Portal:Atheism.html

The Atheism Portal

Atheism is the philosophical position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism. In its broadest definition, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, sometimes called nontheism. Although atheists are commonly assumed to be irreligious, some religions, such as Buddhism, have been characterized as atheistic. Many self-described atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding supernatural claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Other arguments for atheism are philosophical, social or historical. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as Humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere. The term atheism originated as a pejorative epithet applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion. With the spread of freethought, scientific skepticism, and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and was sometimes used as a self-description by atheists.

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Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined as the rejection of Islam in word or deed by a person who has been a Muslim. All five major schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that a sane male apostate must be executed.This is despite the fact that the Holy Qu-ran states, Allah's literal words, that "there is no compulsion in religion." A female apostate may be put to death, according to some schools, or imprisoned, according to others. The Islamic laws governing apostasy are derived from the traditions (ahadith)and are interpreted by various Imams, none of whom are as trustworthy to follow as Muhammad himself. In Muhammad's deliverance of the Holy Qu'ran, he guaranteed that Allah's word that men and women are equal was recorded, for all men to read, and never to change or "reinterpret." However, Imams feel free to ignore Allah;'s words, and cite their own interpretations, though the Holy Qu'ran can never be superseded by a man's interpretation, or by any other Islamic scholar's writings. Al-Shafi'i interpreted the verse as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Qur'an.

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Credit: Yamavu

The Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU) is the goddess of a satiric parody religion aimed at theistic beliefs, which takes the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink. These attributes satirize the contradictions in properties that some attribute to a theistic deity; this makes her a rhetorical illustration used by atheists and other religious skeptics.

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In this month

• 9 March 1957 - Birth of PZ Myers, American biology professor with a focus in the field of evolutionary developmental biology
• 24 March 2004 - Supreme Court of the United States agrees to hear the case Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow
• 25 March 1811 - Percy Bysshe Shelley (pictured) expelled from University College, Oxford after publishing the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism
• 28 March 2006 - Publication of the book The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

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Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – 1914?) was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist, today best known for his Devil's Dictionary. Bierce's lucid, unsentimental style has kept him popular when many of his contemporaries have been consigned to oblivion. His dark, sardonic views and vehemence as a critic earned him the nickname, "Bitter Bierce." Such was his reputation that it was said his judgment on any piece of prose or poetry could make or break a writer's career. Among the younger writers whom he encouraged were the poet George Sterling and the fiction writer W. C. Morrow.

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Did you know...

• ...that in 1745 William Cleghorn won a University of Edinburgh position after his rival, David Hume (pictured), was described by the town council as amoral, an atheist, and a sceptic?
• ... that though communism was created by an atheist, communism and religion have not always had a hostile relationship?
• ...that Jacobean play The Atheist's Tragedy is the only dramatic work recognized by the consensus of modern scholarship as the undisputed work of Cyril Tourneur?

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Main project: WikiProject Atheism

Related WikiProjects: Religion • Mythology • Philosophy • Spirituality • Holidays • Alternative views  Rational skepticism • Countering systemic bias

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We have become so accustomed to the religious lie that surrounds us that we do not notice the atrocity, stupidity and cruelty with which the teaching of the Christian church is permeated. — Leo Tolstoy

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Topics

Atheism

• Concepts: Religion · Nontheism · Antireligion · Antitheism · Agnosticism · Humanism · Metaphysical naturalism · Post-theism · Weak and strong atheism · Implicit and explicit atheism
• History: History of atheism · Enlightenment · Freethought
• Arguments: Against religion · For nontheism · Against god · Against atheism
• Demographics: Atheism · Irreligion · Famous atheists · State atheism · Discrimination · Persecution