Atheists

Atheists have always faced tough criticisms from society simply because they have always been the biggest minority of religion. An atheist does not believe in God. Furthermore, atheists have a lack of beliefs in terms of a higher being. Atheists have always been shunned from society in the past. However, atheists are now becoming more accepted than ever, especially in The United States. Some attribute this to a much more liberal standpoint on religion in this country. Religion has become less important as time goes on and an atheist is no longer seen as unintelligent. Many Americans that the decreasing importance of religion in this country as a good thing.

An atheist does not necessarily label as someone being against the idea of religion. Instead an atheist may be someone who choose to live their life without religion. In some cases, an atheist can seem to have more respect for alternative beliefs than several other religions. There are people who choose to have religion in their lives as a sign of hope and something to look up to. The argument can be made that an atheist simply chooses to not have a need for that.

In a world with some many religions it seems foolish to look down on anyway simply because of their beliefs. History tells us that religion was the reason for most wars in world history. In one way or another, religion had something to do with disagreements between governments. The separation of church and state was nothing like it is today. Some people choose to make the argument that the lack of religion leaves a lot more room for peace. There are people who believe that the problems in the middle east stem from religion. With that being said, the choice to not have religion in one’s life does not seem like such a crazy idea. As long as people are not pushing their views on others, religion can be a great thing. However, it is the belief that “your” religion is better than others that can be extremely dangerous. It is an interesting concept that atheists used to be frowned upon by the majority of society. Now atheists seem to be more peaceful then other religions as time goes on. If people are not imposing their views on other’s, there should be no problem with having beliefs of your own. Religion can be very helpful. However, religion can also be extremely dangerous.

The Great Debate

The atheism vs. Christianity debate is as old as religion itself. Atheists do not believe in any God, while the religion of Christianity does believe in God. Christianity was formed based on events that happened to Jesus Christ. The Christianity religion believes that Jesus Christ was God’s son. This is why the atheism vs. Christianity debate exists. Not only does Christianity suggest a belief in God, but many people who practice Christianity have been known to force their beliefs on other people. Atheists basically have a lack of beliefs when it comes to any type of higher power. These two distinctions strengthen the atheism vs. Christianity debate. Both sides are complete opposites from one another. This is why the debate can get heated.

When thinking about the atheism vs. Christianity debate in today’s society, many views are different from the past due to the overall liberal psyche of the general public. Some would claim that religion is not as important as it once was. There is more acceptance and respect towards different views than in past generations. Therefore the atheism vs. Christianity debate has gotten less tense and more optimistic. In the past many Christians would impose their views on other people and claim that there religion was the only path to God. Atheists do not believe that God exists and religion is not a part of life. Many atheists may choose to respect religions, while others might dismiss the need for religious faiths as a sign of weakness and lack of intelligence.

There have been both Christians and atheists for thousands of years. However, it continues to be less of a controversy as times goes on. There are millions of people in this world who live their lives based in some way on religious beliefs. In older time periods, people of one religious faith would not communicate with each other. There have been and still are wars started because of religion. Many attribute the conflict in the middle east to religious reasons. This is why atheism is more popular today than ever. Since so much negativity stems from religion, more and more people feel that a lack of religion might make more sense. Some atheists choose to respect all religions but does not feel the need to have it in their life. While you might strongly believe in one faith, it seems sensible to share the notion that all religions should be respected and able to continue in peace.

Atheistic Religion

Atheism has been negatively viewed by many people since the creation of religion. There are people who have strong religious faiths, who believe that there is an atheistic religion. They are wrong. An atheistic religion does not exist. Not only is there no such thing as an atheistic religion, but an atheist religion is an oxymoron. Due to suggestive dictionaries, the meaning of atheism has been unclear to people for many years. Most atheists would laugh at the terms atheistic religion or atheist religion. It does not make sense. The only reason why people identify atheists as atheist religion is because they do not know the true definition or meaning of the word atheism.

