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== Etymology ==
[[File:Ephesians 2,12 - Greek atheos.jpg|thumb|left|The Greek word {{lang|grc|αθεοι}} (''atheoi''), as it appears in the [[Epistle to the Ephesians]] ({{bibleverse-nb||Ephesians|2:12}}) on the early 3rd-century [[Papyrus 46]]. It is usually translated into English as "[those who are] without God".<ref>The word {{lang|grc|αθεοι}}—in any of its forms—appears nowhere else in the [[Septuagint]] or the [[New Testament]]. {{cite book |last=Robertson |first=A.T. |title=Word Pictures in the New Testament |origyear=1932 |year=1960 |publisher=Broadman Press |chapter=Ephesians: Chapter 2 |chapterurl=http://www.ccel.org/r/robertson_at/wordpictures/htm/EPH2.RWP.html |quote=Old Greek word, not in LXX, only here in N.T. Atheists in the original sense of being without God and also in the sense of hostility to God from failure to worship him. See Paul's words in Ro 1:18–32. |accessdate=2011-04-09}}</ref>]]
In early [[ancient Greek]], the adjective ''{{Transl|grc|átheos}}'' ({{lang|grc|[[:wikt:ἄθεος|ἄθεος]]}}, from the [[privative a|privative ἀ-]] + {{lang|grc|[[:wikt:θεός|θεός]]}} "god") meant "godless". It was first used as a term of censure roughly meaning "ungodly" or "impious". In the 5th century BCE, the word began to indicate more deliberate and active godlessness in the sense of "severing relations with the gods" or "denying the gods". The term [[:wikt:ἀσεβής|ἀσεβής]] (''{{Transl|grc|asebēs}}'') then came to be applied against those who impiously denied or disrespected the local gods, even if they believed in other gods. Modern translations of classical texts sometimes render ''{{Transl|grc|átheos}}'' as "atheistic". As an abstract noun, there was also {{lang|grc|[[:wikt:ἀθεότης|ἀθεότης]]}} (''{{Transl|grc|atheotēs}}''), "atheism". [[Cicero]] transliterated the Greek word into the [[Latin]] ''{{lang|la|[[:wikt:atheos#Latin|átheos]]}}''. The term found frequent use in the debate between [[early Christianity|early Christians]] and [[Ancient Greek religion|Hellenists]], with each side attributing it, in the pejorative sense, to the other.<ref name=drachmann>{{cite book |last=Drachmann |first=A.B. |title=Atheism in Pagan Antiquity |url=https://books.google.com/?id=cguq-yNii_QC&dq=Atheism+in+Pagan+Antiquity&printsec=frontcover |publisher=Chicago: Ares Publishers |year=1977 |origyear=1922 |isbn=978-0-89005-201-3 |quote=Atheism and atheist are words formed from Greek roots and with Greek derivative endings. Nevertheless, they are not Greek; their formation is not consonant with Greek usage. In Greek they said ''{{Transl |grc |átheos}}'' and ''{{Transl |grc |atheotēs}}''; to these the English words ungodly and ungodliness correspond rather closely. In exactly the same way as ungodly, ''{{Transl |grc |átheos}}'' was used as an expression of severe censure and moral condemnation; this use is an old one, and the oldest that can be traced. Not till later do we find it employed to denote a certain philosophical creed.}}</ref>
The term ''atheist'' (from Fr. ''{{lang|fr|[[wikt:athée|athée]]}}''), in the sense of "one who ... denies the existence of God or gods",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheist |title=atheist |publisher=American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |year=2009 |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127232035/http://www.thefreedictionary.com/atheist |archive-date=27 November 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
predates ''atheism'' in English, being first found as early as 1566,<ref>{{cite book |series=English recusant literature, 1558–1640 |volume=203 |title=A Replie to Mr Calfhills Blasphemous Answer Made Against the Treatise of the Cross |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=20snAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover |first=John |last=Martiall |authorlink=John Marshall (priest) |location=Louvain |year=1566 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=20snAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA49&dq=atheist 49] |access-date=23 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423154826/https://books.google.com/books?id=20snAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=23 April 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
and again in 1571.<ref>Rendered as ''Atheistes'': {{cite book |last=Golding |first=Arthur |authorlink=Arthur Golding |title=The Psalmes of David and others, with J. Calvin's commentaries |year=1571 |pages=Ep. Ded. 3 |quote=The Atheistes which say..there is no God.|title-link=John Calvin}} Translated from Latin.</ref>
''Atheist'' as a label of practical godlessness was used at least as early as 1577.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hanmer |first=Meredith |authorlink=Meredith Hanmer |title=The auncient ecclesiasticall histories of the first six hundred years after Christ, written by Eusebius, Socrates, and Evagrius |publisher=London |year=1577 |page=63 |oclc=55193813 |quote=The opinion which they conceaue of you, to be Atheists, or godlesse men.}}</ref>
The term ''atheism'' was derived from the [[French language|French]] ''{{lang|fr|[[wikt:athéisme|athéisme]]}}'',<ref name="mw-online" /> and appears in English about 1587.<ref name=Golding>Rendered as ''Athisme'': {{cite book |others=Translated from French to English by [[Arthur Golding]] & [[Philip Sidney]] and published in London, 1587 |authorlink=Philippe de Mornay |first=Philippe |last=de Mornay |title=A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion: Against Atheists, Epicures, Paynims, Iewes, Mahumetists, and other infidels |year=1581 |trans-title=De la vérite de la religion chréstienne (1581, Paris) |quote=Athisme, that is to say, vtter godlesnes.}}</ref>
An earlier work, from about 1534, used the term ''atheonism''.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/?id=gW-gAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover |year=c. 1534 |first=Polydore |last=Vergil |title=English history |quote=Godd would not longe suffer this impietie, or rather atheonisme. |accessdate=2011-04-09}}</ref><ref>The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' also records an earlier, irregular formation, ''atheonism'', dated from about 1534. The later and now obsolete words ''athean'' and ''atheal'' are dated to 1611 and 1612 respectively. {{cite book |title=The Oxford English Dictionary |edition=Second |year=1989 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-861186-8 |author=prep. by J.A. Simpson ...|title-link=Oxford English Dictionary}}</ref>
Related words emerged later: ''deist'' in 1621,<ref name=1621Deist>{{cite book |last=Burton |first=Robert |authorlink=Robert Burton (scholar) |work=[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]] |year=1621 |at=Part III, section IV. II. i |quote=Cousin-germans to these men are many of our great Philosophers and Deists |url=https://books.google.com/?id=cPgveWnCdRcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=anatomy+of+melancholy#v=onepage&q=deists&f=false |title=deist |accessdate=2011-04-09 |ref=harv}}</ref>
''theist'' in 1662,<ref>{{cite book |last=Martin |first=Edward |authorlink= |title=His opinion concerning the difference between the Church of England and Geneva [etc.] |publisher=London |year=1662 |chapter=Five Letters |page=45 |quote=To have said my office..twice a day..among Rebels, Theists, Atheists, Philologers, Wits, Masters of Reason, Puritanes [etc.].}}</ref>
''[[deism]]'' in 1675,<ref name=1675Deism>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/?id=CFBGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT255&dq=deism |title=An universal etymological English dictionary |first=Nathan |last=Bailey |year=1675}}</ref>
and ''[[theism]]'' in 1678.<ref>"Secondly, that nothing out of nothing, in the sense of the atheistic objectors, viz. that nothing, which once was not, could by any power whatsoever be brought into being, is absolutely false; and that, if it were true, it would make no more against theism than it does against atheism ..." Cudworth, Ralph. The true intellectual system of the universe. 1678. Chapter V Section II p. 73</ref>
At that time "deist" and "deism" already carried their modern meaning. The term ''theism'' came to be contrasted with deism.
