Difference between revisions of "Atheism"

Latest revision as of 18:28, 18 April 2014

About

Atheism is the belief that there is no such thing as a deity (most commonly referred to as "God"), or that the existence of such is unlikely enough that it can be ignored when making important decisions. Atheism is the opposite of theism, which holds that the existence of one or more deities (and, usually, the supposed views and intentions of that deity) is an important factor to consider in at least some major real-world decisions.

Atheism is compatible with agnosticism, the belief that it is not possible for humans to know whether any deities exist.

In practice, atheism equates to a rejection of dogma, especially where it is religious in nature, and an embrace of rationality as a guiding principle for making decisions based on real-world evidence.

Arguments and Opinions

Theists often ask atheists to defend their non-belief, which is silly; people are not normally required to explain their disbelief in things which cannot be proven either way. The only necessary response to "Why don't you believe in God?" is "Why should I?".

Whether or not God actually exists, however, answering that "God did it" does not actually explain anything.

Related Pages

Notes

An argument often used against atheism is that atheists have been among the worst perpetrators of atrocity, with the prime examples being Adolf Hitler, Stalin, and/or Pol Pot. The implication that Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot were atheists, however, is actually untrue; Hitler was a very vocal Catholic, Stalin was born, raised, and educated in Russian Orthodox Catholicism, and Pol Pot was born, raised and educated Catholic. (More sources needed.)

Links

Reference

Wikipedia
- see also: ignosticism, theological noncognitivism
Conservapedia has a rather distorted view (no surprise); e.g. "Since atheism is denial of the existence of God or gods, it is important first to identify in which God and/or gods the atheist denies." The word "atheism" means belief in no god(s).
- This article is locked for editing, and therefore cannot be collaboratively corrected.
- Public Awareness of the Atheism Article: "Conservapedia wishes to increase public awareness of its atheism article to counter the many atheist websites targeting young people."
- Debate: should atheists be barred from Conservapedia?: some interesting claims about atheism
RationalWiki
- Conservapedia:Atheism: A point-by-point discussion/refutation of Conservapedia's Atheism article
- Conservapedia has blocked, via their spam filter, the posting of any mention of RationalWiki.
~~LessWrong Wiki~~ redirects to religion (as of 2009-11-23; confirmed 2010-07-13)
dKosopedia
~~SourceWatch~~: no equivalent article (as of 2008-04-26)

Filed Links

Groups / Projects

Daylight Atheism
Goosing the Antithesis blog: "We promote rational individualism, and are opposed to those who assert incoherent supernatural claims."
the evil Atheist conspiracy: difficult to categorize; appears to be a collection of videos on various atheism-related topics. Longer on presentation than content.
The OUT Campaign
- introduction by Richard Dawkins
Whole Valley Church of Sanity and Reason: videos, quotes, and other atheism-related resources
Local:
- Atheists of Utah

Blogs

Atheist Planet: mostly videos

Documentaries

The Atheism Tapes: 2005 BBC TV series by Jonathan Miller
The Root of All Evil?: 2006 British TV series by Richard Dawkins (the title was not Dawkins's choice, and he insisted on adding the question mark)

Facts

2006-12-24 10 myths - and 10 Truths - About Atheism by Sam Harris

Opinion

2007-03-12 Why I'm not a "friendly" atheist
2007-03-11 Why I'm Not An Angry Atheist
2006-11-16 Why Are Atheists So Angry?: this is actually the first part of a well-written multi-round dialogue between atheist Sam Harris and believer Dennis Prager. Unfortunately, Prager's responses seem to be mostly diversionary, including an ad hominem attack on Bertrand Russell [W] which does nothing to answer Harris's posing of Russell's celestial teapot [W] analogy. He does seem to get more real about the dialogue towards the end, however.
2006-08-15 The Language of Ignorance by Sam Harris: answers the religious arguments in Human Genome Project head Francis Collins's book The Language of God
2006-02-08 An Atheist Manifesto by Sam Harris
The Myth of Secular Moral Chaos by Sam Harris

Discussion

2007-01-02+: Rationalism, not atheism: forum discussion on the value of the term "atheism" and various alternatives

Related Concepts

Deism
Agnosticism (Wikipedia)

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 Theists often ask atheists to defend their non-belief, which is silly; people are not normally required to explain their disbelief in [[wikipedia:Russell's teapot|things which cannot be proven either way]]. The only ''necessary'' response to "Why don't you believe in God?" is "[[arguments for the existence of God|Why should I?]]".
-There are, however, some good [[reasons God is not a good explanation|reasons not to depend on God as an explanation]] for natural phenomena, ''whether or not'' [[God]] actually exists.
+Whether or not [[God]] actually exists, however, answering that "[[God did it]]" does not actually explain anything.
 ===Related Pages===
 * [[organized atheism]]
@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 ** [[atheist intolerance]]
 ** [[atheist supremacy]]
+** [[atheist religion]] (or [[atheism is a religion]])
+===Notes===
+An argument often used against atheism is that atheists have been among the worst perpetrators of atrocity, with the prime examples being [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Stalin]], and/or [[Pol Pot]]. The implication that Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot were atheists, however, is actually untrue; Hitler was a [[Adolf Hitler/religion|very vocal Catholic]], Stalin was born, raised, and educated in [[Russian Orthodox Catholicism]], and Pol Pot was born, raised and educated [[Catholic]]. (More sources needed.)
 ==Links==