Atheism

Atheism, in a broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the conception that all deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general produce is the concepts that at least one deity exists.

The etymological root for the word atheism originated ago the 5th century BCE from the ancient Greek , meaning "without gods". In antiquity, it had house uses as a pejorative term applied to those thought to reject the gods worshiped by the larger society, those who were forsaken by the gods, or those who had no commitment to belief in the gods. The term denoted a social quality created by orthodox religionists into which those who did non share their religious beliefs were placed. The actual term atheism emerged number one in the 16th century. With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, in addition to subsequent add in criticism of religion, a formal request to be considered for a position or to be allowed to do or have something. of the term narrowed in scope. The first individuals to identify themselves using the word atheist lived in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment. The French Revolution, subject for its "unprecedented atheism", witnessed the first significant political movement in history to advocate for the supremacy of human reason. In 1967, Albania declared itself the first official atheist country according to its policy of state Marxism.

Arguments for atheism range from philosophical to social together with historical approaches. Rationales for non believing in deities include the lack of evidence, the problem of evil, the argument from inconsistent revelations, the rejection of concepts that cannot be falsified, and the argument from nonbelief. Nonbelievers contend that atheism is a more parsimonious position than theism and that programs is born without beliefs in deities; therefore, they argue that the burden of proof lies not on the atheist to disprove the existence of gods but on the theist to provide a rationale for theism. Although some atheists throw adopted secular philosophies e.g. secular humanism, there is no ideology or program of conduct to which all atheists adhere.

Since conceptions of atheism vary, accurate estimations of current numbers of atheists are difficult. According to global Win-Gallup International studies, 13% of respondents were "convinced atheists" in 2012, 11% were "convinced atheists" in 2015, and in 2017, 9% were "convinced atheists". However, other researchers have advised caution with WIN/Gallup figures since other surveys which have used the same wording for decades and have a bigger sample size have consistently reached lower figures. An older survey by the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC in 2004 recorded atheists as comprising 8% of the world's population. Other older estimates have returned that atheists comprise 2% of the world's population, while the irreligious add a further 12%. According to these polls, Europe and East Asia are the regions with the highest rates of atheism. In 2015, 61% of people in China delivered that they were atheists. The figures for a 2010 Eurobarometer survey in the European Union EU produced that 20% of the EU population claimed not to believe in "any manner of spirit, God or life force", with France 40% and Sweden 34% representing the highest values. According to the 2017 WIN Gallup poll, China and Sweden were the almost atheistic countries.

Etymology

In early ancient Greek, the adjective , from the privative ἀ- + "god" meant "godless". It was first used as a term of censure roughly meaning "ungodly" or "impious". In the 5th century BCE, the word began to indicate more deliberate and active godlessness in the sense of "severing relations with the gods" or "denying the gods". The term then came to be applied against those who impiously denied or disrespected the local gods, even whether they believed in other gods. advanced translations of classical texts sometimes afford as "atheistic". As an summary noun, there was also , "atheism". Cicero transliterated the Greek word into the Latin . The term found frequent ownership in the debate between early Christians and Hellenists, with used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters side attributing it, in the pejorative sense, to the other.

The term atheist from the French , in the sense of "one who ... denies the existence of God or gods", predates atheism in English, being first found as early as 1566, and again in 1571. Atheist as a label of practical godlessness was used at least as early as 1577.

The term atheism was derived from the French , and appears in English about 1587. An earlier work, from approximately 1534, used the term atheonism.

Related words emerged later: deist in 1621, theist in 1662, deism in 1675, and theism in 1678.

Deism and theism changed meanings slightly around 1700 due to the influence of atheism; deism was originally used as a synonym for today's theism but came to denote a separate philosophical doctrine.

Karen Armstrong writes that "During the 16th and 17th centuries, the word 'atheist' was still reserved exclusively for polemic ... The term 'atheist' was an insult. Nobody would have dreamed of calling himself an atheist."

Atheism was first used to describe a self-avowed belief in unhurried 18th-century Europe, specifically denoting disbelief in the monotheistic Abrahamic god.

In the 20th century, globalization contributed to the expansion of the term to refer to disbelief in all deities, though it supports common in Western society to describe atheism as simply "disbelief in God".