[[Karen Armstrong]] writes that "During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the word 'atheist' was still reserved exclusively for [[polemic]] ... The term 'atheist' was an insult. Nobody would have dreamed of calling ''himself'' an atheist."{{sfn|Armstrong|1999}}
''Atheism'' was first used to describe a self-avowed belief in late 18th-century Europe, specifically denoting disbelief in the [[monotheism|monotheistic]] [[Abrahamic god]].<ref name="adevism">In part because of its wide use in monotheistic Western society, ''atheism'' is usually described as "disbelief in God", rather than more generally as "disbelief in deities". A clear distinction is rarely drawn in modern writings between these two definitions, but some archaic uses of ''atheism'' encompassed only disbelief in the singular God, not in [[polytheism|polytheistic]] deities. It is on this basis that the obsolete term ''[[adevism]]'' was coined in the late 19th century to describe an absence of belief in plural deities.</ref>
In the 20th century, [[globalization]] contributed to the expansion of the term to refer to disbelief in all deities, though it remains common in Western society to describe atheism as simply "disbelief in God".{{sfn|Martin|2006}}
== History ==
{{Main|History of atheism}}
While the earliest-found usage of the term ''atheism'' is in 16th-century [[France]],<ref name="mw-online">{{citation |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheism |title=Merriam-Webster Online:Atheism |quote=First Known Use: 1546 |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131121224609/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheism |archive-date=21 November 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Golding /> ideas that would be recognized today as atheistic are documented from the [[Vedic period]] and the [[classical antiquity]].
=== Early Indian religions ===
{{Main|Atheism in Hinduism}}
{{Rquote|right|"Who really knows? <br />Who will here proclaim it? <br />Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? <br />The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. <br />Who then knows whence it has arisen?"|[[Nasadiya Sukta]], concerns the [[origin of the universe]], [[Rig Veda]], ''10:129-6'' <ref name="Kramer1986">{{cite book |author=Kenneth Kramer |title=World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions |url=https://archive.org/details/worldscripturesi0000kram |url-access=registration |date=January 1986 |publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=978-0-8091-2781-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldscripturesi0000kram/page/34 34]– |access-date=3 April 2019 }}</ref><ref name="Christian2011">{{cite book |author=David Christian |title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RdVmDjwTtQC&pg=PA18 |date=1 September 2011 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-95067-2 |pages=18– |access-date=3 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623173440/https://books.google.com/books?id=7RdVmDjwTtQC&pg=PA18 |archive-date=23 June 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Singh2008">{{cite book |author=Upinder Singh |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA206 |year=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1120-0 |pages=206– |access-date=3 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503141015/https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA206 |archive-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}
Atheistic schools are found in early Indian thought and have existed from the times of the [[historical Vedic religion]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Pandian |title=India, that is, sidd |publisher=Allied Publishers |year=1996 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=B90uj14NHjMC&pg=PA64 |isbn=978-81-7023-561-3 |accessdate=2011-04-09}}</ref>
Among the six [[Astika and Nastika|orthodox]] schools of Hindu philosophy, [[Samkhya]], the oldest philosophical school of thought, does not accept God, and the early [[Mimamsa]] also rejected the notion of God.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dasgupta |first=Surendranath |title=A history of Indian philosophy, Volume 1 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1992 |page=258 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=PoaMFmS1_lEC&pg=PA258 |isbn=978-81-208-0412-8}}</ref>
The thoroughly materialistic and anti-theistic philosophical [[Cārvāka]] (or ''Lokāyata'') school that originated in [[India]] around the 6th century BCE is probably the most explicitly atheistic school of philosophy in India, similar to the Greek [[Cyrenaic school]]. This branch of Indian philosophy is classified as [[nastika|heterodox]] due to its rejection of the authority of [[Vedas]] and hence is not considered part of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism, but it is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement within Hinduism.<ref>Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore. ''A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy''. (Princeton University Press: 1957, Twelfth Princeton Paperback printing 1989) pp. 227–249. {{ISBN|0-691-01958-4}}.</ref>
Chatterjee and Datta explain that our understanding of Cārvāka philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of the ideas by other schools, and that it is not a living tradition:<ref>Satischandra Chatterjee and Dhirendramohan Datta. ''An Introduction to Indian Philosophy''. Eighth Reprint Edition. (University of Calcutta: 1984). p. 55.</ref>{{quote|Though [[materialism]] in some form or other has always been present in India, and occasional references are found in the Vedas, the Buddhistic literature, the Epics, as well as in the later philosophical works we do not find any systematic work on materialism, nor any organized school of followers as the other philosophical schools possess. But almost every work of the other schools states, for refutation, the materialistic views. Our knowledge of Indian materialism is chiefly based on these.}}
Other Indian philosophies generally regarded as atheistic include [[Samkhya|Classical Samkhya]] and [[Mimamsa|Purva Mimamsa]]. The rejection of a personal creator God is also seen in [[Jainism]] and [[Buddhism]] in India.<ref name="Joshi">{{cite journal |last=Joshi |first=L.R. |year=1966 |title=A New Interpretation of Indian Atheism |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=16 |issue=3/4 |pages=189–206 |doi=10.2307/1397540 |ref=harv |jstor=1397540}}</ref>
=== Classical antiquity ===
[[File:Socrates Louvre.jpg|thumb|upright|In [[Plato]]'s ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]'', [[Socrates]] (pictured) was accused by [[Meletus]] of not believing in the gods.<ref name="Burkert1985" /><ref name="Bremmer" />]]
