What does it mean to be an atheist. Atheism is the natural state of a normal person

Dictionary Russian language Ushakov
ATHEIST- b an atheist who denies the existence of a god.

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language by V. Dahl
ATHEISM from the Greek unbelief, unbelief, godlessness; disbelief in the existence of God.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Atheism -(French atheisme, from Greek a - negative particle and theos - god; literally - godlessness), denial of the existence of God, any supernatural beings and forces and the associated denial of religion. The content of the concept "A." changed throughout history and was closely related to the nature of the religious teachings that prevailed in different eras. A. should not be identified with deism, pantheism, religious freethinking or freethinking (free interpretation of religious dogmas, condemnation of religious intolerance, criticism church rites etc.), which can be in close contact with A., and in some cases serve as a transition from faith to disbelief. The constituent parts of A. are the philosophical, historical, and natural-scientific criticism of religion.

A. in ancient times in its pure form is rare (the teaching of the Charvaks in India, Lucretius in Dr. Rome). More often one can observe various forms of religious free-thinking. In Dr. Greece atheists called people who denied the gods of folk beliefs (Sext Empiricus mentioned 5 of the most famous atheists antiquity: Protagoras of Kos, Euhemerus of Crete, Protagoras of Abdera, Diagoras of Melos, Theodore of Cyrene). Xenophanes, criticizing the anthropomorphism of the gods of the Greek folk religion, to which he opposed a certain single world deity, put forward the idea that it was people who created the gods in their own image and likeness. Various conceptions of the origin of religion are emerging: the idea, traced back to Democritus, of the emergence of faith in gods out of fear of the formidable forces of nature; the view of religion attributed to the Athenian tyrant Critias as an invention of a cunning politician to control people, etc.

In the Middle Ages, open A. is not found, and one can trace only the tendencies of anti-clericalism and free-thinking in a number of medieval heresies, in the doctrine of dual truth by Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina, in the legend of the "three deceivers" (Moses, Jesus and Muhammad), etc. P.

The formation of the capitalist mode of production required the development of science, which led to its clash with the church and religious dogma. "... Science rebelled against the church; the bourgeoisie needed science and took part in this uprising" (Engels F., see Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 22, p. 307) . The anti-clerical speeches of the Renaissance humanists P. Pomponazzi, L. Ball, W. von Hutten, Erasmus of Rotterdam, the works of N. Copernicus, J. Bruno, G. Galileo and others, who substantiated the heliocentric picture of the world, played an outstanding role in undermining the spiritual dictatorship of the church . Criticism Christian ideas a personal god, the transcendence of God, the creation of the world out of nothing, and so on. led many thinkers to pantheism (J. Bruno, L. Vanini, B. Spinoza), deism (F. Bacon, T. Hobbes, I. Newton), skeptical rationalism in matters of religion (M. Montaigne, P. Bayle, Voltaire) .

French materialists of the 18th century. (J. Mellier, P. Holbach, J. Nejon, D. Diderot, K. Helvetius, J. La Mettrie, S. Marechal) act as representatives of consistent A. journalism..." (Lenin V.I., Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 45, p. 26). The limitations of the French atheists of the 18th century. associated with their ahistorical approach to religion and misunderstanding of its public nature: seeing in it only a product of deceit and ignorance, they fought for liberation from religious prejudices by enlightening the masses, spreading knowledge. An outstanding representative of A. in the 19th century. was L. Feuerbach, who, from the standpoint of anthropological materialism, criticized religion and idealism (The Essence of Christianity, 1841). Feuerbach saw the key to explaining religion in the "self-alienation" of man, the projection human feelings and desires in the images of fantastic creatures - gods. The limitation of Feuerbach's anthropological understanding of religion was expressed, in particular, in an attempt to replace traditional religion new "religion of philanthropy".

Atheism in the 19th century associated to a large extent with the achievements of natural science thought. The ideological justification for it was, in particular, the materialism of L. Büchner, K. Vogt, J. Moleschott, as well as evolutionary theory Ch. Darwin. Based on Darwinism; E. Haeckel developed his concept of natural-science "monism" and organized the "Union of Monists" to combat religious worldview. F. Nietzsche criticized Christianity and religion from the standpoint of the irrationalist philosophy of life (cf. his well-known words: "God is dead").

In the 20th century the irrationalist line of criticism of religion was developed in the so-called. atheistic existentialism (M. Heidegger, J. P. Sartre, A. Camus). In the spirit of his concept of psychoanalysis, Z. Freud spoke out against religion (The Future of an Illusion, 1927, Russian translation, 1930). From the end of the 19th century bourgeois atheist unions arise, which publish magazines and almanacs, and convene congresses. National Societies of Freethinkers in various countries are now united in " world union Freethinkers" (founded in 1880 in Brussels; the 34th congress was held in 1963). B. Russell's speeches ("Why I'm not a Christian", 1927, Russian translation 1958) are an example of modern enlightenment criticism of Christianity.

In Russia, the development of freethinking and articulation is associated with advanced Russian thought in the 18th and 19th centuries. At the origins of it were M. V. Lomonosov and A. N. Radishchev, whose worldview developed in line with deism. The Russian revolutionary democrats V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen, N. G. Chernyshevsky, and D. I. Pisarev directly linked A. with the tasks of the anti-serf struggle. The natural-science tradition of criticizing the religious worldview developed in the works of I. M. Sechenov, I. I. Mechnikov, and K. A. Timiryazev.

