Atheism

Atheism, in its broadest sense, is characterized by an absence of belief in the existence of gods, thus contrasting with theism. This definition includes both those who assert that there are no gods and those who have no beliefs at all regarding the existence of gods. However, narrower definitions often only qualify the former as atheism, the latter falling under the more general term nontheism.

Types and typologies of atheism

Many people have disagreed on how best to characterize atheism, and much of the literature on the subject is confused or confusing. There are many discrepancies in the use of terminology between proponents and opponents of atheism, and even divergent definitions among those who share near-identical beliefs.

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Opponents of atheism have frequently associated atheism with immorality and evil, often characterizing it as a willful and malicious rejection of God or gods. This, in fact, is the original definition and sense of the word, but changing sensibilities and the normalization of nonreligious viewpoints have caused the term to lose its negative connotations in general parlance.

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Among proponents of atheism and neutral parties, there are two major traditions in defining atheism and its subdivisions. The first tradition understands atheism very broadly, and is divided between those who actively reject theism for any reason (strong atheism) and those who are just not theists (weak atheism). Antony Flew, George H. Smith and Michael Martin fall into this tradition, though they don't use the same terminology.

Related Topics:
Strong atheism - Weak atheism - Antony Flew - George H. Smith - Michael Martin

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The second tradition, more common among laypeople, understands atheism more narrowly, as the conscious rejection of theism, and does not consider absence of theistic belief or suspension of judgement concerning theism to be forms of atheism. Ernest Nagel, Paul Edwards and Kai Nielsen are prominent members of this camp. Using this definition of atheism, "implicit atheism", lack of theism without the conscious rejection of it, may not be regarded as atheistic at all, and the umbrella term nontheism may be used in its place.

Related Topics:
Ernest Nagel - Paul Edwards - Kai Nielsen - Implicit atheism - Nontheism

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Atheism as lack of theism

Among modern atheists, the view that atheism means "without (or, polemically, "free of") theistic beliefs" has a great deal of currency. This very broad definition is justified by reference to etymology as well as consistent usage of the word by atheists, and has the polemical advantage of correcting the repressive tendency to define atheism out of existence.

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However, this definition of atheism has not gone unchallenged. Although atheism has over the last few hundred years evolved and broadened beyond being construed as narrowly as meaning "wickedness", impiety, heresy and the religious denial of other religions, as well as pantheism and similar beliefs, it is not as common for it to be understood as including everything that is not explicitly theistic. Whether a writer's definition of atheism as an "absence" or "lack" of theistic belief is in fact intended to mean "not theistic" in the widest possible sense, or just refers to particular forms of the rejection of theism (see below), is often ambiguous.

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However, while this definition of atheism is frequently disputed, it is not a recent invention; this use has a history spanning over 230 years. Two atheist writers who are clear in defining atheism so broadly that uninformed children are counted as atheists are d'Holbach (1772) ("All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God." http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/gsens10.txt) and George H. Smith (1979).

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According to Smith,

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the man who is unacquainted with theism is an atheist because he does not believe in a god. This category would also include the child with the conceptual capacity to grasp the issues involved, but who is still unaware of those issues. The fact that this child does not believe in god qualifies him as an atheist. (p.14) http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/smith.htm

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One atheist writer who explicitly disagrees with such a broad definition is Ernest Nagel (1965):

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Atheism is not to be identified with sheer unbelief... Thus, a child who has recieved no religious instruction and has never heard about God, is not an atheist - for he is not denying any theistic claims. (p.460-461)

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For Nagel, atheism is the rejection of theism, not just the absence of theistic belief. However, this definition leaves open the question of what term can be used to describe those who lack theistic belief, but do not necessarily reject theism.

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The obsolete word atheous, first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as a synonym of atheism or impiety, is sometimes used to mean "not dealing with the existence of a god" in a purely privative sense, as distinguished from the negative atheistic. This 1880 coinage captures some of what is intended by the broad definition of atheism, though it is hard to sustain the claim that the philosophical rejection of theism can be characterized in such terms.

Related Topics:
Oxford English Dictionary - 1880

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Implicit and explicit atheism

The terms implicit atheism and explicit atheism were coined by George H. Smith (1979, p.13-18).

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Implicit atheism is defined by Smith as "the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it." Explicit atheism is defined as "the absence of theistic belief due to a conscious rejection of it", which, according to Smith, is sometimes called antitheism (see below).