Western atheism has its roots in [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratic]] [[Greek philosophy]],<ref>{{harvnb|Baggini|2003|pp=73–74}}. "Atheism had its origins in Ancient Greece but did not emerge as an overt and avowed belief system until late in the Enlightenment."</ref><ref name="GraftonMostSettis" /> but atheism in the modern sense was extremely rare in ancient Greece.<ref name="Garland2008">{{cite book |last1=Garland |first1=Robert |title=Ancient Greece: Everyday Life in the Birthplace of Western Civilization |date=2008 |publisher=Sterling |location=New York City |isbn=978-1-4549-0908-8 |page=209}}</ref><ref name="Winiarczyk">{{cite book |last1=Winiarczyk |first1=Marek |title=Diagoras of Melos: A Contribution to the History of Ancient Atheism |date=2016|translator-last=Zbirohowski-Kościa|translator-first=Witold |publisher=Walther de Gruyter |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-11-044765-1 |pages=61–68 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=NryvDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Diagoras+of+Melos#v=onepage&q=Diagoras%20of%20Melos&f=false |ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="GraftonMostSettis" /> Pre-Socratic [[Atomism|Atomists]] such as [[Democritus]] attempted to explain the world in a purely [[materialism|materialistic]] way and interpreted religion as a human reaction to natural phenomena,<ref name="Burkert1985">{{cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |authorlink=Walter Burkert |date=1985 |title=Greek Religion |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-36281-9 |pages=311–317 |ref=harv}}</ref> but did not explicitly deny the gods' existence.<ref name="Burkert1985" /> [[Anaxagoras]], whom [[Irenaeus]] calls "the atheist",<ref>[[Irenaeus]]. ''[[Against Heresies]]'' II 14, 2 (D. 171) = 59 B 113 DK. See on this topic: Duran, Martin (2019). ''Wondering About God: Impiety, Agnosticism, and Atheism in Ancient Greece''. Barcelona. Independently Published. p. 28. {{ISBN|978-1-08061-240-6}}.</ref> was accused of impiety and condemned for stating that "the sun is a type of incandescent stone", an affirmation with which he tried to deny the divinity of the celestial bodies.<ref>[[Flavius Josephus]]. ''[[Against Apion]]'' II, 265 = 59 A 19 DK; [[Plutarch]]. ''On superstition'' 10 p. 169 F – 170 A; [[Diogenes Laërtius]], II 12-14; [[Olympiodorus the Younger]]. ''Commentary on Aristotle's Meteorology'' p. 17, 19 Stüve = 59 B 19 DK.</ref> In the late fifth century BCE, the Greek [[lyric poetry|lyric poet]] [[Diagoras of Melos]] was sentenced to death in [[Athens]] under the charge of being a "godless person" (ἄθεος) after he made fun of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]],<ref name="Garland2008" /><ref name="Winiarczyk" /><ref name="Burkert1985" /> but he fled the city to escape punishment.<ref name="Garland2008" /><ref name="Winiarczyk" /><ref name="Burkert1985" /> Later writers have cited Diagoras as the "first atheist",<ref>[[Friedrich Solmsen|Solmsen, Friedrich]] (1942). ''[https://books.google.com/books?vid=0blEqYn0npw5h4r_qPHc_fk&id=rLASAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Plato's Theology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102004009/https://books.google.com/books?vid=0blEqYn0npw5h4r_qPHc_fk&id=rLASAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 |date=2 November 2015 }}''. Cornell University Press. p. 25.</ref><ref name=CIC>''... nullos esse omnino Diagoras et Theodorus Cyrenaicus ...'' Cicero, Marcus Tullius: ''De natura deorum.'' Comments and English text by Richard D. McKirahan. Thomas Library, Bryn Mawr College, 1997, p. 3. {{ISBN|0-929524-89-6}}</ref> but he was probably not an atheist in the modern sense of the word.<ref name="Winiarczyk" />
[[Sisyphus fragment|A fragment]] from the lost [[satyr play]] ''Sisyphus'', which has been attributed to both [[Critias]] and [[Euripides]], claims that a clever man invented "the fear of the gods" in order to frighten people into behaving morally.<ref name="WoodruffSmith">{{cite book |last1=Woodruff |first1=P. |last2=Smith |first2=N.D. |date=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=pjM7N1eUCbQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Socrates+philosophy#v=onepage&q=Socrates%20philosophy&f=false |title=Reason and Religion in Socratic Philosophy |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-535092-0 |ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="Winiarczyk" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kahn |first=Charles |date=1997 |title=Greek Religion and Philosophy in the Sisyphus Fragment |journal=Phronesis |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=247–262 |ref=harv |jstor=4182561 |doi=10.1163/15685289760518153}}</ref><ref name="Winiarczyk" /><ref name="GraftonMostSettis">{{cite book |date=2010 |last=Mulsow |first=Martin |chapter=Atheism |title=The Classical Tradition |chapter-url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LbqF8z2bq3sC&pg=PA264&dq=devil+poseidon+pan#v=onepage&q=devil%20poseidon%20pan&f=false |editor1-last=Grafton |editor1-first=Anthony |editor1-link=Anthony Grafton |editor2-last=Most |editor2-first=Glenn W. |editor2-link=Glenn W. Most |editor3-last=Settis |editor3-first=Salvatore |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts and London |isbn=978-0-674-03572-0 |pages=96–97 |ref=harv |access-date=20 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206135820/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LbqF8z2bq3sC&pg=PA264&dq=devil+poseidon+pan#v=onepage&q=devil%20poseidon%20pan&f=false |archive-date=6 December 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> This statement, however, originally did not mean that the gods themselves were nonexistent, but rather that their powers were a hoax.<ref name="GraftonMostSettis" /> Atheistic statements have also been attributed to the philosopher [[Prodicus]]. [[Philodemus]] reports that Prodicus believed that "the gods of popular belief do not exist nor do they know, but primitive man, [out of admiration, deified] the fruits of the earth and virtually everything that contributed to his existence". [[Protagoras]] has sometimes been taken to be an atheist, but rather espoused agnostic views, commenting that "Concerning the gods I am unable to discover whether they exist or not, or what they are like in form; for there are many hindrances to knowledge, the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life."<ref>{{cite book |last=Bremmer |first=Jan |title=Atheism in Antiquity |postscript=,}} in {{harvnb|Martin|2006|pp=12–13}}</ref><ref name="Garland2008" />
The Athenian public associated Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE) with the trends in pre-Socratic philosophy towards naturalistic inquiry and the rejection of divine explanations for phenomena.<ref name="Burkert1985" /><ref name="Bremmer" /> [[Aristophanes]]' comic play ''[[The Clouds]]'' (performed 423 BCE) portrays Socrates as teaching his students that the traditional Greek deities do not exist.<ref name="Burkert1985" /><ref name="Bremmer" /> Socrates was later tried and executed under the charge of not believing in the gods of the state and instead worshipping foreign gods.<ref name="Burkert1985" /><ref name="Bremmer" /> Socrates himself vehemently denied the charges of atheism at his trial<ref name="Burkert1985" /><ref name="Bremmer">{{cite book |last=Bremmer |first=Jan |title=Atheism in Antiquity |postscript=,}} in {{harvnb|Martin|2006|pp=14–19}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Thomas C. |last1=Brickhouse |last2=Smith |first2=Nicholas D. |title=Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and the Trial of Socrates |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-15681-3 |page=112}} In particular, he argues that the claim he is a complete atheist contradicts the other part of the indictment, that he introduced "new divinities".</ref> and all the surviving sources about him indicate that he was a very devout man, who prayed to the rising sun and believed that the [[Pythia|oracle at Delphi]] spoke the word of [[Apollo]].<ref name="Burkert1985" /> [[Euhemerus]] ({{circa}} 300 BCE) published his view that the gods were only the deified rulers, conquerors and founders of the past, and that their cults and religions were in essence the continuation of vanished kingdoms and earlier political structures.<ref>Fragments of Euhemerus' work in Ennius' Latin translation have been preserved in [[Church Fathers|Patristic]] writings (e.g. by [[Lactantius]] and [[Eusebius of Caesarea]]), which all rely on earlier fragments in [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]] 5,41–46 & 6.1. Testimonies, especially in the context of polemical criticism, are found e.g. in [[Callimachus]], ''Hymn to Zeus'' 8.</ref> Although not strictly an atheist, Euhemerus was later criticized for having "spread atheism over the whole inhabited earth by obliterating the gods".<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Moralia—Isis and Osiris'' [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Isis_and_Osiris*/B.html#23 23]</ref>
