What is it to be an atheist?
The term atheist applies to the people who deny the existence of God. The etymological origin of the word atheist is atheusfrom Latin, and from Greek atheosformed by the prefix to- What does “without” mean and theos which means “God”. Consequently, the word atheists means “without God.”
The term atheist was born in Ancient Greece to describe those people who renounced the divinities worshiped by a large part of society.
The atheist person is characterized by not believing in God or other gods. He denies the existence of a supreme, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent being, but he can accept a religion, since there are religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism, which deny the existence of God.
The atheist can have a positive attitude or practice, which passionately defends the nonexistence of any God. There are also atheists with negative attitudewhich are characterized by denying the existence of a God, due to lack of evidence to prove the contrary.
Currently, numerous famous people have expressed their atheism, such as Keira Knightley, Javier Barden, Jualianne Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Hawking, Daniel Radcliffe, among others.
The countries with the greatest tendency towards atheism are Luxembourg, Spain, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, or the Netherlands.
Atheist and agnostic
The atheist, as stated above, does not firmly believe in the existence of God.
For his part, the agnostic is based on empiricism. He states that human beings do not have the experience to prove the existence of God, so he cannot deny the presence of God.
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Atheism in philosophy
Atheism is a philosophical position that does not believe in any type of divinity, that is, not in God, Allah, among others. It is the opposite of theism, due to the rejection of the belief in any God.
The atheist, however, remains open to any proof or evidence that the theist may offer. If he is convincing, he will accept it, but in the meantime he lives his life without believing in any God.
Symbol of atheism
Regarding the symbol of atheism, there is not one as such, but there are two widely used ones. One of them contains an “A”, and a “T” in a circle. As for the other symbol, it is a circle with a square inside, very similar to the previous one.
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