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For Smith, explicit atheism is subdivided further according to whether or not the rejection is on rational grounds. The term critical atheism is used to label the view that belief in god is irrational, and is itself subdivided (p.17) into a) the view usually expressed by the statement "I do not believe in the existence of a god or supernatural being"; b) the view usually expressed by the statement, "god does not exist" or "the existence of god is impossible"; and c) the view which "refuses to discuss the existence or nonexistence of a god" because "the concept of a god is unintelligible."

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Although Nagel rejects Smith's definition of atheism as merely "lack of theism", acknowledging only explicit "atheism" as true atheism, his tripartite classification of rejectionist atheism (commonly found in the philosophical literature) is identical to Smith's critical atheism typology.

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The difference between Nagel on the one hand and d'Holbach and Smith on the other has been attributed (see Smith (1990, Chapter 3, p.51-60 http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/smithdef.htm), for example, but also alluded to by others) to the different concerns of professional philosophers and layman proponents of atheism.

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Everitt (2004) makes the point that professional philosophers are more interested in the grounds for giving or withholding assent to propositions:

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We need to distinguish between a biographical or sociological enquiry into why some people have believed or disbelieved in God, and an epistemological enquiry into whether there are any good reasons for either belief or unbelief... We are interested in the question of what good reasons there are for or against God's existence, and no light is thrown on that question by discovering people who hold their beliefs without having good reasons for them. (p.10)

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So, in philosophy (Flew and Martin notwithstanding), atheism is commonly defined along the lines of "rejection of theistic belief". This is often misunderstood to mean only the view that there is no God, but it is conventional to distinguish between two or three main sub-types of atheism in this sense (writers differ in their characterisation of this distinction, and in the labels they use for these positions).

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The terms weak atheism and strong atheism (or, alternatively, negative atheism and positive atheism) are often used as synonyms of Smith's less-well-known implicit and explicit categories. However, the original and technical meanings of of implicit and explicit atheism are quite different and distinct from weak and strong atheism, having to do with conscious rejection and unconscious rejection of theism rather than with positive belief and negative belief.

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People who do not use the broad definition of atheism as "lack of theism", but instead use the most common definition "disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods" http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=atheism would not recognize mere absence of belief in deities (that is, implicit atheism) as a type of atheism at all, and would tend to use other terms, such as "skeptic" or "agnostic" or "nonatheistic nontheism", for this position.

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Atheism as denial or rejection of theism

Atheism as immorality

The first attempts to define or develop a typology of atheism were in religious apologetics. These attempts were expressed in terminologies and in contexts which, unsurprisingly, reflected the religious assumptions and prejudices of the writers. Nevertheless, a diversity of atheist opinion has been recognised at least since Plato; common distinctions were established between practical atheism and speculative or contemplative atheism.

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Practical atheism

Practical atheism was said to be caused by moral failure, hypocrisy, willful ignorance, and infidelity. Practical atheists behaved as though God, morals, ethics and social responsibility did not exist. Maritain's typology of atheism (1953, Chapter 8) proved influential in Catholic circles; it was followed in the New Catholic Encyclopedia (see Reid (1967)). He identified, in addition to practical atheism, pseudo-atheism and absolute atheism (and subdivided theoretical atheism in a way that anticipated Flew). For an atheist critique of Maritain, see Smith (1979, Chapter 1, Section 5) http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/smith.htm.

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According to the French Catholic philosopher Étienne Borne (1961, p.10), "Practical atheism is not the denial of the existence of God, but complete godlessness of action; it is a moral evil, implying not the denial of the absolute validity of the moral law but simply rebellion against that law."

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According to Karen Armstrong (1999):

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During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the word 'atheist' was still reserved exclusively for polemic... In his tract Atheism Closed and Open Anatomized (1634), John Wingfield claimed: "the hypocrite is an Atheist; the loose wicked man is an open Atheist; the secure, bold and proud transgressor is an Atheist: he that will not be taught or reformed is an Atheist". For the Welsh poet William Vaughan (1577 -1641), who helped in the colonisation of Newfoundland, those who raised rents or enclosed commons were obvious atheists. The English dramatist Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) proclaimed that the ambitious, the greedy, the gluttons, the vainglorious and prostitutes were all atheists. The term 'atheist' was an insult. Nobody would have dreamed of calling himself an atheist. (p.331-332)

Related Topics:
Welsh - William Vaughan - Newfoundland - Thomas Nashe

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On the other hand, the existence of serious speculative atheism was often denied. That anyone might reason their way to atheism was thought to be impossible. Thus, speculative atheism was collapsed into a form of practical atheism, or conceptualized as hatred of God, or a fight against God. This is why Borne finds it necessary to say, "to put forward the idea, as some apologists rashly do, that there are no atheists except in name but only 'practical atheists' who through pride or idleness disregard the divine law, would be, at least at the beginning of the argument, a rhetorical convenience or an emotional prejudice evading the real question." (p.18)

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Martin (1990, p.465-466) suggests that practical atheism would be better described as alienated theism.

