newdow case, after a father challenged the phrase "under God" in the United States Pledge of Allegiance, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found the phrase unconstitutional. Although the decision was stayed pending the outcome of an appeal, there was the prospect that the pledge would cease to be legally usable without modification in schools in the western United States, over which the Ninth Circuit has jurisdiction. This resulted in political furor, and both houses of Congress passed resolutions condemning the decision. A large group consisting of many Senators and House Representatives was televised standing on the steps of Congress, hands over hearts, swearing the pledge and shouting out "under God". The Supreme Court subsequently reversed the decision, ruling that Michael Newdow did not have standing to bring his case, thus disposing of the case without ruling on the constitutionality of the pledge. Regarding this, atheists point out that the phrase "under God" was not originally in the Pledge of Allegiance, but added in 1953 during a time of religious resurgence in the US. Two years later, the phrase “in God we trust” was added to US paper currency.

Atheism is more prevalent in Canada than in the United States. The 2001 Canadian Census states that 16.2% of the population holds no religious affiliation.

Separation of church and state is guaranteed by the Mexican Constitution but the majority of the population identifies as Roman Catholic (89%).

Statistical problems

Statistics on atheism are often difficult to accurately represent for a variety of reasons. Atheism is a position compatible with other forms of identity. Some atheists also consider themselves Agnostic, Buddhist, Jains or hold other related philosophical beliefs. Some people even list their religion as "Jedi" on such surveys. Therefore, given limited poll options, some may use other terms to describe their identity. Some politically motivated organizations that report or gather population statistics may, intentionally or unintentionally, misrepresent atheists. Survey designs may bias results due to the nature of elements such as the wording of questions and the available response options. Also, many atheists, particularly former Catholics, are still counted as Christians in church rosters, although surveys generally ask samples of the population and do not look in church rosters. Some Christians believe that "once a person is [truly] saved, that person is always saved", a doctrine known as eternal security. Statistics are generally collected on the assumption that religion is a categorical variable. As terms such as weak atheism and strong atheism suggest, however, people vary in terms of the strength of their convictions. Instruments have been designed to measure attitudes toward religion, including one that was used by L. L. Thurstone. This may be a particularly important consideration among people who have neutral attitudes, as it is more likely prevailing social norms will influence the responses of such people on survey questions which effectively force respondents to categorize themselves either as belonging to a particular religion or belonging to no religion. A negative perception of atheists and pressure from family and peers may also cause some atheists to disassociate themselves from atheism. Misunderstanding of the term may also be a reason some label themselves differently.

Discrimination

Main article: Persecution of atheists

Legal and social discrimination against atheists in some places may lead some to deny or conceal their atheism due to fears of persecution.

For example, in the 20th century, atheists, socialists and communists were persecuted alongside Jews by the Nazis, who lumped all of these terms into one complex issue or theme ('the Jewish-Bolshevik world conspiracy', as addressed in Joseph Goebbels' 1935 speech "Communism with the Mask Off", in which Aryan civilization was described as antithetical to "Jewish Communism").

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, more so than Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians, and other groups. Many of the respondents associated atheism with immorality, including criminal behaviour, extreme materialism, and elitism.. However, the same study also reported that, “The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one’s exposure to diversity, education and political orientation — with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts.”

Religion and atheism

Spiritual atheism and rationalistic churches

Although atheistic beliefs are often accompanied by a total lack of spiritual beliefs, this is not an aspect, or even a necessary consequence, of atheism. Indeed, there are many atheists who are not irreligious or secular. These are most common in spiritualities like Buddhism and Taoism, but they also exist in sects of religions that are usually very theistic by nature, such as Christianity, especially in some Liberal Quaker groups. Essentially, these people embrace the moral values of these particular religions; however, they do not acknowledge the existence of any spiritual entities.

Atheists that base their atheism within the philosophy of materialism, however, would contend that Buddhist concepts of rebirth and nirvana, as seen in some sects of Buddhism, place the concept of the Buddha within the realm of supernatural beings, similar to those found in theistic beliefs.

