Atheism is the condition of those who do not believe in the existence of divinities.
Atheism is the condition of those who do not believe in God . The atheist , therefore, is a person who disbelieves in any type of divinity or supernatural entity. It can be said that atheism is the opposite of theism , the doctrine of those who maintain the existence of one or more divinities.
In order to understand the meaning of the term, it is necessary, first of all, to determine its etymological origin. In that sense, it must be said that it emanates from Greek, specifically it is the result of the sum of three components: the prefix a- , which is equivalent to “without” ; the noun theos , which can be translated as “God” ; and the suffix -ism , which is synonymous with “doctrine” . Therefore, we can say that the meaning of this word is “doctrine that does not believe in God.”
Many people clearly confess to being atheists because they consider, for example, that if a God really existed, not only would he not allow the evils that plague the population but he would also prevent innocent human beings from suffering all kinds of pain, damage and miserable situations.
Confusions about atheism
Atheism is sometimes confused with agnosticism . Agnostics, however, do not reject the possibility that a God exists, but rather consider that the divine escapes human understanding and, therefore, are unaware of its eventual existence. Atheists, on the other hand, do not believe in divinities (or, in other words, they believe that God does not exist).
Another common confusion arises between atheism and those who oppose all religion . Atheism, in essence, consists of disbelieving in the existence of God. This is not opposed to certain creeds or religious practices: Buddhism , for example, does not contemplate the presence of gods, so it can be said to be an atheistic religion.
For atheism, there are no gods.
Atheist personalities
There are numerous figures who, throughout history and to this day, have openly stated that they are atheists. Thus, for example, in Spain we can highlight filmmakers like Alejandro Amenábar , thinkers like Fernando Savater , actors like Fernando Guillén and illustrious writers like Pío Baroja .
It is difficult to quantify the number of people who advocate atheism. However, the studies carried out have established that the greatest number of those is on the European continent and in Australia , compared to the United States where the percentage is minimal.
Among the European countries with the highest percentage of atheists are Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands . On the contrary, where atheism has less presence is in Poland, Ireland, Romania and Turkey , among others.
Currents of atheism
Within atheism itself there are different conceptions or tendencies . The so-called strong atheism rejects the existence of any kind of divinity and maintains that there are various explanations to rationally justify what theists attribute to God.
Weak atheism , closer to agnosticism, does not rely on the refutation of the existence of God: instead, it limits itself to stating that it does not believe in Him and that, in fact, the idea of “existence” cannot be applied to something. impossible to verify from experience .