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Atheism
This is just a quick introduction to Atheism, there's LOADS more important stuff if we had the space!
Atheism isn't actually a religion. It's the word used to describe a lack of belief in God. So atheists are people who don't believe in God or deny the existence of God, Gods or universal top dogs.
You might be an atheist if you're not interested in religion, if you've lost your belief in God, if you were brought up in a culture without religion; you think religion is nonsense or lots of other reasons.
You can be an atheist but also believe in spirituality (like many Buddhists) or you can be atheist and secularist (you don't think religion should have importance in the world).
Even though atheists are often labelled as being ‘all the same’, there are actually various types of atheism in the same way that there are various sects of Christianity.
Atheism is actually a part of certain religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Wicca.
Atheists differ in their beliefs, with some people not believing in any type of supernatural or spiritual forces and others simply not believing in Gods, but still maintaining beliefs in spirituality.
There are many well know atheists in the world – past and present. Richard Dawkins is one of the most famous atheists this century, after his book The God Delusion became a bestseller. Other past and present atheists include the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and the philosophers Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Jean Paul Sartre.
It’s hard to know exactly how many atheists there are in the world, however according to one Harris poll in the Financial Times, there is a higher rate of atheism in Europe than in the U.S. According to the poll, only 4% of U.S. residents consider themselves to be atheist, while as many as 32% of the French poll takers listed atheism as their belief system. One study found that about 5% of Irish people identify themselves as atheists.
Agnostics are people who aren't sure if God exists or not. So it's the “I don't think there's a God, but then again there might be!” argument.
Further Information
Atheist Ireland
Atheist Alliance International
