atheism
- 1The conviction that there are no gods at all, which sometimes extends to rejecting other religious beliefs too.
His atheism rested on the conviction that no god of any kind exists.
After the debate, she defended her atheism as a firm denial of all deities.
Similardisbelief, unbelief, nonbelief
Oppositetheism
Note
The strict sense, and the one that makes a claim: no god exists. The word reached English in 1587 from Middle French athéisme, built on Greek átheos, "godless" (a-, "without," plus theós, "god"). Because it asserts something, it can be argued for. Michael Martin (2002) holds that it need only be more probable than theism, not certain, just as scientific theories need not be.
- 2The absence of belief in any god, or the position that the evidence is too weak to justify such belief.
His atheism was rooted not in denial but in the weak evidence for any god.
She framed her atheism as a withholding of belief until better proof appeared.
Oppositetheism
Note
The looser, withholding sense: not "there is no god" but "I am not persuaded." The line was already being drawn in the nineteenth century. James Buchanan in 1857 separated skeptical from dogmatic atheism, and George William Foote in 1896 insisted the word meant rejection, not denial. When precision matters, say which you mean, since the strict denial and this sense share one word.
- 3An absence of belief that any deities exist, including cases where the very concept of deities is absent.
Defined this broadly, an infant's atheism consists in never having formed the concept of a deity.
Some scholars extend atheism to any creature lacking the very notion of a god.
Similarnonbelief
Oppositetheism
Note
Stretched to its widest, the word needs neither belief nor refusal, only the missing idea of a god. George H. Smith put it plainly in Atheism: The Case Against God (1979): an atheist is not primarily someone who believes a god does not exist. John Wesley's Sermons, on Several Occasions turned the same breadth to a preacher's use, speaking of the atheism "natural to all the children of men."
- 4A rejection of all religions, including those that have no gods.
His atheism extended to a refusal of all religions, theistic or not.
Their atheism rejected not just belief in gods but every organized faith, including non-theistic ones.
Similarirreligion
Note
A contested extension, and one some careful writers reject, because it treats a word about gods as a word about religion itself. Buddhism already has no god, yet Yalith Wijesurendra's Buddhist Answers (2013) still separates the two: they agree that there is no God but part ways over the supernatural. Where you mean a refusal of every faith, irreligion says it without dispute.
Less common meaning
- 5The absence of belief in a particular deity, pantheon, or religious doctrine, while still believing in other deities.
Roman magistrates condemned the new sect's atheism, since its members would not sacrifice to the imperial gods.
Sacrificial religion becomes redundant – which is why Christianity did indeed have a reputation in the ancient world for atheism: it rejected the key duty humans are thought to owe to the gods, namely sacrifice.
2010, Ross Thompson, Buddhist Christianity: A Passionate OpennessNote
The charge leveled at early Christians, who believed in a god but not in Rome's. Flavius Clemens and Domitilla, kin of the emperor Domitian, were punished on it in 95. Ross Thompson's Buddhist Christianity (2010) explains that refusing sacrifice was enough to earn the name. The sense is now rare and historical, so frame it plainly, as in "accused of atheism by Roman authorities," or readers will hear the modern meaning.
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Origin
This word entered English in the 16th century from Middle French athéisme, based on athée ("atheist"). That was borrowed from Ancient Greek átheos ("godless"), formed from a- ("without") plus theós ("god"). The first English use is recorded in 1587.