Atheism
From Wikireligion
An atheist ("a" meaning "without" and "theos" meaning "a god") is a person with a lack of belief in a god. There are two kinds of atheists: A weak atheist has no belief that a god exists, while a strong atheist actively holds a disbelief in god.
Many self-described atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding supernatural claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Other arguments for atheism are philosophical, social or historical. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism,[6] rationalism, and naturalism,[7] there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.[8]
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Etymology
The word atheism comes from the negative ‘a’ which means ‘no’ and ‘theos’ which means god.
Reasons
- Lack of evidence
- God is unnecessary
- Not convincing
- The problem of evil
- Science explains
- God is meaningless
- God is in the mind
- God is a social function
- God is not apparent
Morals
Atheism does not have any one set of moral ideas. Because of this, some people argue that atheists do not have morals. While some people have no morals (understanding of right from wrong), this is not more true for atheists than for other groups. Amorality (not being able to understand right from wrong) can happen among any group, even if they do not believe that any gods exist. Atheists typically make their moral views from the society they grow up in and their own personal beliefs, but do not say their morality comes from a religion. Some atheists organize groups that say what beliefs they have, such as secular humanism or the Brights movement. Both of these groups have beliefs that members in the group share. Other atheists get their views from other philosophies.
