Belief
Atheism
What atheists say they believe, the arguments they give against God, and the questions they ask. A belief, not a religion.
Atheism, in the words of atheist organizations, is the lack of belief in gods. Some atheists add a further claim: that no God exists. Philosophers often call the first weak (or negative) atheism and the second strong (or positive) atheism. Atheism is not a religion, and the people who hold it are not one church.
What Atheists Believe
- What Do Atheists Believe?: Quotes American Atheists, Atheist Alliance International, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation on the range of those positions.
- What Is the Difference Between Antitheism and Atheism?: Quotes the Stanford Encyclopedia on why antitheism is not a variety of atheism.
Atheist Arguments Against God
- What Do Atheists Argue Against God?: The case as atheists put it: insufficient evidence, and suffering.
- Has Religion Done More Harm Than Good?: Hitchens’s charge, the Crusades, Basil’s hospital, Julian’s complaint about Christian charity, and Wilberforce on abolition.
- Is Faith Belief Without Evidence?: Quotes Hebrews 11:1 and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The general question of suffering, asked by anyone, is the problem of evil.
Questions Atheists Ask Christians
The questions that come up in this conversation, and that are not themselves a description of atheism, are on their own pages:
- Is God Real?
- Who Created God?
- The Problem of Evil
- Does the Bible Contradict Itself?
- Does the Bible Say the Earth Is Flat?
- Did Jesus Really Exist?
The same historical set:
- What Do Non-Christian Sources Say About Jesus?
- When Was the New Testament Written?
- How Many New Testament Manuscripts Are There?
- What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls and Why Do They Matter?
- Does Archaeology Confirm the Bible?
- Common Arguments: Lists the claims with the texts.
The Christian confession those questions meet is the short list at the end of this page.
What Atheists Believe
What atheist organizations say atheists hold in common.
- What Do Atheists Believe?
Atheist organizations say atheism is the lack of belief in gods. Some atheists also claim that no God exists. Those are different positions.
- What Is the Difference Between Antitheism and Atheism?
Atheism is the lack of belief in gods. Antitheism, in one Stanford sense, hopes no such being exists. The two claims are not the same.
Arguments Against God
The case against God as atheist writers put it.
- Has Religion Done More Harm Than Good?
Crusading armies massacred civilians. Basil built a city for the sick, Julian envied Christian charity, and Wilberforce fought slavery. Matthew 7 judges fruit.
- Is Faith Belief Without Evidence?
Hebrews 11:1 calls faith the evidence of things not seen, and the Gospels name witnesses of the risen Jesus.
- What Do Atheists Argue Against God?
Atheist writers argue from a lack of good reasons to believe, and from suffering. This page is that case in their words, then the Christian claim.
Common Arguments and Objections
Claims that come up in this conversation, with the article that walks through each one.
- God does not exist, or the public evidence does not justify believing that God exists.
Christians say God is the one on whom everything that exists depends.
- Atheism is only the lack of belief in gods. It is not a religion, and it is not the claim that no God exists.
American Atheists and Atheist Alliance International define it that way, and they also say some atheists do claim that no gods exist.
- There are no good reasons to believe in gods, and suffering counts against the God Christians describe.
Atheist Alliance International says the reason is the lack of good reasons.
- If God created everything, someone had to create God.
Christians say God did not begin.