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Other pejorative definitions of atheism

When in the course of the history of ideas the denial of the existence of "speculative" atheism became unsustainable, atheism was nevertheless repressed and criticized by defining it very narrowly, casting it as unacceptably dogmatic or otherwise misrepresenting atheist positions. One of the reasons for the popularity of alternative terms like secularist, agnostic, or bright is that atheism still has pejorative connotations arising from attempts at suppression and from its association with practical atheism (Godless is still used as an abusive epithet).

Related Topics:
Secularist - Agnostic - Bright

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Mynga Futrell and Paul Geisert, the originators of the term Bright, made this explicit in an essay published in 2003:

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Our personal frustration regarding labels reached culmination last fall when we were invited to join a march on Washington as "Godless Americans." The causes of the march were worthy, and the march itself well planned and conducted. However, to unite for common interests under a disparaging term like godless (it also means "wicked") seemed ludicrous! Why accept and utilize the very derogatory language that so clearly hampers our own capacity to play a positive and contributing role in our communities and in the nation and world? http://www.the-brights.net/vision/essays/futrell_geisert_nix.html

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Gaskin (1989) abandoned the term atheism in favour of unbelief, citing "the pejorative associations of the term, its vagueness, and later the tendency of religious apologists to define atheism so that no one could be an atheist..." (p.4)

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Despite these considerations, for others atheist has always been the preferred name. Charles Bradlaugh once said (in debate with George Jacob Holyoake, 10 March 1870, cited in Bradlaugh Bonner (1908)):

Related Topics:
Charles Bradlaugh - George Jacob Holyoake - 10 March - 1870

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I maintain that the opprobrium cast upon the word Atheism is a lie. I believe Atheists as a body to be men deserving respect... I do not care what kind of character religious men may put round the word Atheist, I would fight until men respect it. (p.334)

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For more on repressive definitions of atheism, see Berman (1982), Berman (1983) and Berman (1990).

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Weak and strong atheism

:Main articles: Weak atheism, Strong atheism

Related Topics:
Weak atheism - Strong atheism

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Weak atheism, sometimes called soft atheism, negative atheism or neutral atheism, is the absence of belief in the existence of deities without the positive assertion that deities do not exist. Strong atheism, also known as hard atheism or positive atheism, is the belief that no deities exist.

Related Topics:
Weak atheism - Deities - Strong atheism

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While the terms weak and strong are relatively recent, the concepts they represent have been in use for some time. In earlier philosophical publications, the terms negative atheism and positive atheism were more common; these terms were used by Antony Flew in 1972, although Jacques Maritain (1953, Chapter 8, p.104) used the phrases in a similar, but strictly Catholic apologist, context as early as 1949 http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/jm3303.htm.

Related Topics:
Antony Flew - Jacques Maritain

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Although both terms are most often used by explicit atheists, nontheists who consciously reject theism, weak atheism also includes some implicit atheists—that is, nontheists who have not consciously rejected theism, but lack theistic belief, arguably including infants.

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Theists claim that a single deity or group of deities exist. Weak atheists do not assert the contrary; instead, they only refrain from assenting to theistic claims. Some weak atheists are without any opinion regarding the existence of deities, either because of a lack of thought on the matter, a lack of interest in the matter (see apatheism), or a belief that the arguments and evidence provided by both theists and strong atheists are equally unpersuasive. Having considered the evidence for and against the existence of deities, others (explicit weak atheists) may doubt or dispute the existence of deities, while not actively asserting that deities do not exist.

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Some weak atheists feel that theism and strong atheism are equally untenable, on the grounds that faith is required both to assert and to deny the existence of deities, and as such both theism and strong atheism have the burden of proof placed on them to prove that a god does or doesn't exist. Some also base their belief on the notion that it is impossible to prove a negative.