The most important Greek thinker in the development of atheism was [[Epicurus]] ({{circa}} 300 BCE).<ref name="GraftonMostSettis" /> Drawing on the ideas of Democritus and the Atomists, he espoused a materialistic philosophy according to which the universe was governed by the laws of chance without the need for divine intervention (see [[scientific determinism]]).<ref name="EpicStanEncycl">{{cite web |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/ |title=Epicurus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) |website=Plato.stanford.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-11-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603100418/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/ |archive-date=3 June 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Although Epicurus still maintained that the gods existed,<ref name="Hickson2014">{{cite book |last=Hickson |first=Michael W. |editor1-last=McBrayer |editor1-first=Justin P. |editor2-last=Howard-Snyder |editor2-first=Daniel |date=2014 |chapter=A Brief History of Problems of Evil |title=The Blackwell Companion to The Problem of Evil |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J0ScAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT26 |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-118-60797-8 |pages=26–27 |ref=harv |access-date=15 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120231324/https://books.google.com/books?id=J0ScAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT26 |archive-date=20 November 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="GraftonMostSettis" /><ref name="EpicStanEncycl" /> he believed that they were uninterested in human affairs.<ref name="EpicStanEncycl" /> The aim of the Epicureans was to attain ''[[ataraxia]]'' ("peace of mind") and one important way of doing this was by exposing fear of divine wrath as irrational. The Epicureans also denied the existence of an afterlife and the need to fear divine punishment after death.<ref name="EpicStanEncycl" />
In the 3rd-century BCE, the Greek philosophers [[Theodorus the Atheist|Theodorus Cyrenaicus]]<ref name=CIC /><ref>Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, ii</ref> and [[Strato of Lampsacus]]<ref>Cicero, ''Lucullus'', 121. in Reale, G., ''A History of Ancient Philosophy''. SUNY Press. (1985).</ref> did not believe in the existence of gods.
The [[Pyrrhonism|Pyrrhonist]] philosopher [[Sextus Empiricus]] compiled a large number of ancient arguments against the existence of gods, recommending that one should [[epoche|suspend judgment]] regarding the matter.<ref>[[Sextus Empiricus]], ''Outlines of Pyrrhonism'' Book III, Chapter 3</ref> His relatively large volume of surviving works had a lasting influence on later philosophers.<ref name="gordonstein">Stein, Gordon (Ed.) (1980). "[http://www.positiveatheism.org/india/s1990c25.htm The History of Freethought and Atheism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930024429/http://www.positiveatheism.org/india/s1990c25.htm |date=30 September 2007 }}". ''An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism''. New York: Prometheus. Retrieved 2007-APR-03.</ref>
The meaning of "atheist" changed over the course of classical antiquity.<ref name="Winiarczyk" /> [[Early Christianity|Early Christians]] were widely reviled as "atheists" because they did not believe in the existence of the Graeco-Roman deities.<ref name="CE1913">{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Atheism}}</ref><ref name="Winiarczyk" /><ref name="Ferguson1993">{{cite book |last1=Ferguson |first1=Everett |title=Backgrounds of Early Christianity |date=1993 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |isbn=978-0-8028-0669-7 |pages=556–561 |edition=second}}</ref><ref name="Sherwin">{{cite journal |last1=Sherwin-White |first1=A.N. |title=Why Were the Early Christians Persecuted? – An Amendment |journal=Past and Present |volume=27 |date=April 1964 |issue=1 |pages=23–27 |jstor=649759|doi=10.1093/past/27.1.23 }}</ref> During the [[Roman Empire]], Christians were executed for their rejection of the [[List of Roman deities|Roman gods]] in general and the [[Imperial cult of ancient Rome]] in particular.<ref name="Sherwin" /><ref name="Maycock">Maycock, A.L. and Ronald Knox (2003). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DmL8CljbqDwC Inquisition from Its Establishment to the Great Schism: An Introductory Study] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030191702/https://books.google.com/books?id=DmL8CljbqDwC |date=30 October 2015 }}''. {{ISBN|0-7661-7290-2}}.</ref> There was, however, a heavy struggle between Christians and pagans, in which each group accused the other of atheism, for not practicing the religion which they considered correct.<ref name="Duran">{{cite book |last1=Duran |first1=Martin |title=Wondering About God: Impiety, Agnosticism, and Atheism in Ancient Greece |date=2019 |publisher=Independently Published |location=Barcelona |isbn=978-1-08-061240-6 |pages=171–178}}</ref> When Christianity became the state religion of Rome under [[Theodosius I]] in 381, [[Christian heresy|heresy]] became a punishable offense.<ref name="Maycock" />
{{clear}}
=== Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance ===
During the [[Early Middle Ages]], the [[Islamic world]] experienced a [[Islamic Golden Age|Golden Age]]. Along with advances in science and philosophy, Arab and Persian lands produced outspoken rationalists and atheists, including [[Muhammad al Warraq]] (fl. 9th century), [[Ibn al-Rawandi]] (827–911), [[Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi|Al-Razi]] (854–925), and [[Al-Maʿarri]] (973–1058). Al-Ma'arri wrote and taught that religion itself was a "fable invented by the ancients"<ref name="Nicholson318">Reynold Alleyne Nicholson, 1962, ''A Literary History of the Arabs'', p. 318. Routledge</ref> and that humans were "of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains."<ref>[http://www.sdsmt.edu/student-orgs/tfs/reading/freethought/islam.html Freethought Traditions in the Islamic World] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214102422/http://www.sdsmt.edu/student-orgs/tfs/reading/freethought/islam.html |date=14 February 2012 }} by Fred Whitehead; also quoted in Cyril Glasse, (2001), ''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', p. 278. Rowman Altamira.</ref> Despite their being relatively prolific writers, little of their work survives, mainly being preserved through quotations and excerpts in later works by Muslim [[Apologetics|apologists]] attempting to refute them.<ref>''Al-Zandaqa Wal Zanadiqa'', by Mohammad Abd-El Hamid Al-Hamad, first edition 1999, Dar Al-Taliaa Al-Jadida, Syria (Arabic)</ref> Other prominent Golden Age scholars have been associated with rationalist thought and atheism as well, although the current intellectual atmosphere in the Islamic world, and the scant evidence that survives from the era, make this point a contentious one today.
