Today, many people, when they hear the word "atheist", believe that this person should constantly be in conflict with representatives of various religious faiths. But in reality, this is completely wrong, because when blind faith is present, the mind is absent or just asleep.
However, if we apply logic and analyze it according to a religious perspective: should a person blindly believe in various ancient myths written in the Bronze Age in order to control other people? Or is today the time in which freedom of thought, belief and scientific thinking rules?
The uniqueness of every religion
Surprisingly, even qualified professionals cannot name the clear number of religions that exist today around the world. For example, Christianity alone has more than thirty thousand different directions, and adherents of each are sure that the true teaching is precisely their teaching.
These religions are represented in various branches of Baptists, Pentecostals, Calvinists, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Old Believers, Anabaptists, Pentecostals and others. However, at present, there is another very common direction - atheism. His followers do not fall into any of these categories. Therefore, the question of what is atheism is quite relevant.
Despite such a variety of different religions, it is impossible to go to the paradise of one of them, so as not to end up in the hell of everyone else. Each religious denomination, existing today, contradicts all others in such moments as the creation of the Earth, the origin of man, the emergence of good and evil, and so on. In addition, various religious movements compare their mystical acquisitions, while proving that all hallucinations or mental disorders serve as an argument of authenticity.
But everyone knows that miracles do not happen. People who are residents of India, who were raised in this characteristic culture, immediately before death represent Shiva with six hands. Europeans see angels and demons depicted in Catholic murals. Aborigines living in Australia claim to have actually met the Great Mother.
Thus, the scriptures of different religions have a lot of contradictions. At the same time, numerous denominations provide rather contradictory images of the gods with their prescriptions. Since all this information cannot be true at the same time, there simply are no divine beings belonging to modern religions.
The concept of atheism
What is atheism in fact, not everyone knows. In general, this word is of Greek origin. It contains two parts: a - it is translated as “not” (negation), and theos is “god”. It follows from this that the meaning of this term is to deny all kinds of gods, any supernatural beings and forces, by others
in words - this is godlessness. We can also say that atheism is a system of views that prove the failure of the arguments of each religion.
As a rule, atheism is closely related to the concept of materialism. Therefore, it is not without reason that for quite a long time the emblem of the atom has been considered the symbol of atheism. This is due to the fact that in nature all matter is composed of atoms, from which such a specific symbol of atheism appeared. And this is not surprising, since this concept is identical with materialism.
Atheism consists of philosophical, historical, scientific criticism of religions. The goal is to reveal their fantastic nature. In fact, it is impossible to say unequivocally what atheism is, since this is a rather complicated concept. For example, atheism reveals the social side of religions, and from the point of view of materialism, it can explain how and thanks to which religious faith appears, and also explains the role of religion in society and methods for overcoming it.
The process of development of atheism was characterized by a number of historical stages and characteristic directions. Among them were such fairly common types as antique, free-thinking under the feudal world, bourgeois, Russian revolutionary-democratic, and so on. The most legitimate follower of atheism of all ages was Marxist-Leninist teaching.
Individual defenders of certain religions, which to the end do not have a clear idea of ​​what atheism is, claiming that this concept did not exist before, but the Communists came up with it. But this is completely untrue. Atheism is a completely legitimate result of the development of advanced thoughts of all mankind.
Today, there are two main types of atheism - it is spontaneous and scientific. Adherents of the first option simply deny God, following common sense, and the second - rely on clear evidence from science.
The concept of elemental atheism
The author of elemental atheism, which arose earlier than scientific, is a common people. That is why this species can be safely considered recognized and popular. It manifests itself, as a rule, in oral folklore (various epics, all kinds of tales, songs, sayings and proverbs). It reflected the main principles of the belief that all religions serve rich people who are exploiters. They are beneficial only to the rich and the clergy. Among the many sayings that have survived to this day, the most famous are “A man with a bipod, and pop with a spoon”, “God loves the rich.”
From time immemorial, the symbol of atheism has been characteristic of the entire Russian people. One of the existing epics even brought out the general image of the famous freethinker Vaska Buslaev, who rebelled against the injustice that was present and various religious prejudices. He believed only in himself, and the religious power hostile to people in this epic was presented in the form of a pilgrimage monster. Vaska Buslaev beat the church bell, which was located on the head of this monster.
The concept of scientific atheism
Scientific militant atheism gradually developed with the accumulation of knowledge about nature, social society and human thinking. In each era, courageous and proud people were born who, despite the anger of the clergy, were not afraid of all kinds of persecution and various persecutions. They opposed religions to the power of science.
Scientific atheism is the most important aspect of the materialistic worldview. Since this is a philosophical science, in the process of explaining the essence and criticism of religion, it emerges from historical materialism. Moreover, the main strength of scientific atheism is not precisely the criticism of religion itself, but the establishment of the healthy foundations of the common spiritual life of the whole society, as well as of every person.
Types of Atheism
In human culture, two types of atheism are revealed:
- Militant atheism (materialistic), whose adherents directly declare that there is no God and all the stories about him are fictitious people. They either did not know the interconnectedness of natural phenomena, or want to have power over the unknowing, speaking on behalf of a God who does not exist.
