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Comparison Between Atheism, Agnosticism and Humanism http://www.inosr.net/inosr-applied-sciences/ Tallulah and Mishka INOSR APPLIED SCIENCES 1(1): 14-20, 2015 ©INOSR PUBLICATIONS International Network Organization for Scientific Research ISSN: 2705-165X Comparison between Atheism, Agnosticism and Humanism Tallulah Rebecca and Mishka Joshua Department of religious studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion University of Pretoria, South Africa Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT This article reviews the Comparison thinking and evidence (rationalism and between Atheism, Agnosticism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or Humanism. Atheism is, in the broadest superstition. The words atheist and sense, an absence of belief in the existence agnostic conjure up a number of different of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a perceptions and meanings. When it comes rejection of the belief that any deities exist. to questioning the existence of gods, the Agnosticism is the view that the existence subject is a tricky one that is often of God, of the divine or the supernatural is misunderstood. No matter what their unknown or unknowable. Humanism is a reasons or how they approach the philosophical and ethical stance that question, agnostics and atheists are emphasizes the value and agency of fundamentally different, but also non- human beings, individually and exclusive. collectively, and generally prefers critical Keywords: Comparison, Atheism, Agnosticism Humanism INTRODUCTION Atheism is, in the broadest sense, an application of the term narrowed in absence of belief in the existence of scope. The first individuals to identify deities. Less broadly, atheism is a themselves using the word atheist lived in rejection of the belief that any deities the 18th century during the Age of exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism Enlightenment. The French Revolution, is specifically the position that there are noted for its "unprecedented atheism," no deities. Atheism is contrasted with witnessed the first major political theism, which, in its most general form, is movement in history to advocate for the the belief that at least one deity exists. supremacy of human reason. Arguments The etymological root for the word for atheism range from philosophical to atheism originated before the 5th century social and historical approaches. BCE from the ancient Greek atheos, Rationales for not believing in deities meaning "without god(s)". In antiquity, it include arguments that there is a lack of had multiple uses as a pejorative term empirical evidence, the problem of evil, applied to those thought to reject the the argument from inconsistent gods worshiped by the larger society, revelations, the rejection of concepts that those who were forsaken by the gods, or cannot be falsified, and the argument those who had no commitment to belief in from nonbelief. Nonbelievers contend the gods. The term denoted a social that atheism is a more parsimonious category created by orthodox religionists position than theism and that everyone is into which those who did not share their born without beliefs in deities; [1] religious beliefs were placed. The actual therefore, they argue that the burden of term atheism emerged first in the 16th proof lies not on the atheist to disprove century. With the spread of freethought, the existence of gods but on the theist to skeptical inquiry, and subsequent provide a rationale for theism. [2] increase in criticism of religion, Although some atheists have adopted 14 http://www.inosr.net/inosr-applied-sciences/ Tallulah and Mishka INOSR APPLIED SCIENCES 1(1): 14-20, 2015 secular philosophies, [3] there is no one agnostics with regard to the existence of ideology or code of conduct to which all anything beyond and behind material atheists adhere. Since conceptions of phenomena or to knowledge of a First atheism vary, accurate estimations of Cause or God, [6] and is not a religion. current numbers of atheists are difficult. Humanism is a philosophical and ethical According to global Win-Gallup stance that emphasizes the value and International studies, 13% of respondents agency of human beings, individually and were "convinced atheists" in 2012, 11% collectively, and generally prefers critical were "convinced atheists" in 2015, and in thinking and evidence (rationalism and 2017, 9% were "convinced atheists". empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or However, other researchers have advised superstition [7] [8]. The meaning of the caution with WIN/Gallup figures since term humanism has fluctuated according other surveys which have used the same to the successive intellectual movements wording for decades and have a bigger which have identified with it. The term sample size have consistently reached was coined by theologian Friedrich lower figures. [4] An older survey by the Niethammer at the beginning of the 19th British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in century to refer to a system of education 2004 recorded atheists as comprising 8% based on the study of classical literature of the world's population. Other older ("classical