In Europe, the espousal of atheistic views was rare during the Early Middle Ages and [[Middle Ages]] (see [[Medieval Inquisition]]); [[metaphysics]] and theology were the dominant interests pertaining to religion.<ref name="Zdybicka 2005 4">{{harvnb|Zdybicka|2005|p=4}}</ref> There were, however, movements within this period that furthered heterodox conceptions of the Christian god, including differing views of the nature, transcendence, and knowability of God. Individuals and groups such as [[Johannes Scotus Eriugena]], [[David of Dinant]], [[Amalric of Bena]], and the [[Brethren of the Free Spirit]] maintained Christian viewpoints with [[pantheism|pantheistic]] tendencies. [[Nicholas of Cusa]] held to a form of [[fideism]] he called ''[[De Docta Ignorantia|docta ignorantia]]'' ("learned ignorance"), asserting that God is beyond human categorization, and thus our knowledge of him is limited to conjecture. [[William of Ockham]] inspired anti-metaphysical tendencies with his [[nominalism|nominalistic]] limitation of human knowledge to singular objects, and asserted that the divine [[essence]] could not be intuitively or rationally apprehended by human intellect. Followers of Ockham, such as [[John of Mirecourt]] and [[Nicholas of Autrecourt]] furthered this view. The resulting division between [[Faith and rationality|faith and reason]] influenced later radical and reformist theologians such as [[John Wycliffe]], [[Jan Hus]], and [[Martin Luther]].<ref name="Zdybicka 2005 4" />
The [[Renaissance]] did much to expand the scope of free thought and skeptical inquiry. Individuals such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] sought experimentation as a means of explanation, and opposed [[Appeal to authority|arguments from religious authority]]. Other critics of religion and the Church during this time included [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], [[Bonaventure des Périers]], [[Michel de Montaigne]], and [[François Rabelais]].<ref name="gordonstein" />
=== Early modern period ===
Historian [[Geoffrey Blainey]] wrote that the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] had paved the way for atheists by attacking the authority of the Catholic Church, which in turn "quietly inspired other thinkers to attack the authority of the new Protestant churches".<ref>Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p. 388</ref> [[Deism]] gained influence in France, Prussia, and England. The philosopher [[Baruch Spinoza]] was "probably the first well known 'semi-atheist' to announce himself in a Christian land in the modern era", according to Blainey. Spinoza believed that natural laws explained the workings of the universe. In 1661 he published his ''Short Treatise on God''.<ref>Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p. 343</ref>
[[Criticism of Christianity]] became increasingly frequent in the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in France and England, where there appears to have been a religious [[malaise]], according to contemporary sources. Some Protestant thinkers, such as [[Thomas Hobbes]], espoused a materialist philosophy and skepticism toward supernatural occurrences, while Spinoza rejected [[divine providence]] in favor of a [[panentheistic]] naturalism. By the late 17th century, deism came to be openly espoused by intellectuals such as [[John Toland (Irish Philosopher)|John Toland]] who coined the term "pantheist".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pantheism |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |accessdate=2013-11-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202223113/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pantheism |archive-date=2 December 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
The first known explicit atheist was the German critic of religion [[Matthias Knutzen]] in his three writings of 1674.<ref>Winfried Schröder, in: Matthias Knutzen: Schriften und Materialien (2010), p. 8. See also Rececca Moore, ''The Heritage of Western Humanism, Scepticism and Freethought'' (2011), calling Knutzen "the first open advocate of a modern atheist perspective" [http://reason.sdsu.edu/germany.html online here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330182416/http://reason.sdsu.edu/germany.html |date=30 March 2012 }}</ref> He was followed by two other explicit atheist writers, the Polish ex-Jesuit philosopher [[Kazimierz Łyszczyński]] and in the 1720s by the French priest [[Jean Meslier]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nova.wpunj.edu/newpolitics/issue40/Onfray40.htm |title=Michel Onfray on Jean Meslier |publisher=William Paterson University |accessdate=2011-11-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112154508/http://nova.wpunj.edu/newpolitics/issue40/Onfray40.htm |archive-date=12 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the course of the 18th century, other openly atheistic thinkers followed, such as [[Baron d'Holbach]], [[Jacques-André Naigeon]], and other [[French materialism|French materialists]].<ref name="Holbach-SoN">{{cite book |last=d'Holbach |first=P.H.T. |authorlink=Baron d'Holbach |title=The System of Nature |url=https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/The-System-of-Nature-Vol-21/ |accessdate=2011-04-07 |year=1770 |volume=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617162007/https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/The-System-of-Nature-Vol-21/ |archive-date=17 June 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[John Locke]] in contrast, though an advocate of tolerance, urged authorities not to tolerate atheism, believing that the denial of God's existence would undermine the social order and lead to chaos.<ref>[[Jeremy Waldron]] (2002). ''God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought''; Cambridge, p. 217</ref>
The philosopher [[David Hume]] developed a skeptical epistemology grounded in [[empiricism]], and [[Immanuel Kant]]'s philosophy has strongly questioned the very possibility of a metaphysical knowledge. Both philosophers undermined the metaphysical basis of natural theology and criticized classical [[arguments for the existence of God]].