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While a weak atheist might consider the nonexistence of deities likely on the basis that there is insufficient evidence to justify belief in a deity's existence, a strong atheist would add to this the additional view that positive statements of nonexistence are merited when there is a lack of evidence for something's existence.

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Strong atheism may be based on arguments that the concept of a deity is self-contradictory and therefore impossible (positive ignosticism), or on the assertion that any belief in the supernatural is not rationally justifiable. It may also be based on an appreciation of the psychological characteristics of faith and belief (see true-believer syndrome), and of a subsequent critical attitude towards any system that encourages faith and obedience, rather than critical thinking, from its adherents.

Related Topics:
Ignosticism - True-believer syndrome - Critical thinking

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Agnosticism is distinct from weak atheism, though many implicit atheists may be agnostic, and implicit atheism falls under weak atheism.

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Beliefs that theism is inherently meaningless or irrelevant

Ignosticism

:Main article: Ignosticism

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Ignosticism is the view that the question of whether or not deities exist is inherently meaningless. It is a popular view among many logical positivists such as Rudolph Carnap and A. J. Ayer (they didn't use this terminology), who hold that talk of gods is literally nonsense. According to ignostics, "Does a god exist?" has the same logical status as "What color is Saturday?"; they are both nonsensical, and thus have no meaningful answers.

Related Topics:
Logical positivists - Rudolph Carnap - A. J. Ayer - Nonsense

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Ignostics commonly hold that statements about religious or other transcendent experiences cannot have any truth value, often because theological statements lack falsifiability, because of an epistemological view that renders the ontological argument nonsensical, or because the terminology being used has not been properly or consistently defined—the latter view is known as theological noncognitivism.

Related Topics:
Falsifiability - Epistemological - Ontological argument - Theological noncognitivism

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The use of the word "god" is thus solely a matter of semantics to ignostics, dealing with word use and technicalities rather than with existence and reality.

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In Language, Truth and Logic, Ayer stated that theism, atheism and agnosticism were equally meaningless, insofar as they treat the question of the existence of God as a real question. However, there are varieties of atheism and agnosticism which do not necessarily agree that the question is meaningful, especially using the "lack of theism" definition of atheism. Despite Ayer's criticism of atheism (perhaps using the definition typically associated with strong atheism), Ignosticism is usually counted as a form of atheism; Ayer (1966) was clear on his position:

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I do not believe in God. It seems to me that theists of all kinds have very largely failed to make their concept of a deity intelligible; and to the extent that they have made it intelligible, they have given us no reason to think that anything answers to it. (p226)

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The ignostic position is mentioned (though the term ignostic is not used) as one of the three forms of "critical atheism" (in Smith) or "rejectionist atheism" (in Nagel), the other two being the view that god probably does not exist, and the view that god definitely does not exist. As critical/rejectionist atheism is a type of strong atheism (which is always explicit), this would make ignosticism a positive belief; however, some ignostics dispute whether considering a nonsensical question nonsensical is a positive statement, any more than considering "What color is Sunday?" nonsensical would be. These ignostics prefer to categorize their view as a form of explicit weak atheism.

Related Topics:
Strong atheism - Weak atheism

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Ignosticism is distinct from apatheism in that while ignostics hold questions and discussions of whether deities exist to be meaningless, apatheists hold that even a hypothetical answer to such questions would be completely irrelevant to human existence.

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Apatheism

:Main article: Apatheism

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Apatheism is a portmanteau of atheism and apathy, more often used in humorous contexts than in serious philosophical documents, but gaining broader acceptance as a way to describe a significant subset of nontheistic belief.

Related Topics:
Portmanteau - Apathy

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Apatheism is usually defined as the position that the existence or nonexistence of deities has no importance to the lives of humans. It is not a stance on whether or not deities exist, but rather on the relevancy and significance of any claims that deities exist or don't exist. Although it does not make any actual statements about the existence of a deity, it is commonly classified as a form of nontheism or implicit weak atheism because of its presumed lack of theistic belief.

Related Topics:
Nontheism - Weak atheism

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One subset of apatheism is apathetic agnosticism, a fusion of apatheism with strong agnosticism that adds to apatheism's lack of interest in whether deities exist the claim that it is impossible to ever know whether or not deities exist.

