Child of Theos

What is Atheism?

By

Ron Rhodes

(This entire selection is taken from his book, Answering the Objections of Atheists Agnostics, & Skeptics.[1])

            The word atheism comes from two Greek words: the prefix a, meaning "no" or "without", and theos, meaning "God" or "deity." An atheist is a person who does not believe in God or any deity.

            I find it interesting that the term atheism was once used among the Greeks and Romans in regard to Christians, who denied the gods of pagan religions. It was only much later the term atheist came to be used in regard to a denial of the personal Creator God of the Christian Bible.[2] As scholar Michael martin said, "In Western society the term atheism has been used more narrowly to refer to the denial of theism, in particular Judeo-Christian theism, which asserts the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good personal being."[3]

            There have been various kinds of atheists throughout history. Some have argued that the idea of God is mythological, and there is no need for such mythology in modern times. Others say there once was a God but He died. Others have argued that because of the finitude and limitations of "God-talk" (that is, language about God), we really cannot know anything about such a being. Still others come right out and dogmatically assert that there has never been and never will be a God.

            Some atheists argue that atheism is the default position of all human beings. David Eller, in his book Natural Atheism, wrote:

I was born and atheist. All humans are born atheists. No baby born into the world arrives with specific religious beliefs or knowledge. Such beliefs and knowledge must be acquired, which means that they must first exist before and apart from the new life and that they must be presented to and impressed on the new suggestible mind-- one that has no critical apparatus and alternative views of its own. Human infants are like sponges, soaking up (not completely uncritically, but eagerly and effectively) whatever is there to be soaked up from their social environment. Small children in particular instinctively imitate the models that they observe in their childhood, but I was not compelled to attend or practice any particular religion, and as I grew I never saw any reason to "convert" to any particular religion. I have thus been an atheist all my life. I am a natural atheist.[4]

            Eller is aware that Christian critics challenge the idea that one can be a "natural atheist." He says his critics

claim that atheism requires an active rejection of religious belief, which cannot occur with prior exposure or even commitment to religion. So, a new-born is not yet an "atheist" but something other than an atheist or theist, they maintain-- a "pre-theist" maybe. Atheism must be a choice. I see this argument as spurious and actually negatively motivated. Theists do not want to admit that they were once atheists too and that they gave it up not by any choice they made but by the forces imposed on them by a religious world.[5]

            Reacting against the claim by Christian apologists that atheism itself constitutes a religious belief, prominent atheist George Smith argues that atheism, in its most basic form, is not a belief, but rather it is the absence of a belief.[6] "The definition for atheism that we use, put simply, says that atheism is the lack of a god-belief, the absence of theism, to whatever degree and for whatever reason."[7]

            The Problem with this line of argumentation, Christian theists point out, is that once you say, "I lack a belief in God," you have in fact affirmed a religious "belief". Further, this line of argumentation fails to recognize that atheism is in fact a faith based system. After all, atheists cannot offer definitive proofs that God does not exist, and hence there must be an element of faith in their viewpoint. The late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, one of the more prominent signers of the Humanist Manifesto II, was being intellectually honest when he stated, "Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist that I don't want to waste my time."[8] The lack of evidence to prove God does not exist-- to merely suspect that God does exist-- is a position that quite obviously involves a level of faith. Atheism is a faith system.