Atheism essays

America has always been a religious country. Since the early pilgrimages, there has been a religious aspect to the American culture and its way of life. America was so religious in their way of life that they were ranked one of the most religious countries (‘Atheism's Bad Rap in the United States’, 2014), and yet America is seeing a decline in religion. More and more people in the United States are identifying as atheist and agnostic, and the number of...

In 18th and 19th century England, atheists were called infidels or blasphemers, as the majority of Christians who criticized religion viewed themselves as free thinkers, as atheism was a term rarely used. Atheists such as Richard Carlile and George Jacob Holyoake were seen as dangerous, their religious views spilling into politics. Both imprisoned for blasphemy in 1819 and 1942. During Carlile’s trial he read Thomas Paine’s ‘The Age of Reason’ to spread its critique of Christianity: ‘my own mind is...

Neo-atheism means a belief system comprised of three parts founded on the conviction that science provides the only road to truth, and that all religions are misleading, irrational and destructive. Atheism and secularism, the political wing of the movement, are two-third of them. Neo-atheists often assume that they are the same thing, whereas atheism is a metaphysical position, and secularism is a view of how society should be organized. So, a Christian can easily be a secularist and an atheist...