• The term atheist religion does not make sense. Atheism believes there are no gods. Most religions have a set of beliefs in a higher power; a god or multiple gods, responsible for creating the universe. Therefore it does not make sense to label a group of atheists as believing in an atheist religion. That suggests that people who do not believe that god or gods exist are a type of people who believe in a certain god or gods. If that description does not make sense to you, then the point is made.

• Dictionaries often define atheism as not believing in god or denying that god exists. Definitions like these are suggestive. These two examples are claiming that there is a god, but that atheists do not believe in it. Also, by using the word deny suggests that atheists choose not to believe in god, again suggesting that god does exist. Atheists do not see it as refusing to believe in god. Instead they would claim that there is no scientific evidence proving that god exists. Therefore atheists would argue that it is not denying to believe something if there is no proof that it exists. As an example, it would be wrong to say that a certain group of people deny that the tooth fairy exists, simply because there is no proof that a tooth fairy exists.

While many people have a strong belief system, it is important to know the true meaning or purpose of a different group of people who do not share your beliefs. It is also important to be fair when defining a group of people. It seems rather obvious that people who write dictionaries write in suggestive ways that promote their belief system. Claiming that there is a god in a dictionary is not right. Dictionaries are used to learn exact meanings of words. Saying that a word, which identifies a group of people, means to deny that god exists or do not believe in god is not morally or literally correct. Different atheist’s have completely different theories and philosophies about the universe, they just believe that gods do not exist.

Atheist Groups

There are atheist groups all over the world. Atheist groups are a group of people who share a common belief that there are no gods. Atheist groups are formed out of interest and respect for people who have similar views. What unites atheist groups is the common misconception of what atheism is and what it stands for. Any atheist group is full of completely different people because atheism does not suggest a certain life style. The only thing that atheists share is the belief that there is no god or gods. This makes an atheist group the most wide ranging group of people.

Being a member of an atheist group is much more common in The United States than in other countries due to the freedom of religion that we enjoy in this country. Freedom of religion includes the lack of religion. Many people in The United States are extremely liberal, especially when it comes to religion. While many Americans are extremely religious, there is more acceptance towards different religions, or lack there of than there was in previous generations and societies. This is a very positive circumstance, because religion in many countries has been the root of a lot of violence and conflict. In the past, atheist groups were looked down upon and were told to be wrong in their thoughts, opinions and beliefs. To look down on people who do not agree with you is not morally right. If people respect those who believe in a god, as well as those who believe there are multiple gods, than people should be respected for not believing in god or gods at all.

Atheists have generally been peaceful throughout time. While there are still some who look down on atheist groups, they are more accepted now than ever before. In the United States, all peaceful religions are respected and allowed to exist in peace as long as there is no harm caused. Atheist groups became popular when it’s members were constantly being criticized. Also, atheist groups became more popular because of the view that religion caused more problems than it solved. Atheists are brought together due to a lack of religion. Other than that there is nothing else that brings them together. Atheist gorups are constantly growing all over the world, but as with all belief systems, The United States is home to freedom. This is why so many atheists live in this country

Atheist vs Christians

The atheism debate has been going on for thousands of years. The main atheism debate is over whether or not god exists. The reason that the atheism debate has been going on for so long and will continue to go on is because there is no scientific evidence to prove either side of the atheism debate.

The issue with the atheist debate is that it is over personal beliefs of how our universe was created. That is probably one of, if not the most important issue to possibly debate. That is why the atheist debate can become heated and in many cases violent. Atheists do not believe that there is a god. All religions believe that there is a god and some religions believe in multiple gods. Even though there has always been a universal debate between different religions, the atheist debate is much different because it is a debate on whether or not a god exists. There is no scientific proof of a god, a higher power or anyone or anything thing responsible for the universe. However, there is no scientific proof that a god does not exist. This simple fact is what ensures that the atheist debate will go on forever. However, this fact is also what makes the atheist debate rather pointless and sometimes leads the debate to become full of nonsense and even resort to violence. An atheist can clearly explain his or her beliefs and provide convincing opinions on why no god exists. However, no living person has access to information that can prove that he or she is right. The same concept goes for religious believers. A Christian can explain his or her views clearly as well and even read excerpts from the bible. The argument made can not be proven right.