A number of atheistic churches have been established, such as the Thomasine Church, naturalistic pantheists, Brianism, and the Fellowship of Reason. There is also an atheist presence in Unitarian Universalism, an extremely inclusivist religion.

Belief in God as a non-being

In English, believers usually refer to the monotheistic Abrahamic god as "God". In many abstract or esoteric interpretations of monotheism or henotheism, God is not thought of as a supernatural being, as a deity or god. Instead, God is a philosophical category: the All, the One, the Ultimate, the Absolute Infinite, the Transcendent, the Divine Ground, Being or Existence itself, etc. For example, such views are typical of pantheism, panentheism, and religious monism. Attributing anthropomorphic characteristics to God may be regarded as idolatry, blasphemy, or symbolism by some.

The Protestant theologian Paul Tillich described God as the "ground of Being", the "power of Being", or as "Being itself", and caused controversy by making the statement that "God does not exist", resulting in him occasionally being labelled as an atheist. Nevertheless, for Tillich, God is not "a" being that exists among other beings, but is 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.

Judaism

In general, formulations of Jewish principles of faith require a belief in God (represented by Judaism's paramount prayer, the Shema). 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 often recognized that it is possible for a Jew to strictly practice Judaism as a faith, while at the same time being an agnostic or atheist, giving rise to the joke: "Q: What do you call a Jew who doesn't believe in God? A: A Jew." It is also worth noting that Reconstructionism does not require any belief in a deity, and that certain popular Reform prayer books, such as Gates of Prayer, offer some services without mention of God.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, first Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in pre-state Israel, held that atheists were not actually denying God: rather, they were denying one of man'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 burn away false images of God, thus in the end serving the purpose of true monotheism.

Some Jewish atheists reject Judaism, but wish to continue identifying themselves with the Jewish people and culture. See, for example, Levin (1995). Jewish atheists who practice Humanistic Judaism embrace Jewish culture and history, rather than belief in a supernatural god, as the sources of their Jewish identity.

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,

3:18 "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

3:19 "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." (NIV)

implying that all who reject the divinity of Jesus (and presumably its attendant theism) do so "because their deeds are evil", rather than evil being a consequence of disbelief.

A famous but idiosyncratic atheistic belief is that of Thomas Altizer. His book The Gospel of Christian Atheism (1967) proclaims the highly unusual view that God has literally died, or self-annihilated. According to Altizer, this is nevertheless "a Christian confession of faith" (p.102). Making clear the difference between his position and that of both Nietzsche's notion of the death of God and the stance of 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 and was alive. Atheism typically entails a lack of belief that any gods ever existed, as opposed to not existing currently. For further discussion, see Lyas (1970).

Other, unrelated practitioners of Christian atheism may include Liberal Christian atheists who follow the teaching of Jesus, but who 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.

It should be noted that although Christianity as a faith has to be construed as irreconcilable with atheism, this is markedly not the case regarding the 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.

Islam

In Islam, atheists are categorized as kafir (كافر), a term that is also used to describe polytheists, and that translates roughly as "denier" or "concealer". The noun kafir carries connotations of blasphemy and disconnection from the Islamic community. In Arabic, "atheism" is generally translated ilhad (إلحاد), although this also means "heresy".

The Quran is silent on the punishment for apostasy, though not the subject itself. The Quran speaks repeatedly of people going back to unbelief after believing, and gives advice on dealing with 'hypocrites':

Sura 9:73,74 - "Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fire. They swear by God that they said nothing. Yet they uttered the word of unbelief and renounced Islam after embracing it. They sought to do what they could not attain. Yet they had no reason to be spiteful except perhaps because God and His apostle had enriched them through His bounty. If they repent, it will indeed be better for them, but if they give no heed, God will sternly punish them, both in this world and in the world to come. They shall have none on this earth to protect or help them." [Dawood]

The Hadith expound upon dealing with apostates, whether they become atheist, Christian, Buddhist, etc.:

Bukhari, volume 9, #17 "Narrated Abdullah: Allah's Messenger said, 'The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Messenger, cannot be shed except in three cases: in Qisas (equality in punishment) for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (Apostate) and leaves the Muslims.'"

