Atheism

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What is Atheism?

The lack of belief in gods.

It's the opposite of Theism, which is belief in one or more gods.

I am Atheist ('ashes to ashes' - 'dust to dust')

Make THIS life count

Heard an interesting idea once that originally atheism didn't mean, 'doesn't believe in god'. Supposedly it meant, 'doesn't have a god'. So a person could believe in all the gods and spirits, but might simply have no allegiance or interest in gods.

Interesting, that could certainly make sense in an era where most people took literal belief in some sort of polytheism for granted, with the meaning shifting after monotheism became dominant. Monotheists agree with (current meaning) atheists when they dismiss polytheistic gods, but they often seem pretty grumpy that we don't make exceptions for their preferred god.

Yep, it's a lack of belief in gods or a specific belief that there are gods. As opposed to agnosticism where it's just believed that we can't know, not whether or not there are any deities.

I believe agnosticism also includes those who believe god/gods nature is unknowable, so there's agnostics who's position overlaps more with some theistic positions.

You can also overlap atheists with agnostics, where there's a degree of openness to the possibility of gods, but also that there's a complete lack of positive evidence. The more positive their conclusion that no gods exist, the more they can be described as atheists.

In my opinion the difference between "not believing there are any gods/believing there are no gods" (atheism) and "not knowing if there are any gods" (agnosticism) is mostly a matter of semantics. I don't believe there are any gods - I feel pretty sure of that - but philosophically speaking I don't know if there are any gods or not.

It is, although you're more likely to act as if God exists if you merely think it's unknowable than if you specifically believe that there are no gods.

Personally, I think it's a bit of a moot point really as there just aren't any real signs to indicate what the correct position is or that having the correct position does anything.

Are you an athiest if you suspect this was what our ancestors saw?

That kind of person believes there is no God or is not sure if there is a God.

An atheist is adamant in their belief that there is no God.

An agnostic is someone who does not know if God exists or not.

Most people say they are atheists but do not comply with the atheism catagory of faith. (Whatever set of beliefs one has, it is known as a faith regardless if the belief involves God or not, as atheists do tend to confine themselves to a darwinian belief. The only group I can find that is faithless from a set of beliefs or rules and just spends their lives saying they really don't know are the agnostics so these are the only group that one can say have no faith in a set of beliefs, and one can instantly tell the difference between an atheist and an agnostic when talking to an individual by what they say. Atheists point blank refuse to acknowledge the possibility that God, or a god exists so will never use God as a swear word as it grinds against their internal beliefs, as using God's name as a curse means they realize their are hypocritically untrue to what they believe in. Agnostic will freely curse God, as they kinda believe but don't believe as they keep their options open.
"Out of the heart the mouth speaks" is a very true scriptural statement.
If one truly listens to what each person says, one will get to their honest heart felt beliefs with whatever it happens to be.

Sometimes atheists use god (etc.) as a curse word. It’s perfectly normal for people to use words, expressions, slang, etc. of their environment or of the broader culture. Sometimes people do it without much (or any) thought. Other times the intention is to be ironic/snarky. It depends on context.

I don’t think there is an element of faith to atheism. It’s an absence of a belief in a deity/deities. It comes down to where we stand on matters of evidence. It’s true that you can’t prove that a god doesn’t exist, but you also can’t prove that fairies, elves, leprechauns, unicorns, or pink dragons don’t but most people don’t believe in them. People wouldn’t say that their lack of belief in those things is a matter of faith.

TwilightPrincess is right. Despite how religious people sometimes try to frame it, atheism is not a faith. It's an absence of belief in the existence of deities.

^ It seems to me that atheism is more a state of faithlessness rather than being of any particular faith.