The atheist debate is both extremely interesting while incredibly pointless in terms of deciding which side is right or wrong. As time goes on, this debate has become more of a discussion as opposed to an argument, which it seemed to be in the past. Hundreds of years ago, one’s religion determined who they were in almost every aspect. To this day, certain religions view the bible as a guide to life. While some believe it as a teacher of moral lessons, others take it as literal directions on how one should live their life. Atheists do not see the bible as anything other than fictional literature.

Atheism Debate

Atheism, the idea believed by atheists, is essentially the belief that there are no deities or gods. It can also be defined, in much more broad terms, as the rejection of any belief of deities. While the exact definition of atheism is widely debated, there are several levels of atheism, giving alternate meanings to the word. By the broadest of standards, atheism refers to the absence of any belief in gods or deities. This modern definition of Atheism originated in the 18th century. The word “atheism” arose from the Greek word atheos, meaning “without gods”. This was originally a negative word applied to those individuals who did not believe or worship gods of any kind that the larger society as a whole believed in. The eventual rise of freethought, skepticism, and criticism of religions led to a more widespread belief in atheism by many individuals.

The Atheism Debate:
Christianity has always been a major opponent of atheism. To add to the atheist debate, the Bible states that anybody who does not believe in God as the supreme being is a fool. The Catholic Church has also been strongly present in the debate, claiming that since atheism rejects or denies that God exists, it is a sin against Christianity. Proponents of agnostics have also entered the atheism debate, believing that humans are incapable of knowing whether or not a deity exists. They believe that while we do not know a deity exists, there may indeed be one existing; humans however, are incapable knowing whether or not it does or have not discovered it yet.

Atheism on an Individual Scale:
The Philosopher, Blaise Pascal had had a strong opinion in the atheism debate, voicing concerns about human nature and how atheism effects the human thought process and way of thinking. In his thoughts on the atheist debate, he voices that atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree. He further criticizes atheists for not seeking out the truth about whether or not God exists and identifying the signs of God’s will.

Many religions have voiced their concern in the atheism debate, claiming that after death, atheists are punished for their disbelief in a supreme being. Christian authors have linked good health and long life as a direct relation with the belief in God. On the other side of the atheist debate, atheists have claimed that countries with high percentage of atheists generally live longer because they value their life on earth more. Since they believe there is no after life, a person is more willing to use their time wisely when they are living.

Morality in the Atheism Debate:
Philosophers for years have told about the importance of a supreme being to dictate rules for living, as it gives motivation to people to perform good behavior and to live righteously. Christian Cardinal, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has stated that he believes atheism is the result of many wars and the destruction of humanity and a lack of faith is a greater evil than sin itself.

Agnostic Group

Atheism, the idea believed by atheists, is essentially the belief that there are no deities or gods. It can also be defined, in much more broad terms, as the rejection of any belief of deities. While the exact definition of atheism is widely debated, there are several levels of atheism, giving alternate meanings to the word. By the broadest of standards, atheism refers to the absence of any belief in gods or deities. This modern definition of Atheism originated in the 18th century. The word “atheism” arose from the Greek word atheos, meaning “without gods”. This was originally a negative word applied to those individuals who did not believe or worship gods of any kind that the larger society as a whole believed in. The eventual rise of freethought, skepticism, and criticism of religions led to a more widespread belief in atheism by many individuals.

What Was the Atheist and Agnostic Group?
The Atheist and Agnostic Group was an atheist forum community that was created on the popular social networking website MySpace. The atheist forum was targeted to those who believed in atheist and agnostic ideals having rapidly gained popularity with approximately 35,000 members before it was finally deleted. The Atheist and Agnostic Group was one of the largest atheist forums on MySpace, having dedicated itself to the subject of non-theism and gained 10,000 members every year until it was finally disbanded.