[[File:Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach|Ludwig Feuerbach]]'s ''[[The Essence of Christianity]]'' (1841) would greatly influence philosophers such as [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[David Strauss]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], and [[Max Stirner]]. He considered God to be a human invention and religious activities to be wish-fulfillment. For this he is considered the founding father of modern [[anthropology of religion]].]]
Blainey notes that, although [[Voltaire]] is widely considered to have strongly contributed to atheistic thinking during the Revolution, he also considered fear of God to have discouraged further disorder, having said "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."<ref>Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; pp. 390–391</ref> In ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'' (1790), the philosopher [[Edmund Burke]] denounced atheism, writing of a "literary cabal" who had "some years ago formed something like a regular plan for the destruction of the Christian religion. This object they pursued with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only in the propagators of some system of piety ... These atheistical fathers have a bigotry of their own ...". But, Burke asserted, "man is by his constitution a religious animal" and "atheism is against, not only our reason, but our instincts; and ... it cannot prevail long".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burke/edmund/reflections-on-the-revolution-in-france/ |title=Reflections on the Revolution in France |website=adelaide.edu.au |access-date=25 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203033011/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burke/edmund/reflections-on-the-revolution-in-france/ |archive-date=3 December 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[Baron d'Holbach]] was a prominent figure in the [[French Enlightenment]] who is best known for his atheism and for his voluminous writings against religion, the most famous of them being ''[[The System of Nature]]'' (1770) but also ''[[Christianity Unveiled]]''. One goal of the [[French Revolution]] was a restructuring and subordination of the clergy with respect to the state through the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy]]. Attempts to enforce it led to [[anticlericalism|anti-clerical]] violence and the expulsion of many clergy from France, lasting until the [[Thermidorian Reaction]]. The radical [[Jacobin Club|Jacobins]] seized power in 1793, ushering in the [[Reign of Terror]]. The Jacobins were deists and introduced the [[Cult of the Supreme Being]] as a new French state religion. Some atheists surrounding [[Jacques Hébert]] instead sought to establish a [[Cult of Reason]], a form of atheistic pseudo-religion with a goddess personifying reason. The [[Napoleonic era]] further institutionalized the secularization of French society.
In the latter half of the 19th century, atheism rose to prominence under the influence of [[rationalism|rationalistic]] and [[freethought|freethinking]] philosophers. Many prominent German philosophers of this era denied the existence of deities and were critical of religion, including [[Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach|Ludwig Feuerbach]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], [[Max Stirner]], [[Karl Marx]], and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/?id=BKz2FcDrFy0C&pg=PA1 |title=Subjectivity and Irreligion: Atheism and Agnosticism in Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |last=Ray |first=Matthew Alun |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7546-3456-0 |accessdate=2011-04-09}}</ref>
[[George Holyoake]] was the last person (1842) imprisoned in Great Britain due to atheist beliefs. Law notes that he may have also been the first imprisoned on such a charge. [[Stephen Law]] states that Holyoake "first coined the term 'secularism'".<ref>{{cite book |title=Humanism. A Very Short Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xa7KOJvM2MMC&printsec=frontcover |last=Law |first=Stephen |authorlink=Stephen Law |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-955364-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VlQFTbHRqZsC&pg=PA23&dq=%22In+1842,+G.+J.+Holyoake+(1817–1906)+(who+first+coined+the+term+'secularism')+was+the+last+(and+perhaps+also+the+first)+person+in+Britain+to+be+imprisoned+on+a+charge+of+atheism%22 23]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Holyoake |first=G.J. |authorlink=George Holyoake |year=1896 |title=The Origin and Nature of Secularism. Showing that where Freethought Commonly Ends Secularism Begins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WnxPAAAAYAAJ |location=London |publisher=Watts |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=WnxPAAAAYAAJ&q=secularism 41ff.]}}</ref>
=== Since 1900 ===
{{Further|Marxism and religion}}
Atheism, particularly in the form of practical atheism, advanced in many societies in the 20th century. Atheistic thought found recognition in a wide variety of other, broader philosophies, such as [[existentialism]], [[Objectivism (Ayn Rand)|objectivism]], [[secular humanism]], [[nihilism]], [[anarchism]], [[logical positivism]], [[Marxism]], [[feminism]],<ref name=feminism>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/?id=tAeFipOVx4MC&pg=PA233&dq=%22Feminism+and+Atheism%22 |last=Overall |first=Christine |chapter=Feminism and Atheism |year=2006 |accessdate=2011-04-09 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Atheism |isbn=978-1-139-82739-3}} in {{harvnb|Martin|2006|pp=233–246}}</ref> and the general scientific and [[rationalist movement]].
[[File:Bezbozhnik u stanka 22-1929.jpg|thumb|left|upright|1929 cover of the USSR [[League of Militant Atheists]] [[Bezbozhnik (magazine)|magazine]], showing the gods of the [[Abrahamic religions]] being crushed by the [[first five-year plan|Communist 5-year plan]]]]
In addition, [[state atheism]] emerged in Eastern Europe and Asia during that period, particularly in the [[Soviet Union]] under [[Vladimir Lenin]] and [[Joseph Stalin]], and in [[China#Communist Party|Communist China]] under [[Mao Zedong]]. Atheist and anti-religious policies in the Soviet Union included [[Soviet anti-religious legislation|numerous legislative acts]], the outlawing of religious instruction in the schools, and the emergence of the [[League of Militant Atheists]].<ref>[[Richard Pipes]]; ''Russia under the Bolshevik Regime''; The Harvill Press; 1994; pp. 339–340</ref><ref name="Viking p.494">[[Geoffrey Blainey]]; ''[[A Short History of Christianity]]''; Viking; 2011; p. 494</ref> After Mao, the [[Communist Party of China#Stance on religion|Chinese Communist Party]] remains an atheist organization, and regulates, but does not forbid, the practice of religion in mainland China.<ref>Rowan Callick; Party Time – Who Runs China and How; Black Inc; 2013; p. 112.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/zjxy/t36492.htm |title=White Paper—Freedom of Religious Belief in China |publisher=Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America |date=October 1997 |accessdate=2007-09-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140624175037/http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/zjxy/t36492.htm |archive-date=24 June 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90133.htm |title=International Religious Freedom Report 2007 — China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) |year=2007 |publisher=U.S.Department of State |accessdate=2007-10-02}}</ref>