Related Topics:
Apathetic agnosticism - Strong agnosticism

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Gnostic and agnostic atheism

:Main article: Agnostic atheism

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Agnostic atheism is a fusion atheism or nontheism with agnosticism, the epistemological position that the existence or nonexistence of deities is unknown (weak agnosticism) or unknowable (strong agnosticism). Agnostic atheism is typically contrasted with agnostic theism, the belief that deities exist even though it is impossible to know that deities exist, and with gnostic atheism, the belief that there is enough information to determine that deities do not exist.

Related Topics:
Nontheism - Agnosticism - Epistemological - Weak agnosticism - Strong agnosticism - Agnostic theism

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Agnostic atheisms definition varies, just as the definitions of agnosticism and atheism do. It may be a combination of lack of theism with strong agnosticism, the view that it is impossible to know whether deities exist to any reliable degree. It may also be a combination of lack of theism with weak agnosticism, the view that there is not currently enough information to decide whether or not a deity exists, but that there may be enough in the future.

Related Topics:
Strong agnosticism - Weak agnosticism

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Gnostic atheism is a more rarely used term, because often anyone who is not labeled as agnostic is assumed to be gnostic by default. Gnostic atheism also has varying meanings. When nontheism is combined with strong gnosticism, it denotes the belief that it is rational to be absolutely certain that deities do not, and perhaps cannot, exist. When it is with weak gnosticism, it denotes the belief that there is enough information to be reasonably sure that deities do not exist, but not absolutely certain.

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Gnostic atheism is also sometimes used as a synonym of strong atheism, and thus agnostic atheism is occasionally a synonym for weak atheism. This is similar to the more common confusion of the terms implicit atheism and explicit atheism with strong and weak atheism.

Related Topics:
Strong atheism - Weak atheism

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Apatheism often overlaps with agnostic atheism, such as with apathetic agnosticism, a fusion of apatheism with strong agnostic atheism.

Related Topics:
Apatheism - Apathetic agnosticism

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Atheism in philosophical naturalism

Many, if not most, atheists have preferred to say that atheism is a lack of a belief, rather than a belief in its own right (see, for example, Krueger (1998, p.22-24); Smith (1979, p.15-16)). This keeps the burden of proof on the theist (see Flew (1984b)), as the only one making any positive assertions. "Belief" also has other connotations that many atheists may wish to avoid.

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Nevertheless, some atheist writers identify atheism with the naturalistic world view, and defend it on that basis. The case for naturalism is used as a positive argument for atheism. See, for example, Thrower (1971), Harbour (2001), Nielsen (2001) and Baggini (2003). See also Everitt's discussion of an anti-atheist argument against naturalism (2004, Chapter 9, p.178-190).

Related Topics:
Naturalistic world view - Nielsen - Baggini

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According to Thrower,

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Much atheism... can be understood only in the light of the current theism which it was concerned to reject. Such atheism is relative. There is, however, a way of looking at and interpreting events in the world, whose origins... can be seen as early as the beginnings of speculative thought itself, and which I shall call naturalistic, that is atheistic per se, in the sense that it is incompatible with any and every form of supernaturalism... naturalistic or absolute atheism is both fundamentally more important, and more interesting, representing as it does one polarity in the development of the human spirit. (p.3-4)

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Julian Baggini argues that, "atheism can be understood not simply as a denial of religion, but as a self-contained belief system, if it is seen as a commitment to the view that there is only one world and this is the world of nature" (p.74). For Baggini, therefore,

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the evidence for atheism is to be found in the fact that there is a plethora of evidence for the truth of naturalism and an absence of evidence for anything else. 'Anything else' of course includes God, but it also includes goblins, hobbits, and truly everlasting gobstoppers. There is nothing special about God in this sense. God is just one of the things that atheists don?t believe in, it just happens to be the thing that, for historical reasons, gave them their name. (p.17)

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Baggini's position is that "an atheist does not usually believe in the existence of immortal souls, life after death, ghosts, or supernatural powers. Although strictly speaking an atheist could believe in any of these things and still remain an atheist... the arguments and ideas that sustain atheism tend naturally to rule out other beliefs in the supernatural or transcendental" (p.3-4).

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Michael Martin (1990, p.470) notes that the view that "naturalism is compatible with nonatheism is true only if 'god' is understood in a most peculiar and misleading way", but he also points out that "atheism does not entail naturalism".

