Which came first, evolution or atheism?

Question

Did evolutionists become atheists, or did atheists become evolutionists?
Which leads to which?

Answer 1

Atheism did, and separate from science. We've 3000 year old text that refer to Atheism, and Agnosticism. Every human being has the right to make up their own mind concerning the Davine.

"Although the term atheism itself 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'."

Answer 2

The 2 concepts aren't bound to eachother in any way. There are plenty of folks that don't call themselves atheist and still accept the theories of evolution. The theories of evolution don't deny the existence of a higher power in anyway, shape, or form. Atheists do.

Your question implies a connection between the 2 that doesn't exist.

But take heart. Some of the venomous and dimwitted answers given by a few Hellfire Christians shows you're not the only one who's confused.

Anyway, the simple answer is atheism. Atheistic "religions" and philosophies have been around since the dawn of modern man. Although the term "atheist" wasn't coined until the 1500's.

Darwin, the father of evolution theory, offered his 1st writing on the origin of species in the mid 1800's.

Answer 3

The process of evolution came first, but it wasn't recognized for what it is until the 19th Century, when Darwin wrote about it. Yes, there were fossil records before that, but people weren't sure how to put it all together. And atheism definitely predates the 19th Century.

As for which leads to which, my guess would be that they form a perfect, enclosed system where each one leads to the other. That's only for some people, though, as I know plenty of people who believe in evolution, and still believe in a Divine Creator who got the ball rolling in the first place.

Answer 4

Evolution is a recently discovered process, but it has existed since life began. Atheists, on the other hand, are people, and we have only existed for a little while. The idea of evolution is newer than that of atheism, as all humans are born atheists, but the actual process of evolution is much, much older.

Answer 5

You are a complete moron. Atheism has nothing to do with evolution, and evolution has nothing to do with Atheism. Just because someone agrees with the scientific fact of evolution does not make them an Atheist. I am a very religious person (although not a Xian) and I side with evolution even over my religions creation story because evolution has the facts to back it. No creation story has any facts to back it up. So you can pull you head (and your bible) out of your *ss, and actually learn something.

Answer 6

Historically speaking, evolution was well underway long before homo sapiens learned to walk upright. And it continues its slow, incremental work of changing the world every day, whether people choose to believe it or not.

BTW, it's technically possible to be an atheist while not believing that evolution is fact. Atheism simply means lack of belief in god; that's all. Atheists are not _required_ to believe in evolution.

Answer 7

I can see where this is going......
Why do you say that first man was evolutionist?And how in the hell are they to know what atheism means?Anyhow dude,,,this should leave you to believe that Atheists became evolutionists,,,,,,,,first....

Answer 8

I don't have an answer to your second question, but atheism came about during the Renaissance, and and the theory of evolution came about in the 1800s.

Answer 9

I think your confusion stems from the idea that God needs to have pre-existed life; I prefer to think that God might in fact have evolved right along with us, and thus is getting smarter and more sophisticated as life itself does the same. Thus, there is no reason to think that evolution might not have started somewhat spontaneously, and then have been guided by an Intelligence that is getting smarter as the process goes on. Nor is there any reason to think that we are the "end product", that is just our very limited viewpoint. Let's hope "mankind 2.0" is more of an improvment than Windoes ME was.

Answer 10

Atheism was as old as theism.
The One True God endowed all men with free-will to choose to worship Him or to reject Him. Those who worship Him are called theists, the others are atheists. Due to various reasons, men keep on changing their minds, then atheists may become theists, and vice versa.
Religions have taught about evolution within each species: the mineral evolves to precious stone; the seed evolves to fruition; the animal evolves to re-production; man evolves to full development of spiritual qualities...There was no teaching about evolution from one species to the others.
Scentific theory of evolution from ape to man only developed since Darwin.
Because men have free-will and have different tendencies and different levels of knowledge, there are always different views about the world. Now we are lucky for having wonderful search engines and intruments to seek for truth, let us patiently and tolerantly exchange ideas on fora like this one to seek consensus and avoid the destruction of our lives and our civilizations.
We all know wars nowadays can easily cause complete annihilation of our beautiful planet! As a believer in the One True God, I trust that God never allows men's destruction.