Atheism: Overview

Introduction

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw a sharp increase in the percentage of people, both in the US and worldwide, identifying themselves as “nonreligious,” “none,” or “unaffiliated,” which includes those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic. (Atheists do not believe in deities or supreme beings, while agnostics believe that the existence of gods cannot be proven or disproven.) A 2022 Gallup poll found that 10 percent of people worldwide are atheists.

Atheists are a diverse group and may cite many reasons for their unbelief. Some have been raised without religious instruction or have lived their lives in a secular society. Others feel that science adequately accounts for the origins of life and do not feel the need for faith in a deity. Some adhered to a religion previously and lost faith, have negative social or political feelings about the impact of organized religions, or find it impossible to believe in a god that allows cruelty and injustice in the world.

Many atheists suggest that because there is no empirical evidence to prove their existence, deities do not exist. Atheists believe the onus is on religion to provide proof of its validity. However, religious believers argue that the presumption of God's existence is based on reason and that the proof of God's existence is in the unanswered questions about the universe, which remain unaddressed by science. Those who believe in a god or gods tend to feel that the essence of faith is the ability and willingness to be true to one's beliefs without proof. They believe that their god or gods have a plan despite the appearance of chaos and cruelty in the world, and it may be that this plan is beyond human understanding.

Atheism has experienced longstanding negative public perception, and even persecution, in many societies. Contrary to some stereotypes that depict atheists as Satan-worshiping or immoral, atheists and religious adherents generally follow similar patterns in terms of making ethical choices. However, atheists make these choices without consideration of any divine plan or disapproval.

Understanding the Discussion

Agnosticism: The belief that there can be no proof either that a god exists or does not exist.

Atheism: The doctrine or belief that there is no God, gods, or supreme beings.

Heresy: The denial of accepted religious teachings or a belief in doctrine that is contrary to dominant religious teachings of a church, especially within the Roman Catholic Church.

Humanism: A philosophy or doctrine emphasizing the human being's capacity for self-realization through reason and often rejecting religion and the importance of belief in a god or gods.

Intelligent design: The belief that the existence of the universe resulted from purposeful design by an intelligent being rather than from chance or undirected natural processes.

Skepticism: The doctrine or belief that absolute knowledge is impossible.

Theism: A belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially of one god as creator of the universe.

History

Atheism has existed alongside many religions throughout history. In Europe, the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and Roman philosopher Lucretius were among the first atheist writers, though both acknowledged that gods might exist. They, together with schools of Greek philosophy such as the Skeptics and Stoics, developed ideas about the existence or nonexistence of gods and the nature of the universe that would continue to be drawn upon many centuries later by modern philosophers.

Epicurus wrote about the concept of “materialism.” He believed that only material objects and the space that separates them existed. Epicurus taught that the soul could not exist without the body, as both are material objects. Therefore, there could be no afterlife, as the soul would cease to exist at the time of the body's death. Epicurus believed that gods might exist, but, if they did, they had nothing to do with human beings and no interest in or knowledge of life on Earth.

Lucretius also did not deny the existence of gods. He wrote that human imaginings about gods, along with fear of death, only served to cause suffering in human beings. He agreed with the materialist ideas of Epicurus, teaching that if the gods exist they have no influence on or interest in the human world. The Materialists, as the school of thought is called, were criticized and marginalized by more mainstream schools until the philosophy mostly disappeared in the Middle Ages.

Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, any mention of atheism would have been met with accusations of heresy, especially during the time of the Inquisition, through which the Roman Catholic Church identified and prosecuted heretics. The ideas of the Materialists were not heard again until the seventeenth century. Eventually, writers and thinkers began to reintroduce concepts that questioned the validity of religion's previously indisputable truths. The term “atheism” itself was first used in sixteenth-century France, usually in the context of accusations against scientists, philosophers, and other thinkers considered controversial at that time.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, attacks on the authenticity of religion were more common. Seventeenth-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote that it would have been impossible for the Jewish prophet Moses to have written all the books of the Bible for which he is given credit. In 1779, German scholar Johann Gottfried Eichhorn wrote that the stories in the book of Genesis were not historically accurate but were, instead, myths. The stories, said Eichhorn, should not be read as if they were the actual word of God but should be considered in the same spirit as the mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome. In 1835 another German, David Friedrich Strauss, wrote the same of the New Testament stories of Jesus Christ—that they should be read as myth, not as truth. In 1841, German philosopher and anthropologist Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach wrote that God did not create humankind but was instead a human creation intended to comfort humanity in the face of fear and uncertainty.