Bukhari, volume 9, #37 "Narrated Abu Qilaba: Once Umar bin Abdul Aziz sat on his throne in the courtyard of his house so that the people might gather before him....He replied 'By Allah, Allah's messenger never killed anyone except in one of the following three situations: 1) A person who killed somebody unjustly, was killed (in Qisas,) 2) a married person who committed illegal sexual intercourse and, 3) a man who fought against Allah and His messenger, and deserted Islam and became an apostate....'"

Bukhari, volume 9, #57 "Narrated 'Ikrima: Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.' [italics added]"

Other relevant Hadithic verses include Bukhari, volume 9, #58, 64, 271.

Atheists in Islamic countries and communities frequently conceal their non-belief, (as well as other condemned qualities such as homosexuality). Many sociologists interested in the Islamic nations wonder how Islam will continue to deal with these issues as these nations are exposed to Western worldviews, traditionally founded on Judaic/Christian ethics and morality.

Asian spirituality

It is difficult to categorize Eastern belief systems in distinct terms of theism or atheism. Beliefs that would be characterized as atheistic in the western sense, often have some theistic tendencies, and vice versa.

Samkhya, though a school in the Orthodox (Astika) variety of Hinduism, can be considered atheist because of the lack of a 'higher being' that is the ground of all existence. Sankhya proposes a thoroughly dualistic understanding of the Cosmos, in which two parallel realities Purusha, the spiritual and Prakriti, the physical coexist and the aim of life is the gaining of liberating Self-knowledge of the Purusha. Here, no God (better stated theos) is present, yet Ultimate Reality in the form of the Purusha exists. Therefore, Sankhya can be said to be a variety of Hinduism which falls into the classification of Theistic Atheism.

Carvaka (also Charvaka) was a materialist and atheist school of thought in India, which is now known principally from fragments cited by its Hindu and Buddhist opponents. The proper aim of a Carvakan, according to these sources, was to live a prosperous, happy, productive life in this world (cf Epicureanism). There is some evidence that the school persisted until at least 1578.

Buddhism is often described as atheistic, since Buddhist authorities and canonical texts do not affirm, and sometimes deny, the following:

• The existence of a creation, and therefore of a creator god
• That a god, gods, or other divine beings are the source of moral imperatives
• That human beings or other creatures are responsible to a god or gods for their actions

Buddhists might also be deemed atheistic in anti-Buddhist Hindu polemic, since Buddhists opposed the authority of the Vedas and of Vedic priests, and the power of the rituals of Vedic religion.

However, all canonical Buddhist texts that mention the subject 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, but Shakyamuni Buddha himself denied that he was a god or divine.

Other schools continue to consider themselves as fundamentally atheistic, in the strong sense of the term. Jainism is also sometimes classified as atheistic since Jains's believe that "In the most basic sense, God is not seen as a person, place or tangible thing, but as the ideal state of an individual soul's existence."

Confucianism and Taoism are arguably atheistic in the sense that they do not explicitly affirm, nor are they founded upon a faith in, a higher being or beings. However, Confucian writings do have numerous references to 'Heaven,' which denotes a transcendent power, with a personal connotation. Neo-Confucian writings, such as that of Chu Hsi, are vague on whether their conception of the Great Ultimate is like a personal deity or not. Also, 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 by Laozi has theistic or atheistic undertones.

Criticisms of atheism

Main article: Critique of Atheism

Atheists and atheism have received much criticism, opposition, and persecution, chiefly from theistic sources, throughout human history.

Some critisms include:

• Atheism is often associated with immorality and evil, often characterizing it as a willful and malicious rejection of gods.