While Geoffrey Blainey has written that "the most ruthless leaders in the Second World War were atheists and secularists who were intensely hostile to both Judaism and Christianity",<ref>[[Geoffrey Blainey]] (2011). ''[[A Short History of Christianity]]''; Viking; p. 543</ref> Richard Madsen has pointed out that Hitler and Stalin each opened and closed churches as a matter of political expedience, and Stalin softened his opposition to Christianity in order to improve public acceptance of his regime during the war.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=S.A. |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-960205-6 |chapter=Religion Under Communism |last=Madsen |first=Richard |page=588 |chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMd7AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA172&pg=PA586 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMd7AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |access-date=13 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028090400/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMd7AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=28 October 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> Blackford and Schüklenk have written that "the Soviet Union was undeniably an atheist state, and the same applies to Maoist China and Pol Pot's fanatical Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s. That does not, however, show that the atrocities committed by these totalitarian dictatorships were the result of atheist beliefs, carried out in the name of atheism, or caused primarily by the atheistic aspects of the relevant forms of communism."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blackford |first1=R. |last2=Schüklenk |first2=U. |title=50 great myths about atheism |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-470-67404-8 |chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=fR1rAAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA79&pg=PA85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fR1rAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |chapter=Myth 27 Many Atrocities Have Been Committed in the Name of Atheism |page=88 |access-date=13 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030203821/https://books.google.com/books?id=fR1rAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=30 October 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Honourable Bertrand Russell.jpg|thumb|upright|The British philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]]]]
Logical positivism and [[scientism]] paved the way for [[neopositivism]], [[analytical philosophy]], [[structuralism]], and [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalism]]. Neopositivism and analytical philosophy discarded classical rationalism and metaphysics in favor of strict empiricism and epistemological [[nominalism]]. Proponents such as [[Bertrand Russell]] emphatically rejected belief in God. In his early work, [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] attempted to separate metaphysical and supernatural language from rational discourse. [[A.J. Ayer]] asserted the unverifiability and meaninglessness of religious statements, citing his adherence to the empirical sciences. Relatedly the [[Structural anthropology|applied structuralism]] of [[Claude Lévi-Strauss|Lévi-Strauss]] sourced religious language to the human subconscious in denying its transcendental meaning. [[John Niemeyer Findlay|J.N. Findlay]] and [[J.J.C. Smart]] argued that the existence of God is not logically necessary. Naturalists and materialistic monists such as [[John Dewey]] considered the natural world to be the basis of everything, denying the existence of God or immortality.<ref name="stanford" /><ref>{{harvnb|Zdybicka|2005|p=16}}</ref>
=== Other developments ===
Other leaders like [[Periyar E.V. Ramasamy]], a prominent atheist leader of [[India]], fought against [[Hinduism]] and [[Brahmins]] for discriminating and dividing people in the name of [[caste]] and religion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Michael |first=S.M. |year=1999 |chapter=Dalit Visions of a Just Society |editor-last=Michael |editor-first=S. M. |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers |title=Untouchable: Dalits in Modern India |isbn=978-1-55587-697-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/foreignpolicyact0000gins_t2j6/page/31 31–33] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/foreignpolicyact0000gins_t2j6/page/31 }}</ref>
This was highlighted in 1956 when he arranged for the erection of a statue depicting a Hindu god in a humble representation and made [[antitheism|antitheistic]] statements.<ref>"He who created god was a fool, he who spreads his name is a scoundrel, and he who worships him is a barbarian." Hiorth, Finngeir (1996). "[http://iheu.org/content/atheism-south-india-2 Atheism in South India] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211052228/http://iheu.org/content/atheism-south-india-2 |date=11 December 2013 }}". [[International Humanist and Ethical Union]], ''International Humanist News''. Retrieved 2013-11-21</ref>
Atheist [[Vashti McCollum]] was the plaintiff in a landmark 1948 [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] case that struck down religious education in US public schools.<ref>{{cite web |last=Martin |first=Douglas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/26/obituaries/26mccullum.html |title=Vashti McCollum, 93, Plaintiff In a Landmark Religion Suit – Obituary |work=New York Times |date=26 August 2006 |accessdate=2013-11-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727150236/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/26/obituaries/26mccullum.html |archive-date=27 July 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]] was perhaps one of the most influential American atheists; she brought forth the 1963 Supreme Court case ''[[Murray v. Curlett]]'' which banned compulsory prayer in public schools.<ref>{{cite book |title=Religion on Trial |last=Jurinski |first=James |year=2004 |publisher=AltraMira Press |location=Walnut Creek, California |isbn=978-0-7591-0601-7 |page=48 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=0Yq_z5LaCjsC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48 |accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> In 1966, ''[[Time (magazine)|''Time'']]'' magazine asked "Is God Dead?"<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19660408,00.html ''Time Magazine'' cover] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209112100/http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19660408,00.html |date=9 December 2013 }} online. 8 April 1966. Retrieved 2013-11-21.</ref> in response to the [[God is dead#Death of God theological movement|Death of God theological movement]], citing the estimation that nearly half of all people in the world lived under an anti-religious power, and millions more in Africa, Asia, and South America seemed to lack knowledge of the Christian view of theology.<ref>"[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835309,00.html Toward a Hidden God] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127023510/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835309,00.html |date=27 November 2013 }}". ''Time Magazine'' online. 8 April 1966. Retrieved 2007-04-17.</ref> The [[Freedom From Religion Foundation]] was co-founded by Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter, [[Annie Laurie Gaylor]], in 1976 in the United States, and incorporated nationally in 1978. It promotes the [[separation of church and state]].<ref name="aboutCalling">{{cite news |title=The atheists' calling the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is taking its latest battle to the U.S. Supreme court. It's a milestone for the often-vilified but financially strong group, which has seen its membership grow to an all-time high |url=http://host.madison.com/news/the-atheists-calling-the-madison-based-freedom-from-religion-foundation/article_85a849c9-f26a-50e8-8a04-cf8bc889d8a0.html |date=25 February 2010 |last=Erickson |first=Doug |newspaper=[[Wisconsin State Journal]] |accessdate=2013-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625205513/http://host.madison.com/news/the-atheists-calling-the-madison-based-freedom-from-religion-foundation/article_85a849c9-f26a-50e8-8a04-cf8bc889d8a0.html |archive-date=25 June 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://host.madison.com/news/the-atheists-calling-the-madison-based-freedom-from-religion-foundation/article_85a849c9-f26a-50e8-8a04-cf8bc889d8a0.html |title=The Atheists' Calling |publisher=[[Wisconsin State Journal]] |first=Doug |last=Erickson |date=25 February 2007 |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625205513/http://host.madison.com/news/the-atheists-calling-the-madison-based-freedom-from-religion-foundation/article_85a849c9-f26a-50e8-8a04-cf8bc889d8a0.html |archive-date=25 June 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Since the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]], the number of actively anti-religious regimes has declined considerably. In 2006, Timothy Shah of the [[Pew Research Center|Pew Forum]] noted "a worldwide trend across all major religious groups, in which God-based and faith-based movements in general are experiencing increasing confidence and influence vis-à-vis secular movements and ideologies."<ref>"[http://www.pewforum.org/2006/07/18/timothy-samuel-shah-explains-why-god-is-winning/ Timothy Samuel Shah Explains 'Why God is Winning'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102101035/http://www.pewforum.org/2006/07/18/timothy-samuel-shah-explains-why-god-is-winning/ |date=2 November 2013 }}." 2006-07-18. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Retrieved 2013-11-21.</ref>
