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| | Atheism - Free Encyclopedia |
 | | Atheism is not synonymous with irreligion; the idea of an eternal non-created universe is an important concept held by some members of religions and philosophies such as Buddhism and Taoism. | | | The term atheism\ is formed of the Greek prefix a- (meaning "without" or "not") and the Greek-derived theism, meaning a belief in a god or gods. | | | Some distinguish between a narrow, strict category "strong atheism" (the explicit rejection of the existence of gods) and "weak atheism" (a lack of belief in gods but no explicit rejection). |
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http://www.wacklepedia.com/a/at/atheism.html
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| | Atheism - definition of Atheism in Encyclopedia |
| | Weak atheism, also known as implicit atheism, is the absence of belief concerning the existence of deities, without the positive assertion that they do not exist. | | | The term atheism itself was coined in France in the 16th Century, and was initially used as an accusation against critics of religion, scientists, materialistic philosophers, Deists, and others who seemed to represent a threat to established beliefs. | | | An argument commonly associated with the weak atheism position is that of rationalism: any claims and assertions, and the beliefs arising thereof, must be justified, and not taken on faith. |
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http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Atheism
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| | atheism on Encyclopedia.com |
| | ATHEISM [atheism], denial of the existence of God or gods and of any supernatural existence, to be distinguished from agnosticism, which holds that the existence cannot be proved. | | | Seventy years of active atheism did not make Muslims give up their belief in the healing power of the saints. | | | There were few avowed atheists from classical times until the 19th cent., when popular belief in a conflict between religion and science brought forth preachers of the gospel of atheism, such as Robert G. Ingersoll. |
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http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/a1/atheism.asp
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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Atheism |
| | For the common basis of all systems of theism as well as the cardinal tenet of all popular religion at the present day is indubitably a belief in the existence of a personal God, and to deny this tenet is to invite the popular reproach of atheism. | | | It does not necessarilly follow, because the natural cognoscibility of a personal First Cause is denied, that His existence is called in question: nor, when matter is called upon to explain itself, that God is critically denied. | | | On the other hand, pantheism, while destroying the extra-mundane character of God, does not necessarily deny the existence of a supreme entity, but rather affirms such as the sum of all existence and the cause of all phenomena whether of thought or of matter. |
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http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02040a.htm
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