Anthropologists introduced more doubt into the theistic debate when comparative studies showed great similarities among religions throughout the world. Some ancient religions seemed to share stories and themes with Christianity, suggesting a borrowing or adoption of mythologies between religions. Questions arose about any religion's right to claim itself as the true faith or the “word of God” when so many religions shared such similar ideas and stories.

The nineteenth century brought a host of new theories and philosophies into play, many of which challenged religion even further. In 1859, The Origin of Species, by English naturalist Charles Darwin, introduced the theory of evolution, describing natural selection and establishing what would become the most widely held scientific explanation for diversity in nature. British activist and politician Charles Bradlaugh, one of the most visible and influential atheists in Victorian England, wrote extensively about his views in The Freethinkers Textbook. In May 1881, British secularist George William Foote began a journal called The Freethinker, in which he wrote on the topic of his atheist beliefs and consequently was jailed for the crime of blasphemy. By the end of the nineteenth century, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had proclaimed that God was dead due to humankind's lack of faith. Other influential nineteenth-century German atheists included Karl Marx and Arthur Schopenhauer.

In the twentieth century, communism brought state-sanctioned atheism and opposition to organized religion with the establishment of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1922 and the People's Republic of China in 1949. These secular states sought to eradicate organized religion and were strongly opposed by religious organizations, most notably the Catholic Church. In 1969, Albania was declared the first and only officially atheist state, but in 1991 the right to religious freedom was restored in the area with the fall of communism. Similarly, Communist-controlled Cuba and North Korea also discouraged religion within their borders. Consequently, many Americans came to view faith and atheism not only in religious terms but in terms of political opposition between democracy and communism.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the debate between atheists and believers has become increasingly nuanced. Some atheists, such as the prominent authors Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, charged that religion is unnecessary and dangerous. Atheists who identify with this view are known as anti-theists, and their philosophy is sometimes described as “New Atheism.” This movement brought fresh attention to atheism in general but also drew criticism—including from some other atheists—as intolerant. For example, some vocal new atheists were accused of Islamophobia, though they often contended that they opposed all organized religions equally. Other atheists rejected the notion of opposing religion at all, preferring the concept of freedom of thought or even actively supporting religion despite their disbelief. New Atheism began to wane by the mid-2010s, as more tolerant atheists became common; in their view, religion is simply irrelevant, not an evil to be eradicated.

Atheism Today

As in the past, it remains difficult to calculate just how prevalent atheism is, as religious belief and the lack thereof is often a highly personal and nuanced phenomenon. Unlike organized religions, atheism has no structure or official tenets that allow for straightforward measurement or analysis. China is often recognized as the most atheist nation, with a 2022 Statistica survey suggesting just under three-quarters of its population were atheists. This is considered due to the influence of Communism, which for years imposed antireligious policies in China, as well as Confucianism, which does not emphasize supernatural deities. Japan also has a well-established atheist population, estimated at 46 percent of citizens in a separate 2023 Ipsos survey. Among Western nations, European countries claim the highest numbers of atheists and agnostics, with particularly large nonreligious populations in the Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, and France. Many nations saw notable increases in secularism in the early twenty-first century.

Although the United States has generally remained much more religious than other socioeconomically comparable countries, it has also seen a sharp increase in religious nonaffiliation in the early decades of the twenty-first century. According to the Pew Research Center, 4 percent of Americans identified as atheists in 2023, compared to 2 percent in 2009. More broadly, the percentage of adults describing themselves as religiously unaffiliated, which included atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular,” rose from 17 percent to 28 percent. Some researchers, however, suggested that the methods employed by established polling firms such as Pew and Gallup may be considerably underestimating the number of atheists due to lingering stigma; an alternate system used by University of Kentucky psychologists in 2017 found the actual figure may be closer to 26 percent of Americans. Experts suggest that a wide variety of factors contributed to the growth of the nonreligious population, from changes in youth culture to church scandals to political currents.

Atheists have also continued to struggle against bias in many societies. In the United States, high-profile controversies over issues such as references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance or the display of religious symbols in public places reflect many atheists' efforts to uphold the separation of church and state. Though the courts have often invoked the concept of “ceremonial deism” to dismiss such complaints, atheist activists have also invoked the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In one notable development, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 was amended in 2016 to specifically include atheists and other nontheists under its protections. Nevertheless, polls have often indicated high levels of public ill will toward atheists, such as a 2019 Pew study that found American adults viewed atheists, along with Muslims, more negatively than any other religious groups. Similarly, a 2020 Gallup poll revealed that Americans would sooner vote for an LGBTQ or Muslim candidate for president than an atheist.

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