However, [[Gregory S. Paul]] and Phil Zuckerman consider this a myth and suggest that the actual situation is much more complex and nuanced.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Paul |first1=Gregory |authorlink1=Gregory S. Paul |last2=Zuckerman |first2=Phil |title=Why the Gods Are Not Winning |journal=Edge |volume=209 |year=2007 |url=http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge209.html#gp |ref=harv |accessdate=2011-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513205846/http://edge.org/documents/archive/edge209.html#gp |archive-date=13 May 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref>
A 2010 survey found that those identifying themselves as atheists or agnostics are on average more knowledgeable about religion than followers of major faiths. Nonbelievers scored better on questions about tenets central to Protestant and Catholic faiths. Only Mormon and Jewish faithful scored as well as atheists and agnostics.<ref name="religion knowledge">{{harvnb|Landsberg|2010}}</ref>
In 2012, the first "Women in Secularism" conference was held in Arlington, Virginia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.womeninsecularism.org/2012/ |title=Women in Secularism |accessdate=2013-11-21 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730235818/http://www.womeninsecularism.org/2012/ |archivedate=30 July 2013}}</ref> Secular Woman was organized in 2012 as a national organization focused on nonreligious women.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.secularwoman.org/about |title=Secular Woman:About |accessdate=2013-11-21 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20131121223333/http://www.secularwoman.org/about |archivedate=21 November 2013}}</ref> The [[Atheist feminism|atheist feminist movement]] has also become increasingly focused on fighting sexism and [[sexual harassment]] within the atheist movement itself.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2013/08/13/a-timeline-of-the-sexual-harassment-accusations/ |title=A Timeline of the Sexual Harassment Accusations |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113075327/http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2013/08/13/a-timeline-of-the-sexual-harassment-accusations/ |archive-date=13 November 2013 |url-status=live |date=13 August 2013 }}</ref>
In August 2012, Jennifer McCreight (the organizer of [[Boobquake]]) founded a movement within atheism known as Atheism Plus, or A+, that "applies skepticism to everything, including social issues like sexism, racism, politics, poverty, and crime".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/atheism/ |title=Blaghag: Atheism+ |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927180838/http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/atheism/ |archive-date=27 September 2013 |url-status=live |date=19 August 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/how-i-unwittingly-infiltrated-the-boys-club-why-its-time-for-a-new-wave-of-atheism/ |title=How I unwittingly infiltrated the boys club, why it's time for a new wave of atheism |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922052710/http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/how-i-unwittingly-infiltrated-the-boys-club-why-its-time-for-a-new-wave-of-atheism |archive-date=22 September 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://atheismplus.com/faq.php |title=About Atheism+ |accessdate=2013-11-21 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130822080733/http://atheismplus.com/faq.php |archivedate=22 August 2013}}</ref>
In 2013 the first atheist monument on American government property was unveiled at the [[Bradford County, Florida|Bradford County]] Courthouse in Florida: a 1,500-pound granite bench and plinth inscribed with quotes by [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], and [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alligator.org/news/local/article_f9a8713c-e2cf-11e2-b9d8-001a4bcf887a.html |title=First atheist monument on government property unveiled |publisher=Alligator News |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705205650/http://www.alligator.org/news/local/article_f9a8713c-e2cf-11e2-b9d8-001a4bcf887a.html |archive-date=5 July 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/29/atheists-unveil-monument-in-florida-and-promise-to-build-50-more |title=Atheists unveil monument in Florida and promise to build 50 more |accessdate=2013-11-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927150810/http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/29/atheists-unveil-monument-in-florida-and-promise-to-build-50-more/ |archive-date=27 September 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== New Atheism ===
[[File:Four Horsemen.jpg|thumb|right|The "[[Four Horsemen of the Non-Apocalypse]]" (clockwise from top left): [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Christopher Hitchens]], [[Daniel Dennett]], and [[Sam Harris]]]]
{{Main|New Atheism}}
"New Atheism" is the name that has been given to a movement among some early-21st-century atheist writers who have advocated the view that "religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/08/atheism.feature/index.html |title=The rise of the New Atheists |publisher=CNN |first=Simon |last=Hooper |accessdate=2010-03-16 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408094135/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/08/atheism.feature/index.html |archivedate=8 April 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref><!--- NB: they may also advocate other views--->
The movement is commonly associated with [[Sam Harris (author)|Sam Harris]], [[Daniel C. Dennett]], [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Victor J. Stenger]], [[Christopher Hitchens]], and to some extent [[Ayaan Hirsi Ali]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Preview: The Four Horsemen of New Atheism reunited |first=Alice |last=Gribbin |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/12/richard-dawkins-issue-hitchens |journal=[[New Statesman]] |date=22 December 2011 |accessdate=2012-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140410071709/http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/12/richard-dawkins-issue-hitchens |archive-date=10 April 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Stenger|2009}} Several best-selling books by these authors, published between 2004 and 2007, form the basis for much of the discussion of "New" Atheism.{{sfn|Stenger|2009}} The new atheists and Dawkins in particular have been accused of committing the [[Straw man|strawman fallacy]] <ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching |title=Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching |pages=32–34 |access-date=7 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906235342/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching |archive-date=6 September 2019 |url-status=live |newspaper=London Review of Books |date=19 October 2006 |last1=Eagleton |first1=Terry }}</ref> and of creating a new religion: Scientism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Midgley |first1=Mary |title=Science and Poetry |date=2001 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-37848-6}}</ref>
In best selling books, the religiously motivated terrorist [[September 11 attacks|events of 9/11]] and the partially successful attempts of the [[Discovery Institute]] to change the American science curriculum to include [[creationist]] ideas, together with support for those ideas from [[George W. Bush]] in 2005, have been cited by authors such as Harris, Dennett, Dawkins, Stenger, and Hitchens as evidence of a need to move toward a more secular society.<ref name="sharedvalues">{{cite journal |last=Garfield |first=Alan E |url=http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/files/2012/02/13-Garfield-Book-2-Vol-33.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207172239/http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/files/2012/02/13-Garfield-Book-2-Vol-33.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-12-07 |journal=Vermont Law Review |volume=33 Book 2 |title=Finding Shared Values in a Diverse Society: Lessons From the Intelligent Design Controversy |accessdate=2013-11-21}}</ref>
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