Controversy Surrounding the Atheist Forum:
Due to several attacks from phish hackers in 2007, the creator’s account was accessed without permission and the atheist forum was vandalized. The group was renamed by the hackers, members of the atheist forum were banned, and the founder’s account was also vandalized. Due to the heated pressure caused by the sensitive subject matter, MySpace deleted the atheist forum. The founder of the atheist group believes that MySpace deleted because they gave in to pressure from powerful Christian groups. After the creator complained to MySpace, they eventually brought the group back a few months later. Once again, the atheist forum was attacked again by Christian fundamentalists, and once again, the group was deleted by MySpace during the creator’s continuing efforts to have users unbanned from the group. The atheist forum has been down ever since.

Attacks to One of the Largest Atheist Forums on the Internet:
There were many attacks experienced by the Atheist and Agnostic Group on MySpace. When the creator’s account was hacked by Christian fundamentalists, his profile was vandalized and the group was renamed “Jesus is Love”. In addition, many of the discussions in the forum were deleted, including threads talking about the hack and half the members were banned. Finally, on January 1, 2008, the group was scheduled to be removed from the website.

Subsequent Groups:
In honor of the original atheist forum and to exercise their freedom of speech, several other atheist forums on MySpace bearing the same name. They still have continual discussions.

Atheistic Criticisms of Agnostic Beliefs

The agnostic view is that of analyzing the “truth” value of particular claims. A prime example of the agnostic view about religion is that the existence of any god or deity, along with many other religious claims is completely unknown or incapable of being known by humans. Agnostic viewpoints are aimed at questioning beliefs and approaching problems and unknowns with a level of certainty. Its goal is to distinguish the idea of “beliefs” and the idea of “knowledge” rather than examining any specific stance or belief.

The agnostic ideology, by nature, overlaps with several other belief systems. There may be agnostic people who lean towards atheistic beliefs, while other agnostic people may be called agnostic theists. Agnostic theists believe in a deity and practice a certain religion, but under agnostic methods of thinking, they also believe that the knowledge of an existing god or several gods is impossible to humans. There are two fundamental schools of thought in agnosticism:

What is the Weak Agnostic Belief?
This belief says that the existence of a god is currently unknown but it is possible for humans to one day understand and know if it is true or not. As a result, weak agnostic proponents generally withhold their judgment until solid evidence is presented.

What is the Strong Agnostic Belief?
Proponents of strong agnosticism believe that mankind does not know whether or not a supreme being exists and they are incapable of ever knowing because experiences can only be verified by other subjective experiences.

Criticisms of Agnostic Beliefs:
Many people have criticized the agnostic beliefs because they feel that it is a limitation of a person’s mind to understand material things and not identify spiritual things. Agnosticism has also been a subject of controversy with atheistic proponents as well because the agnostic ideology has often been mistakenly used interchangeably with atheistic beliefs.

Religious scholars maintain their stance that agnostic believers are without merit because the human mind is capable of perceiving intangible objects aside from just material objects. They back this statement up with evidence such as gravity, entropy and human thoughts, all of which are invisible, but do indeed exist. Further religious arguments maintain that agnosticism undermines evidence of God’s creations and to gather scientific evidence of God’s existence would force God to become a servant of man; as such, the question of God should be pursued by other means. In addition, religious leaders and philosophers have argued that God will always be “greater” than the boundaries by which the human mind can fathom and expect, therefore it is safer to choose that God is in existence.

Criticisms have also been aimed at agnostic believers from atheistic believers. Richard Dawkins has been especially vocal on this subject, stating that using the terms “agnostic” or “atheistic” usually depends on how “close to zero” a person’s belief of the existence of a god is. He argues that it is “not worth contrasting zero probability with a value close to zero.

Atheist People

Atheism, the idea believed by atheists, is essentially the belief that there are no deities or gods. It can also be defined, in much more broad terms, as the rejection of any belief of deities. While the exact definition of atheism is widely debated, there are several levels of atheism, giving different meanings to the word. By the broadest of standards, atheism refers to the absence of any belief in gods or deities. This modern definition of Atheism originated in the 18th century. The word “atheism” arose from the Greek word atheos, meaning “without gods”. This was a negative word applied to those individuals who did not believe or worship gods of any kind that the larger society as a whole believed in. The eventual rise of freethought, skepticism, and criticism of religions led to a more widespread belief in atheism.

