ATHEISM
An Atheist is a person who lacks a belief in the existence of a God or Gods.
Most Atheists have analyzed the available material evidence for
the existence of one or more deities (gods and/or goddesses) and has
concluded that none exist. They believe that the universe, Earth and its
life evolved by perfectly natural processes, without intervention by a
supernatural entity. They often feel that ethical and moral systems governing
human behaviour can be developed without reference to any code of behaviour
of allegedly divine origin. Other Atheists have simply never been exposed
to belief in a deity or deities and therefore have no belief in them.
In ancient Greece, the term was used to refer to people who did not believe
in the official pagan religion; i.e. unbelievers. In ancient Rome, Christians
were often called atheists because they did not believe in the Roman gods and
goddesses. Until the word Agnostism came
into general usage during the 19th century, people who we now call agnostics
were lumped together with atheists.
The Constitution of the State of Texas is unique in
North America in allowing atheists to be discriminated against in
employment. Fortunately, this section of the Constitution has been nullified
by provisions in the Federal Constitution.
The antonym of athiesm is theism.
Atheists have always constituted a very small percentage of the population.
This belief has grown, particularly over the last few decades. This
increase may have been caused by the decline of attendance at Sunday schools,
and churches. Many atheists who feel a need for religious discussion,
fellowship and ritual join the Unitarian-Universalist Church.
According to the 1994 World Almanac, atheists number:
- 161. million in Asia
- 56. million in the former USSR
- 18. million (3.5%) in Europe
- 3.2 million in Latin America
- 1.3 million (0.5%) in North America
- .5 million in Oceania
- .3 million in Africa
According to the 1991 Canadian Census, there are only 13,515 atheists
in Canada. However, this number cannot be an accurate value. Many atheists
identified themselves to the census taker as humanists, free thinker and
persons of no religion.
Internet Resources
- The Left Hemisphere site:
http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/left_hem.shtml contains dozens of links
to various skeptical religious and secular sites.
- Site
http://www.primenet.com/~lippard/atheism.html contains information on
Atheism, Christianity and the SubGenius Church. It contains many
links to atheism home pages, including a list of famous atheists and some
of their writings.
- The Internet Infidels site maintains the Secular Web
at:
http://freethought.tamu.edu/infidels/. The infidels:
- promotes secularism,
- gives access to various secular organizations, books and periodicals
- updates readers with news of attacks on basic freedoms by religious
groups
- The Atheism Web contains the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
of all four of the atheism newsgroups: (alt.atheism, alt.atheism.moderated,
soc.atheism and talk.atheism. See: http://www.domino.org/~meta/atheism/
or
http://freethought.tamu.edu/news/atheism/
- The North Texas Church of Freethought has many atheists,
agnostics, humanists, and individuals who "form opinions about religion
independently of tradition, authority or established belief" (Webster's
New World Dictionary). See:
http://web2.airmail.net/~freethgt
Return to the OCRT home page; return to the Descriptions of Religions page.