• Against atheism are those in favor of the existence of specific deities, which would imply that atheism is simply untrue. For examples of this type of argument, see Existence of God.

• The positive knowledge of anything; arguments discuss the more general question of relativism and are equally applicable to positive theism and positive atheism.

• The lack of belief in a deity who administers justice leads to poor morals or ethics. This has been countered by atheists who have pointed to the lack of morality in many acts inspired by religion. Much has been written to support and to counter these arguments.

• Some contend that atheistic philosophies inevitably lead to nihilism. Atheists do not share a comprehensive moral code, and few atheists would claim that the entire body of moral decisions they make are absolute and true for everyone. Many atheists, however, have developed moral principles based on secular philosophies such as utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics. On the other hand, Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil argues that these newly developed moral systems have no basis and are totally arbitrary; they are one person's idea of what rules he wants everyone to follow.

See also

List of atheists Strong atheism

Weak atheism

Related concepts

Agnosticism Bright Criticism of religion Existence of God Pascal's Wager Faith and rationality Religiosity and intelligence Freedom of religion and belief Freethought Humanism Infinitism

Irreligion Nihilism Objectivism Pantheism Rationalist movement Scientific skepticism Secular humanism Secularism Secular ethics

Organizations

American Atheists National Secular Society Brights movement Camp Quest Atheist Foundation of Australia Council for Secular Humanism

Freedom From Religion Foundation Rationalist International Internet Infidels Society of the Godless Secular Coalition for America Secular Student Alliance

Satire

Apatheism Evil Atheist Conspiracy Babel Fish

Flying Spaghetti Monster Invisible Pink Unicorn

External links

Web sites

• Associations
  • Atheist Alliance
  • American Atheists
  • Positive Atheism
  • Freedom From Religion Foundation
  • Atheist Foundation of Australia
  • National Secular Society (UK)
  • TheInfidels.org Site and Forum
  • The Brights
  • The Scottish Atheist Council (UK)
  • Idaho Atheists
  • Secular Coalition for America
  • Secular Student Alliance
• Web communities
  • Atheist Parents Group
  • BookTalk.org - the freethinker's book discussion community
  • Church of Reality
  • FrostCloud.com Discuss atheism.
  • NoReligion.ca Logical and detailed essays about religion.
  • Freethinkers (NoBeliefs.com)
  • Positive Atheism
  • The Secular Web
  • The Atheist Coalition
  • The Faithless Community
  • Ex-Christians
  • The Ethical Atheist
  • Atheistic Forum
  • Atheist Blog Aggregator
  • Local Atheist groups : Local Atheist groups and events in your area - citycita.org
• Internet radio
  • Atheist Network (Internet Radio)
  • The Infidel Guy Radio Show
  • Freethought Radio - Internet Radio Station
• Miscellaneous
  • Atheist Empire: guide to Atheism on the web
  • Atheist Resource
  • Thinking And Moral Problems, Religions And Their Source, Purpose, and Developing A Universal Religion, four Parts of a Wikibook that suggests why an atheistic religion is needed.
  • Template:About.com
  • Ebon Musings: The Atheism Pages
  • ExChristian.net — Encouraging Ex-Christians
  • Links related to atheism by Atheists of Silicon Valley
  • Political and Atheist Thought
  • Camp Quest: A Secular Summer Camp for Children
  • Darwin Bedford, Atheist Messiah and Spiritual Reality Therapist
  • religioustolerance.org
  • http://www.qsmithwmu.com (Web site of Quentin Smith, atheist philosopher)
  • God is imaginary
  • http://www.abstractatom.com (Web site of Jeffrey Grupp, atheist philosopher)
  • Atheism page from the BBC website
  • How to be religion free - a code for the Resolute Atheist
  • The Psychology of Atheism. An article by Professor Paul C. Vitz, Ph.D. 1962 (motivation, experimental psychology), Stanford University B.A. 1957 (psychology), University of Michigan. This article explores the psychological motivations which can lead to atheism.

