atheism
Atheism is refusal of belief in a God or gods, or denial that any deity exists as a fact.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- A philosophical, religious-studies or worldview stance that consists in lack of belief in the existence of God or gods, or in their firm denial.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In public debate: a label for a person or movement that leaves institutional religion, sometimes used polemically of sceptics, agnostics or critics of the church even when they do not call themselves atheists.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - In figurative use: total rejection of some absolute, authority or dogma outside religion, for example atheism toward the market as a metaphor for distrust of a given idea.
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Examples
- In the lecture students compared atheism with agnosticism to separate denial of God's existence from suspension of judgment on that question.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The historical essay cast modern atheism as a reply to theological disputes, not only as simple unbelief.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The journalist avoided the word atheism in the headline, because in local debate it often works as a charge rather than as a description of a stance.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The student set positive atheism, which expressly denies a deity, beside practical atheism, meaning a life without reference to worship.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Usage
Everyday talk often treats atheism as a shorthand for lack of religion, hostility to the church, or moral nihilism. Academic prose is clearer when it states the register: philosophical denial or lack of belief in a deity, a historical polemical label, or figurative rejection of an absolute outside religion. Political rhetoric that uses the word as a stigma forms its own register. State whether you mean a doctrine, a personal stance, or an accusation. Without that frame the name collapses into agnosticism, secularism or critique of institutions.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Webster 1913 records Atheism as refusing belief in, or denying, a God or supreme intelligent Being, and also as Godlessness; Atheist names that person. Theism stands as acknowledgment of a God, set against atheism, pantheism or polytheism. Skeat under ATHEISM derives the lemma from Greek ἄθεος (a- plus θεός, a god), notes early uses in Bacon and Milton, and lists atheous, athe-ism and athe-ist. His THEISM article supplies the θεός stem and marks no kinship with Latin deus.
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Editorial team; facts: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913; W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 1910, open sourceCommon pairings include scientific atheism, practical atheism, critique of atheism, tradition of atheism, and debate over atheism. Atheist as a noun or adjective labels a person or stance; atheistic and atheistical are older adjectival forms beside the -ism. Good usage keeps atheism apart from ordinary secular habits: the latter can name life without worship, while the former marks a doctrine of disbelief or denial. Authors still draw that border in different places.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Morphologically the noun joins the Greek ἄθεος stem (a- plus θεός) to the suffix -ism, in the line Skeat marks under ATHEISM and THEISM. Webster 1913 already records Atheism, Atheist, Atheistic, Atheistical and Atheous as headwords or related forms, together with Theism and Theist. Our senses rest on those public domain facts and on editorial definition, rather than on a modern encyclopaedia paraphrase.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Word forms
Regular English noun, usually uncountable; the plural atheisms is rare and refers to different kinds or national versions of the stance.
word forms
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| singular | atheism |
| plural | atheisms |
Word forms: Editorial team
Collocations
- scientific atheism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - practical atheism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - critique of atheism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - tradition of atheism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - debate over atheism
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Synonyms · Antonyms
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)source
Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Etymology
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W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open sourcealso
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open sourceRelated words
- atheist , noun: one who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God (Webster 1913; Skeat ATHEISM derivatives)
- atheistic , adjective: pertaining to or containing atheism; disbelieving the existence of a God (Webster 1913)
- atheous , adjective: atheistic, impious (obs.); without God (Webster 1913; Skeat ATHEISM)
- theism , related noun (antonymic): belief in the existence of a God (Webster 1913; Skeat THEISM)
- θεός , etymologically related Greek noun: a god (Skeat ATHEISM / THEISM)
Related entries
Questions and answers
What does atheism mean?
It names a stance of lack of belief in God or gods, or their firm denial. In public debate it can also be a polemical label for sceptics, critics of the church or secular people. Figuratively it can be a metaphor for rejecting an absolute outside religion. Scope depends on register: academic, everyday or rhetorical.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Where does the word atheism come from?
Its root runs through Greek ἄθεος (a- plus θεός, a god). Skeat under ATHEISM and THEISM traces that line and notes that it is not related to Latin deus. Webster 1913 opens separate entries for Atheism, Atheist and Theism. The English lemma joins that Greek stem to the suffix -ism.
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W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open sourceHow is atheism inflected in English?
As a regular English noun it is usually uncountable. A plural atheisms shows up only when writers separate national or doctrinal strands. Nearby forms include atheist, atheistic, atheistical, atheous, theism and θεός (Webster 1913; Skeat 1910).
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)How is atheism different from agnosticism?
Agnosticism usually suspends judgment on God's existence, or holds that certain knowledge on that question is unavailable. Atheism in a narrower sense denies a deity's existence or means lack of belief in one. The two strands are often linked in public debate, yet their scopes do not match in every text.