humanism"). Generally, estimates have indicated that atheists however, humanism refers to a comprise 2% of the world's population, perspective that affirms some notion of while the irreligious add a further 12%. human freedom and progress. It views According to these polls, Europe and East humans as solely responsible for the Asia are the regions with the highest rates promotion and development of of atheism. In 2015, 61% of people in individuals and emphasizes a concern for China reported that they were atheists. man in relation to the world. In modern The figures for a 2010 Eurobarometer times, humanist movements are typically survey in the European Union (EU) non-religious movements aligned with reported that 20% of the EU population secularism, and today humanism may claimed not to believe in "any sort of refer to a nontheistic life stance centred spirit, God or life force". on human agency and looking to science Agnosticism is the view that the existence rather than revelation from a supernatural of God, of the divine or the supernatural source to understand the world [9]. is unknown or unknowable. Another Brief History of Atheism definition provided is the view that Western atheism has its roots in pre- "human reason is incapable of providing Socratic Greek philosophy, but atheism in sufficient rational grounds to justify the modern sense was nonexistent or either the belief that God exists or the extremely rare in ancient Greece. Pre- belief that God does not exist." The Socratic Atomists such as Democritus English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley attempted to explain the world in a purely coined the word agnostic in 1869, and materialistic way and interpreted religion said "It simply means that a man shall not as a human reaction to natural say he knows or believes that which he phenomena, but did not explicitly deny has no scientific grounds for professing the gods' existence. Anaxagoras, whom to know or believe." Earlier thinkers, Irenaeus calls "the atheist", was accused however, had written works that of impiety and condemned for stating promoted agnostic points of view, such as that "the sun is a type of incandescent Sanjaya Belatthaputta, a 5th-century BCE stone", an affirmation with which he tried Indian philosopher who expressed to deny the divinity of the celestial bodies agnosticism about any afterlife; [5] and [10]. During the Early Middle Ages, the Protagoras, a 5th-century BCE Greek Islamic world experienced a Golden Age. philosopher who expressed agnosticism Along with advances in science and about the existence of "the gods". philosophy, Arab and Persian lands Agnosticism is the doctrine or tenet of produced outspoken rationalists and 15 http://www.inosr.net/inosr-applied-sciences/ Tallulah and Mishka INOSR APPLIED SCIENCES 1(1): 14-20, 2015 atheists, including Muhammad al Warraq writers, the Polish ex-Jesuit philosopher (fl. 9th century), Ibn al-Rawandi (827– Kazimierz Łyszczyński and in the 1720s 911), Al-Razi (854–925), and Al-Maʿarri by the French priest Jean Meslier. In the (973–1058). Al-Ma'arri wrote and taught course of the 18th century, other openly that religion itself was a "fable invented atheistic thinkers followed, such as Baron by the ancients" and that humans were "of d'Holbach, Jacques-André Naigeon, and two sorts: those with brains, but no other French materialists. John Locke in religion, and those with religion, but no contrast, though an advocate of tolerance, brains." Despite their being relatively urged authorities not to tolerate atheism, prolific writers, little of their work believing that the denial of God's survives, mainly being preserved through existence would undermine the social quotations and excerpts in later works by order and lead to chaos [16]. Muslim apologists attempting to refute The philosopher David Hume developed a them [11]. Other prominent Golden Age skeptical epistemology grounded in scholars have been associated with empiricism, and Immanuel Kant's rationalist thought and atheism as well, philosophy has strongly questioned the although the current intellectual very possibility of a metaphysical atmosphere in the Islamic world, and the knowledge. Both philosophers scant evidence that survives from the era, undermined the metaphysical basis of make this point a contentious one today natural theology and criticized classical [12]. arguments for the existence of God [13] wrote that the Reformation had paved Brief History of Agnosticism the way for atheists by attacking the Throughout the history of Hinduism there authority of the Catholic Church, which in has been a strong tradition of philosophic turn "quietly inspired other thinkers to speculation and skepticism [17]. The Rig attack the authority of the new Protestant Veda takes an agnostic view on the churches". Deism gained influence in fundamental question of how the universe France, Prussia, and England. The and the gods were created. Nasadiya philosopher Baruch Spinoza was Sukta (Creation Hymn) in the tenth "probably the first well known 'semi- chapter of the Rig Veda says: atheist' to announce himself in a Christian But, after all, who knows, land in the modern era" according to [14].
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