Definition - Atheism
To begin our FAQ section, we must answer one the most fundamental question about atheism: what it is.
There are two explanations for what atheism “is”: the short explanation and the long explanation. We’ll start with the short definition:
Atheist: one who has no belief in a god or gods.
This definition is a good start. An atheist does not believe in any god; not the Judeo-Christian “God”, Musilms’ “Allah”, Hindus’ “Vishnu”, the Greeks’ “Zeus”, the Egyptians’ Amon-ra, or any other gods that have been worshipped over the centuries. While this is not always the case, many atheists also proclaim to be philosophical naturalists, beliving in naturalism:
Naturalism: the view of the world that takes account only of natural elements and forces, excluding the supernatural or spiritual.
Quite often, these two go hand-in-hand, but not always. Do not assume atheists are always naturalists, and naturalists are always atheists.
Definition - “Strong” Atheism and “Weak” Atheism
These are perhaps, at best, misleading labels as being a “strong” atheist is not philsophically superior to a “weak” atheist. A “weak” atheist simply lacks belief in the existence of gods, as our original definition implied. A “strong” atheist takes the definition a step further, and actively believes that a god (or gods) does not, or cannot, exist.
You can see that these two positions are important to define when speaking with atheists, as it can drastically change the argument. A “strong” atheist may use a cosmological argument to prove their point, while a “weak” atheist may use a anti-teleological argument to prove theirs. While they both do not believe in god (or gods), one advocates for the non-existence of god. The “strong” atheist viewpoint is the actual antithesis of the theist’s viewpoint.
Why do Atheists hate God?
Atheists do not “hate” God. Supposing that atheists “hate” god, is analgous to saying that “I do not believe in Santa Claus, and I hate him because he’s so generous to Christian children around the world.” The statement is logically incoherent. Atheists cannot hate a thing they do not believe in.
Why do Atheists hate religion?
Atheists, by definition, do not hate religion. Just like a Musilm can hate the ideas of the Christian faith, an atheist can hate the ideas of other faiths. If an atheist is against all religions, or the idea of religion in general, they can be collectively termed as an “anti-theist.” (Richard Dawkins is an excellent example of an “anti-theist”). However to assume that all atheists are anti-theists is incorrect. Not all atheists are anti-theists, and not all anti-theists are atheists.
Why do Atheists hate the religious?
Atheists, by definition, do not hate the religious. However, many atheists do have a disdain for the religious. This is not because they are atheists, rather, they have the same problem a Christian might have for hating a Jewish person – bigotry and prejudice. In the same way a Musilm can make broad assumptions and stereotypes against Christians, atheists can make broad assumptions about the religious. This is a problem across all philosophical viewpoints – intolerance of one another’s view. While this intolerance may be maintained for personal reasons to each individual, it is not strictly a part of atheism.
What is an “agnostic” and how are they different from atheists?
Between theism, and atheism lies a middle-ground: agnosticism.
Agnostic: a person who feels that God’s existence can neither be proved nor disproved, on the basis of current evidence. Agnostics note that some theologians and philosophers have tried to to prove, for millennia, that God exists. Others have attempted to prove that God does not exist. Agnostics feel that neither side has convincingly succeeded at their task.
Agnostics are not theists. They do not believe in a god (or gods), as they see the conclusion of the existence of god unknowable. They can, in a way, be considered atheists since they fit our original definition of atheism. They would qualify as “weak atheists” noting that they only lack a belief in god, and do not actively believe that there isn’t a god.
The definition of agnostic is indeed difficult due to the dual-definition of atheism. We can classify agnostics into two broad categories:
Agnostic Theists - a position that god “probably exists,” but is unknowable/unprovable.
Agnostic Atheists - a position that god “probably doesn’t exist,” and is unknowable/unprovable.
Note that neither qualifies as theism, but the agnostic theist would disagree with strong atheists on the subject of god’s existence. This separates them from the atheist viewpoint. There is also a category of agnosticism that separates this group from the debate entirely: those that see the question as unimportant. The “Agnostic Humanists” do not consider the question, and do not particularly care about the outcome as it would not change their lives if god was proven to exist one way or the other. They draw their moral guides from humanism, much like other atheists and agnostics do as well.
Are atheists immoral?
This question, while fundamentally seems very innocent, is actually a highly value-laden question. Atheism is not intriniscally immoral. It does not promote such anti-societal actions such as anarchy, crime, or other publically-disruptive behaviours. To show this, we can analyze the prison system population. Atheists make up a very small percentage of the U.S. prison system, in comparison to other religious groups: http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/crimechart.html, which is lower than its incidence rate in the general populace. While this isn’t a sure-fire indication that atheists have ethical superiority, it is an indication that being an atheist does not lead to being more prone to commit crime in society at large.
However, many people do consider being an atheist immoral. In a study conducted by the University of Minnesota, atheists were considered lacking in the “proper vision of American society.” People generally associate lack of belief in any god immoral, as they falsely believe that atheists do not feel responsible to anyone but themselves, thus they are more prone to do corrupt things. While the prison statistics should dissuade the second argument, the first argument is more difficult to dissaude. Atheists generally do not feel that they can now “do bad things” because they don’t have a belief in God – on the contrary, they particularly feel responsible to those around them. Since they don’t believe in the afterlife, they do not believe in divine judgement, and thus concentrate in making this world a better place in the here and now. Most atheists have an intrinsic code (which include popular tenets of other religions such as “do not murder” and “do not steal”), or follow the tenets of humanism.
While this seems to be a reasonable position, some are still not convinced. Many Christian spokespeople blame atheists for commiting abortions, engaging in homosexual behaviour, and other morally-divisive issues. While this website refuses to speculate on the morality of such actions, it can be said that all of these actions cannot possibly be commited purely by atheists, since the incidence rate of such actions greatly outweigh the incidence rate of atheism. Moreover, such value-laden judgements are made in the context that such actions are always morally wrong (as dictated by a person’s creed), which is not held commonly by all. Thus, it is impossible to say that atheists are acting immorally given that morality is a flexible issue when it comes to more complciated issues such as the issues mentioned above.
Why don’t atheists believe in anything?
This is a fallacious question. Atheists have many beliefs – they just happen to lack belief in god (gods). In fact, strong atheists do believe in something – that god does not (or cannot) exist! Most atheists tend to believe in the power of people’s character, such as inner strength and love for one another. While a theist may find this position incredulous, as they suppose that belief for their god should come first and foremost, atheists do not share such a position. To a theist, this may make it seem like atheists do not believe in anything, however it can be easily shown that they do believe in many things, as everyone does. What an atheist believes in particularly however, is a personal matter. Like most other points of view, if you’d like to know what a person believes on a particular subject, you’ll have to ask.
This ends our article on the introduction of atheism and many first-level questions that are typically asked. Now that these questions are answered, we can move on to more complicated topics of what humanism is, and some typical arguments of why atheists believe what they believe.
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