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Antitheism

:Main article: Antitheism

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Antitheism (sometimes hyphenated) typically refers to a direct opposition to theism. In this use, it is a form of critical strong atheism. Antitheism may sometimes overlap with ignosticism, the view that theism is inherently meaningless, and may directly contradict apatheism, the view that theism is irrelevant rather than dangerous.

Related Topics:
Theism - Strong atheism - Ignosticism - Apatheism

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However, antitheism is also sometimes used, particularly in religious contexts, to refer to opposition to God or divine things, rather than to the belief in God. Using the latter definition, it may be possible—or perhaps even necessary—to be an antitheist without being an atheist or nontheist.

Related Topics:
God - Divine

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Antitheists may believe that theism is actually harmful, or may simply be atheists who have little tolerance for views they perceive as irrational. Strong atheists who are not antitheists may believe positively that deities do not exist, but not believe that theism is directly harmful or necessitates antagonistic opposition.

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Spiritual and religious atheism

Although atheistic beliefs are often accompanied by a total lack of supernatural beliefs, this is not an aspect, or even a necessary consequence, of atheism. Indeed, there are many atheists who are not irreligious or secular. These are most common in spiritualities like Buddhism and Taoism, but they also exist in sects of religions that are usually very theistic by nature, such as Christianity, especially in some Liberal Quaker groups.

Related Topics:
Supernatural - Irreligious - Secular - Buddhism - Taoism - Christianity - Liberal Quaker

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A number of atheistic churches have been established, such as the Naturalistic Pantheists, Brianism, the Church of Reality and the Fellowship of Reason. There is also a significant atheist presence in Unitarian Universalism, an extremely inclusivist religion.

Related Topics:
Naturalistic Pantheist - Brianism - Church of Reality - Fellowship of Reason - Unitarian Universalism - Inclusivist

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Belief in God as a non-being

In English, believers usually refer to the monotheistic Abrahamic god as "God". In many abstract or esoteric interpretations of monotheism or henotheism, God is not thought of as a supernatural being, as a deity or god; rather, God becomes a philosophical category: the All, the One, the Ultimate, the Absolute Infinite, the Transcendent, the Divine Ground, Being or Existence itself, etc. For example, such views are typical of pantheism, panentheism, and religious monism. Attributing anthropomorphic characteristics to God may be regarded as idolatry, blasphemy, or symbolism by some. Some theists may not believe in, or may even deny, the existence of deities as supernatural beings, while maintaining a belief in god as so conceived.

Related Topics:
Monotheistic - God - Henotheism - Ultimate - Absolute Infinite - Transcendent - Being - Existence - Pantheism - Panentheism - Monism

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For example, the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich described God as the "ground of Being", the "power of Being", or as "Being itself", and caused controversy by making the statement that "God does not exist", resulting in him occasionally being labelled as an atheist. Nevertheless, for Tillich, God is not "a" being that exists among other beings, but is Being itself. For him, God does not "exist" except as a concept or principle; God is the basis of Being, the metaphysical power by which Being triumphs over non-Being.

Related Topics:
Protestant - Paul Tillich - Tillich - Metaphysical

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However, most atheists who deny the existence of deities as supernatural beings would also deny this and similar conceptions of God, or simply consider them incomprehensible, and even the broadest definitions of atheism often do not include belief in a conceptual or metaphysical God, categorizing this under theism instead.

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Christian atheism

A famous but idiosyncratic atheistic belief is that of Thomas Altizer. His book The Gospel of Christian Atheism (1967) proclaims the highly unusual view that God has literally died, or self-annihilated. According to Altizer, this is nevertheless "a Christian confession of faith" (p.102). Making clear the difference between his position and that of both Nietzsche's notion of the death of God and the stance of theological non-realists, Altizer says:

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To confess the death of God is to speak of an actual and real event, not perhaps an event occurring in a single moment of time or history, but notwithstanding this reservation an event that has actually happened both in a cosmic and in a historical sense.(p.103)

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However, many would dispute that this is an atheist position at all, as belief in a dead God implies belief that God once existed and was alive; atheism typically entails a lack of belief that any gods ever existed, rather than merely the belief that they do not exist now. For further discussion, see Lyas (1970).

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Other, unrelated practitioners of Christian atheism may include Liberal Christian atheists who follow the teaching of Jesus, but who may not believe in the literal existence of god. In this case, however, many would dispute whether the atheists in question are truly Christians, though they certainly are by some of the looser definitions of the word.

Related Topics:
Liberal Christian - Christians

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