Articles

• History of
  • A Historical Outline of Modern Religious Criticism in Western Civilization - History of atheistic thought going back to the 1500s
• Definitions
  • AllRefer atheism article - brief discussion of polemical usage
  • "Atheism and Agnosticism" by John Smart for Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • "Definition of Atheism" from Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc
  • "Types of Atheistic Belief"
  • "What Is Atheism?" from Positive Atheism Magazine
• Defence
  • The End of Faith by Sam Harris
  • Atheism defended
  • Atheism: The Capital Man
  • Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right — the source of the famous "[religion is] the opiate of the masses", by Karl Marx
  • Lecture on Atheism by Erkki Hartikainen in The Finnish Society for Natural Philosophy, 2003
  • The Philosophy of Atheism by Emma Goldman (Mother Earth, 1916)
  • Why Atheism?
  • Understanding Delusion
  • An Atheist Manifesto by Sam Harris
• Criticism
  • Catholic Encyclopedia: "atheism"
  • The Twilight of Atheism by Alister McGrath, Christianity Today, March 2005.
  • Theism, Atheism, and Rationality by Alvin Plantinga
  • Intellectual Sophistication and Basic Belief in God by Alvin Plantinga
• Statistics
  • Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns atheism worldwide, by Phil Zuckerman
  • BBC Religion
  • Atheism growing
  • A collection of Atheist and non-believer stats including divorce rates and prison populations

