what is atheism?

Question

what exactly is it? please explain?

Answer 1

Ateism is the belief that there is no god.

Answer 2

"There is, unfortunately, some disagreement about the definition of atheism. It is interesting to note that most of that disagreement comes from theists — atheists themselves tend to agree on what atheism means. Christians in particular dispute the definition used by atheists and insist that atheism means something very different.

The broader, and more common, understanding of atheism among atheists is quite simply "not believing in any gods." No claims or denials are made — an atheist is just a person who does not happen to be a theist. Sometimes this broader understanding is called "weak" or "implicit" atheism. Most good, complete dictionaries readily support this.

There also exists a narrower sort of atheism, sometimes called "strong" or "explicit" atheism.

With this type, the atheist explicitly denies the existence of any gods — making a strong claim which will deserve support at some point. Some atheists do this and others may do this with regards to certain specific gods but not with others. Thus, a person may lack belief in one god, but deny the existence of another god."

Answer 3

You are an atheist if you don't believe in the existence of a diety. In a religion like Christianity, a diety is defined as a creator or supreme being. Athiests believe that there can be no supreme being because there is no proof of one and that there can be no creator because obviously, there is no proof that anything was ever 'created'. An atheist believes that everything evolved. Atheism has become more relevant since the freethought movement, when people realised that they can think for themselves based on science (which is basically the accumulated factual knowledge we have from our time on Earth - not a series of conflicting beliefs). If you don't think the rules of organised religion could possibly make sense - and that the established facts do make sense, you're an atheist.

Answer 4

My religious ideals (or, more aptly, lack of them):

God is an imaginary figure invented by man to conveniently explain the three major questions he had: Where did we come from, what is our life's purpose, and where do we go when we die? He is used as a way to miraculously explain the phenomena that surround us today and the fact that he is still truthfully believed in by so many people around the world is an extremely scary thought. Applying a 2000(+) year old book to modern life has a lot of scary side effects.

Atheism is basically that above, which is the knowledge that God does not exist. It is different than Agnosticism, which equates to skepticism about the supernatural and 'God'.

Answer 5

Atheism, defined as a philosophical view, is the position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism. In its broadest definition, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, sometimes called nontheism. Although atheists are commonly assumed to be irreligious, some religions, such as Buddhism, have been characterized as atheistic.

Many self-described atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding supernatural claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Other arguments for atheism are philosophical, social or historical. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.

Answer 6

"There are no atheists in foxholes!" General Steele, M*A*S*H

Atheism is a belief that there are no gods whatsoever and that purely science can explain the universe.

Most people, in my humble opinion, that choose to be atheistic, do so as they believe that there cannot be one or more deities that created and/or in control of the universe. They prefer to have everything explained in scientific terms. So far, science has been able to explain how the universe came to be but not yet the why.

Answer 7

atheism = "a" + "theism" = "without" + "belief in deity"

Atheism is simply the lack of belief in any deity. That's ALL atheism means.

It does NOT mean "having no religion" (for example, there are plenty of people who believe in God yet don't subscribe to a particular religion. Likewise there are non-theistic religions like Therevada Buddhism). Again, it just means not holding a belief in deity, whether that means positively asserting God does not exist, or simply not holding the belief and not claiming anything else on the subject.

Similarly, "monotheism" means "the belief in only one god", "polytheism" means "the belief in many gods", and "theism" simply means "the belief in one or more gods".

Answer 8

Atheists regard gods and goddesses as fictional characters like Santa and fairies and Sherlock Holmes - inventions of the human mind. That's really all it means.

Answer 9

Atheism~
NOUN: 1a. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods. b. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.

--In other words, it's the exact opposite of Theism--

Theism~
NOUN: Belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in a personal God as creator and ruler of the world. theist, theistic, theistical, theistically

Answer 10

No belief of any kind in any god. It also usually means that the person has no religion. The person may or may not have spirituality.

The word Atheist litterally means "without god".

Answer 11

A form of low self esteem where the poor benighted soul who of course like everything else is God in both part and whole doesn't believe in itself or others.