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Religious Studies & Theology vocabulary · Philosophy of Religion

Atheism

Meaning in religious studies & theology, with examples

/ˈeɪθiɪzəm/nounCore term

In religious studies & theology, atheism means: The absence of belief in God or gods, or the explicit view that no God or gods exist.

In Turkish: ateizm, tanrıtanımazlık

How it is used

Philosophers distinguish a weak sense (simply lacking belief) from a strong sense (denying that God exists). A person is an atheist; the adjective is atheist or atheistic. Sociologists of religion now study atheism and nonreligion as subjects in their own right.

Example sentences

  1. The study of atheism has become a recognized field within the sociology of religion.

  2. Historians trace some modern forms of atheism to eighteenth-century European thought.

Common collocations

  • modern atheism
  • atheism and agnosticism
  • history of atheism
  • methodological atheism
  • agnosticismThe view that it is not known, or cannot be known, whether God or any ultimate reality exists.
  • theismBelief in a personal God who created the world and remains active in it; in philosophy of religion, the view that such a God exists.
  • secularizationThe process by which religion loses influence over society, institutions and individual lives, for example as law, education and politics become independent of religious authority.
  • problem of evilThe philosophical and theological question of how an all-powerful, all-knowing and perfectly good God can allow evil and suffering to exist.

More terms: Philosophy of Religion

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