These relatively new views about a godless society have received much criticism and attack from Christian groups, who have held a widespread belief in God and the Holy Spirit for thousands of years. People who have adopted a godless lifestyle in atheism and agnosticism are only recently in the past few years starting to become socially accepted. For hundreds of years, Christianity has maintained power over the common people about the belief in God and has murdered and prosecuted those who believe otherwise. The silent group of atheists are now starting to speak out fearlessly about their differing views.

The Billboard Controversy:
Making headlines in atheist news and religious news on February 17, 2010, a billboard located in Sacramento, California which promotes the idea of atheism was vandalized hours after it was put up. It is one of several that were placed within the city in response to Christian billboards that were placed in the city promoting Christian religious views. The billboard, which has a picture of a sky with clouds scattered about simply reads, “Are you good without God? Millions are.” The billboard was then defaced when someone spray painted in black “ALSO LOST?” on the bottom beneath “Millions are.”

The billboard was posted by atheist Rachael Harrington, member of the Coalition of Reason. She stated that the purpose of the billboard are to give atheists and agnostics in the area a peace of mind knowing that they are not alone. She claims that it proves that there is prejudice against people who do not believe in any god and it is a very real fact in America.

The Larger Picture:
While this is just a small piece of news that may be long forgotten years to come in atheist news and religious news, it is a perfect metaphor of the atheist vs. religion war that has been going on for hundreds of years. Atheists have the luxury today to be able to live among the majority of Christian believers without fear of prosecution of death. The road for their full rights though is a long battle that will continue for many years to come.

American Atheists

Atheist groups, also known as secularist organizations, are designed to promote moral standards and are wholly concerned with the well-being of the human race, without any references or funding from religious organizations or concepts referring to God or other religious figures. The main views common among all atheist groups is that the separation of church and state should be enforced and the government should not be involved or should be neutral when it came to matters of religion.

Atheism, the idea believed by atheists, is essentially the belief that there are no deities or gods. It can also be defined, in much more broad terms, as the rejection of any belief of deities. While the exact definition of atheism is widely debated, there are several levels of atheism, giving different meanings to the word. By the broadest of standards, atheism refers to the absence of any belief in gods or deities. This modern definition of Atheism originated in the 18th century. The word “atheism” arose from the Greek word atheos, meaning “without gods”. This was a negative word applied to those individuals who did not believe or worship gods of any kind that the larger society as a whole believed in. The eventual rise of freethought, skepticism, and criticism of religions led to a more widespread belief in atheism.

Atheism is not easily defined, and many secularists identify themselves as one of a number of other terms. This includes agnostic, atheist, bright, freethinker, humanist, nontheist, naturalist, rationalist, or a skeptic. All of these identities have one thing in common– they all hold irreligious views, or in other words, have an indifference or hostility towards all things religion. The following are atheist groups found in the United States:

American Atheists:
A non-profit atheist group that is dedicated to defending the rights and liberties of atheists in the United States. They also make it clear in their efforts of defending the notion of the separation of church and state. American Atheists spread their efforts by sending public speakers to colleges and clubs across the U.S. and publishing their monthly magazine entitled American Atheist Magazine.

Fellowship of Humanity:
A atheist group founded in 1935, it was established as a “humanist church” in the early American Religious Humanism movement. It is the oldest affiliate aligned with American Humanist Association. Humanism refers to the belief that humans are primary in importance in their dignity, concerns and capabilities.

Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers:
An atheist group that defines itself as a community support network aimed towards connecting all people of atheism and freethinkers in the United States military. The organization also teaches ideals of atheism and also responds to efforts to promote religion over non-religion.

Secular Coalition for America:
An atheist group for advocacy of atheism, humanism, and freethinkers within the confines of American politics. The Secular Coalition for America has goals of creating respect for those with nontheistic ideologies within the United States and has the mission of protecting the separation of church and state.