Atheism News

What is an atheist? What is an agnostic? What is the difference?

Atheism sets its roots from the pre-Socratics. The etymology of atheist can be traced to Ancient Greek from the word ¬atheos meaning without (a-) god (theos). Around late antiquity when monotheistic religions began to flourish, the word sort of acquired the connotation of "denying the gods" or "ungodly". This is probably the source of the negative connotation that is associated with atheist.

Some Americans are having a change of heart about mixing religion and politics. A new survey finds a narrow majority of the public saying that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and not express their views on day-to-day social and political matters. For a decade, majorities of Americans had voiced support for religious institutions speaking out on such issues.

Some have argued that rather than define atheism as the absence of belief in gods, it makes more sense to define atheism as not worshipping any gods.

By Paul Campos , Rocky Mountain News Wednesday, August 27, 2008 In my younger and more vulnerable years I once got into a debate with a fundamentalist Christian about the morality of capital punishment.

Two months after posting an "Imagine No Religion" billboard in Denver at West 14th Avenue and Fox Street, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and its local membership have replaced that sign with a timely new message.

The subject was euthanasia. The setting was a philosophy class for adults that I was teaching two or three decades ago. I wanted a lively discussion with reasoned arguments on both sides, but I was concerned that the discussion would quickly come to a dead end, because euthanasia would be seen merely as an act of killing and therefore absolutely wrong. To break the dogmatic ice, I needed to present a particular situation in which everyone would agree that euthanasia—mercy killing—was the right thing to do.

A.C. Grayling is looking forward to the possibility of an atheist prime minister.

Since I voted in my first presidential election - in the year 2000 - Christians have been kvetching about how Democrats just don't get religion.

Denial seems to be a common reaction to atheism: denial of what atheism is, that atheists exist, and so forth.

"I don't think even the blackest atheist has an idea of what real separation [from God] will be.

I haven t read the book yet, so forgive me if I ask an unnecessary question or say things that are not applicable to this specific book.. What actually keeps me by now away from all these books are two things: ...

Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins' Case Against God cuts through the shoddy reasoning, logical blunders, and factual errors that populate Richard Dawkins' best-selling book The God Delusion .

UPDATE : Archbishop Chaput will be my guest in hours two and three today to discuss his new book, linked below.

He is a prolific author of works concerning politics and society. After college, he worked briefly in the public sector and was, in the late eighties, a senior domestic policy analyst in the Reagan ...

GIVEN his reputation as an evangelist for logical thought, the last thing you'd expect Richard Dawkins, right, to engage in is a bit of wild speculation about life on other planets.

That hardly anyone questions the appropriateness of Barack Obama and John McCain making their first joint appearance in a church speaks volumes about the erosion of the distinction between religion and government during the past 25 years.

It is unfortunate that so many Christians in America don't seem to be able to accept the idea that others might not only reject their religion, but even reject belief in any sort of god whatsoever.

To many, I suppose, especially to those with strong religious beliefs and those who cling to a prejudicial mythology, the term "spiritual atheism" is oxymoronic, even blasphemous.

Preaching to the masses just got a whole lot easier. Thanks to video-sharing sites such as YouTube, anyone can play evangelist with the touch of a mouse or the click of a keyboard.

Faith is a euphemism for prejudice and religion is a euphemism for superstition.