- An idealistic atheism, the followers of which directly declare that there is a God. But they are moving away from all religious directions, since they understand that the Bible is an erroneous concept, because Jesus cannot be the creator of the Universe, and on the seventh day after the creation of the Earth, God does not rest.
Today, materialistic scientific atheism under the pressure of various discoveries is being rebuilt into idealistic. The followers of the second are rather passive. They move away from the Biblical concept and are absolutely not looking for the truth, while believing that religion is a deception and manipulation of people.
Believe it or not?
Speaking specifically about God, who is absent in the churches, then on the basis of an incorrect religious feeling, it is impossible to build a complete picture of world outlook and have a personal culture of knowledge that has great potential. The human mind is limited, which implies that people's knowledge is also small. Thanks to this, in the history of mankind there are always moments that are taken only on faith. It is not in vain that many atheists really claim that atheism is a religion.
God proves his existence to all people and to every person in some characteristic strictly individual form, and only as much as the people themselves are righteous and responsive and believe in God. Irrefutable evidence of his existence God gives people precisely according to their faith, but not their reason. He always hears prayers and answers them, as a result of which the life of the believer then changes, which is manifested in the events taking place with him.
Indeed, God communicates with people only through the language of life circumstances. Any accidents that happen to people are direct hints aimed at the need to make any changes in the direction of the righteous path. Of course, many are not able to notice these prompts and react to them, since they are sincerely convinced that atheism is a religion that allows them not only to stand out from the surrounding masses, but also to have faith exclusively in their own strengths.
Fellowship with God
Undoubtedly, God communicates with people mainly through the language of life circumstances. Faced with any chance, an intelligent person is obliged to think about it, after which he will begin to clearly distinguish what God is telling him: whether he promises his support or warns against any impending possible sins, errors and errors.
Despite all these judgments, atheists are present in large numbers around the world. Moreover, most adherents of such views live in Europe. Atheism in Russia is a fairly common concept. There are many people who sincerely believe in God, but there are those who are convinced of his absence.
The former argue that communication with God cannot be somehow built using various intermediaries. All churches claim their role. A direct connection with God is filled with physical meaning. However, it is absent from demonic personalities, since they are based not on God's providence, but on their personal calculations.
In addition, people who use alcohol are generally not able to record any investigative connections of their actions with the situations caused by them. Their life is often filled with adventure and catastrophic. It’s no secret that Russian people are famous for their addiction to alcohol, which is why such a phenomenon as atheism in Russia is quite relevant and widespread.
As for true believers, they may not be aware of all the possibilities of talking with God and are sure that prayer will always be heard. When certain changes in life do not occur, a person, according to the meaning of his prayer, receives several other explanations of why this did not happen. However, God can help people only in those moments, to the explanation of which they themselves are doing their best. It’s not in vain that the people say that you trust in God, and don’t do anything wrong.
Who are atheists today?
It so happened historically that today almost all state special programs in the field of education, culture, healthcare, and rights with the support of the media lead to the formation of people only materialistic views. Atheism relates such a worldview to three basic concepts: the scientific direction of atheism, evolutionism and humanism with all derivatives.
Ideologists have recently been able to quite firmly convey to the public consciousness the idea of ​​such a concept as atheism-materialism. This is the only scientific and historically progressive worldview, which throughout its existence was the correct achievement of the natural sciences.
Atheists are now perceived by many as people with a sound mind, free, enlightened, educated, cultural, progressive, civilized and modern. Now even such a word as “scientific” has become synonymous with the term “true”. Thanks to this, any worldview that differs from materialistic views can be considered not next to scientific hypotheses, but contrary to them.
Definition of atheism
Based on what is atheism, the definition of which is unambiguously quite difficult to give, we can draw the following conclusion: atheists have only one authority in knowledge - modern official scientific data. That is why carriers of scientific and atheistic worldviews have the same views on many things. A clear answer to the question of what is atheism testifies to this fact. The definition of this concept says that atheism is godlessness, which is based on scientific knowledge.
In other words, such a philosophical materialistic doctrine denies the supernatural existence of God, just like any non-material, but at the same time it recognizes the eternity of the material world. As is commonly believed in Christianity, the basis of atheism is that it conditionally proclaims its opposition to religions. In fact, according to the content, this concept represents one of the many forms of religious worldview.
Satanism and Atheism
Many people have an erroneous point of view, claiming that atheists support the views of Satanists. Moreover, there is an opinion that the history of atheism includes such a direction as Satanism. This is completely untrue, and such a false version is promoted by worshipers. For example, followers of the Christian faith see satanic machinations in many things and situations that contradict their interests.
In fact, Satanism is an ordinary religious movement with its own churches, clergy and the Bible. In other words, religious atheism can be attributed to Satanism in the same way as to any similar system. That is, the existence of Satan is denied, and the thoughts associated with him are considered unfounded. Therefore, no Satanist can be an atheist, and vice versa.