Notes

References

• Altizer, Thomas J.J. (1967). The Gospel of Christian Atheism. London: Collins. Electronic Text
• Armstrong, Karen (1999). A History of God. London: Vintage. ISBN 0099273675
• Ayer, A. J. (1966). What I Believe. in Humanist, Vol 81 (8) August 1966, p.226-228.
• Baggini, Julian (2003). Atheism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192804243.
• Berman, David (1990). A History of Atheism in Britain: from Hobbes to Russell. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415047277.
• Berman, David (1983). David Hume and the Suppression of Atheism. in Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 21 (3), July 1983, p.375-387.
• Berman, David (1982). The Repressive Denials of Atheism in Britain in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 82c, (9), p.211-246.
• Borne, Étienne (1961). Atheism. New York: Hawthorn Books. [Originally published in France under the title Dieu n’est pas mort: essai sur l’atheisme contemporain. Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1959]
• Bradlaugh Bonner, Hypatia (1908). Charles Bradlaugh: a record of his life and work. London: T. Fisher Unwin.
• Buckley, M. J. (1987). At the origins of modern atheism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Cudworth, Ralph (1678). The True Intellectual System of the Universe: the first part, wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted and its impossibility demonstrated.
• d'Holbach, P. H. T. (1772). Good Sense. Electronic Text
• d'Holbach, P. H. T. (1770). The system of nature. Electronic versions:
  • complete text (pdf)
  • complete text (html)
• de Mornay, Phillipe (1587). A woorke concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, written in French; Against Atheists, Epicures, Paynims, Iewes, Mahumetists. London.
• Drachmann, A. B. (1922). Atheism in Pagan Antiquity. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1977 ("an unchanged reprint of the 1922 edition"). ISBN 0890052018.
• Everitt, Nicholas (2004). The Non-existence of God: An Introduction. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415301076.
• Evolution and Religion Can Coexist, Scientists Say
• Flew, Antony (1966). God and Philosophy. London: Hutchinson & Co.
• Flew, Antony (1984a). God, Freedom, and Immortality: A Critical Analysis. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus. ISBN 0879751274.
• Flew, Antony (1984b). The Presumption of Atheism. New York: Prometheus.
  • complete text (html)
• Flew, Antony (1972). The Presumption of Atheism. in Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 2, p.29-46 [reprinted in Flew 1984a and 1984b above]
• Flint, Robert (1877). Anti-Theistic Theories: Being the Baird Lecture for 1877. London: William Blackwood and Sons. 5th ed, 1894.
• Gaskin, J.C.A. (ed) (1989). Varieties of Unbelief: from Epicurus to Sartre. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 002340681X.
• Harbour, Daniel (2001). An Intelligent Person's Guide to Atheism. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0715632299.
• Hitchens, Christopher (2001). Letters to a Young Contrarian. New York: Basic Books.
• Krueger, D. E. (1998). What is atheism?: A short introduction. New York: Prometheus. ISBN 1573922145.
• Le Poidevin, R. (1996). Arguing for atheism: An introduction to the philosophy of religion. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415093384.
• Levin, S. (1995). Jewish Atheism. in New Humanist, Vol 110 (2) May 1995, p.13-15.
• Lyas, Colin (1970). On the Coherence of Christian Atheism. in Philosophy: the Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Vol. 45 (171), January 1970. pp.1-19.
• Mackie, J. L. (1982). The Miracle of Theism: Arguments for and against the existence of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019824682X.
• Maritain, Jacques (1953). The Range of Reason. London: Geoffrey Bles. Electronic Text
  • Note: Chapter 8, The Meaning of Contemporary Atheism (p.103-117, Electronic Text) is reprinted from Review of Politics, Vol. 11 (3) July 1949, p. 267-280 Electronic Text. A version also appears The Listener, Vol. 43 No.1102, 9 March 1950. pp.427-429,432.
• Martin, Michael (1990). Atheism: A philosophical justification. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. ISBN 0877229430.
• Martin, Michael, & Monnier, R. (Eds.) (2003). The impossibility of God. New York: Prometheus.
• McGrath, A. (2005). The Twilight of Atheism : The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. ISBN 0385500629
• McTaggart, John & McTaggart, Ellis (1927). The Nature of Existence. Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• McTaggart, John & McTaggart, Ellis (1930). Some Dogmas of Religion. London: Edward Arnold & Co., new edition. [First published 1906]
• Mills, D. (2004). Atheist Universe, Xlibris, ISBN 1413434819.
• Müller, F. Max (1889). Natural Religion: The Gifford Lectures, 1888. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
• Nagel, Ernest (1965). A Defence of Atheism. in Edwards, Paul and Pap, Arthur (eds), A Modern Introduction to Philosophy: readings from classical and contemporary sources. New York: Free Press. Rev ed. pp.460-472.
• Nielsen, Kai (1985). Philosophy and Atheism. New York: Prometheus. ISBN 0879752890.
• Nielsen, Kai (2001). Naturalism and religion. New York: Prometheus.
• Reid, J.P. (1967). Atheism. in New Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: McGraw-Hill. p.1000-1003.
• Rizzuto, Ana-Maria (1998). Why did Freud reject God?: A psychoanalytic interpretation. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300075251.
• Robinson, Richard (1964). An Atheist's Values. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Sharpe, R.A. (1997). The Moral Case Against Religious Belief. London: SCM Press. ISBN 0334026806.
• Smith, George H. (1990). Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies. New York: Prometheus.
  • Excerpt: Defining atheism (html)
• Smith, George H. (1979). Atheism: The Case Against God. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus. ISBN 087975124X.
  • Excerpt: The Scope of Atheism (html)
• Sobel, Jordan H. (2004). Logic and theism: Arguments for and against beliefs in God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Soltis, P.S. et al. (1995) Genetic variation in Tragopogan Species: Additional Origins of Allotetraploids T. mirius and T. miscellus (Compositae). American Journal of Botany.
• Stenger, Victor J. (2003). Has science found God?. New York: Prometheus.
• Stein, G. (Ed.) (1984). The Encyclopaedia of Unbelief (Vols. 1-2). New York: Prometheus. ISBN 0879753072.
• Thrower, James (1971). A Short History of Western Atheism. London: Pemberton. ISBN 0301711011.
• Vitz, Paul (1999). Faith of the fatherless: the psychology of atheism. Dallas, Texas: Spence. ISBN 1890626120.