Developed by K. Marx and F. Engels materialistic understanding history led to the development of scientific views on religion as a social phenomenon. In his work "To the Critique of the Hegelian Philosophy of Law" Marx showed the insufficiency of reducing religion to false views and delusions due to limited knowledge about nature, considering religion as the realization of an objective social need for an illusory completion of reality. According to Marx, "religious squalor is at the same time an expression of real squalor and a protest against this real squalor. Religion is the sigh of an oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of soulless orders. Religion is the opium of the people" ( K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 1, p. 415). False social reality gives rise to false ideas, the abolition of which is associated with the implementation of the deepest transformations of real human relations and becomes possible when "... relations of practical Everyday life people will be expressed in their transparent and reasonable connections with each other and with nature "(Marx K., ibid., vol. 23, p. 90). Thus, the central problem in Marxist criticism of religion becomes the problem of overcoming religion and the associated analysis of those socio-historical conditions that give rise to religiosity, and those social trends and mechanisms that ensure the maintenance and reproduction of religious prejudices.

Developing the teachings of Marx and Engels, V. I. Lenin formulated the concept of the social, economic, historical and epistemological roots of religion, demanding "... to explain materialistically the source of faith and religion among the masses" (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 17, p. 418). Noting the earthly origin of religion as one of the types of "spiritual oppression" (see ibid., vol. 12, p. 142), Lenin writes that "in addition to fantasy, Gemuth (feeling - Ed.) is extremely important in religion. , the practical aspect, the search for the best, protection, assistance, etc. (ibid., vol. 29, p. 53). G. V. Plekhanov, A. Bebel, P. Lafargue, and I. Dietzgen and other Marxists.

After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the mass departure of believers from religion, the Soviet Union became the world's first country of mass atheism, where the right to atheistic propaganda is enshrined in the Constitution (Article 127). The decree of February 5, 1918, on the separation of the church from the state and the school from the church, marked the beginning of the actual exercise of freedom of conscience. Liberation from religious prejudices is an integral part of the communist education of the people, carried out by the Party at all stages of socialist construction.

A voluntary society, the Union of Militant Atheists, was created in the USSR (1925). AT different time atheistic publications were published: the newspaper Bezbozhnik (1922-41), magazines Bezbozhnik (1925-41), " Atheist"(1922-30), "Militant Atheism" (1931), etc. The atheistic journals "Science and Religion" (since 1959) and "Lyudina i Svit" ("Man and the World" since 1965) are published. In universities, pedagogical, medical, agricultural, cultural and educational higher and secondary specialized educational institutions introduced the course "Fundamentals of Scientific Atheism". Atheist propagandists are being trained at special atheist faculties of evening universities of Marxism-Leninism, in circles, and so on. As part of the Academy social sciences In 1964 a special Institute for Scientific Atheism was established under the Central Committee of the CPSU. The current stage of communist construction in the USSR has put forward new tasks for atheistic education. Specific sociological research religiosity, contributing to the elucidation of the specific reasons for the existence of religious prejudices under socialism and the development of real ways to overcome them. move social progress indicates that despite the strength religious traditions the process of secularization now covers the most diverse segments of the population of many countries of the world, creating strong prerequisites for the development of an atheistic worldview. The fundamental changes taking place in the world, as well as the well-known evolution of the social doctrine of Christianity, created the prerequisites for real cooperation between believers and non-believers in their joint social struggle.

Small encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron
Atheism, Greek., denial of the existence of God; among the ancients - the denial of the gods recognized by the state.
Atheist an atheist who does not believe in God.

Atheism is a Greek word. It consists of two parts: "a" - means "not", that is, negation, and "theos" - god. Thus, the meaning of this word is the denial of God, any supernatural beings and forces, godlessness. To be more precise, it is a system of views that proves the inconsistency of the provisions of any religion.

Atheism includes philosophical, historical, natural-scientific criticism of religion, the disclosure of its fantastic nature. Atheism reveals social nature religion, from the standpoint of materialism explains how and why religious faith what role does religion play in the life of society, in what ways and means should it be overcome.

Atheism in its development has gone through a number of historical stages: ancient atheism, atheism and freethinking of the feudal world, bourgeois atheism, atheism of Russian revolutionary democrats. The legitimate successor to atheism of all ages, its highest form is Marxist-Leninist atheism.

Some defenders of religion argue that there was no atheism before, that it was invented by the communists. It is not true. Atheism is a natural result of the development of the advanced thought of mankind.

There are two types of atheism: spontaneous and scientific. The first denies God on the basis of common sense, the second - on the basis of scientific data confirming the correctness of common sense.

Spontaneous atheism arose before scientific atheism, and its bearers were simple people labor. Therefore, it may well be considered popular atheism. He found his manifestation in the oral folk art: epics, legends, songs, sayings and proverbs. They reflected the conviction of the early atheists that religion serves the rich - the exploiters, is beneficial only to them and the clergy. "God loves the rich." "A man with a bipod, and a pop with a spoon" - that's what the people said.

The spirit of atheism has long been inherent in the Russian people. In one of the epics, for example, a generalized image of a people's freethinker - the Novgorod rebel Vaska Buslaev, who rebelled against injustice, against religious prejudices, was deduced. In this image, the people captured their boundless faith in the strength of man, faith in the inevitability of the victory of good over evil. Buslaev "didn't believe in sleep or choh", but only in himself and his squad. The religious force hostile to the people in the bylina appears in the person of the "monster-pilgrim". On his head church bell. Vaska Buslaev beats him, exclaiming: "Christ is risen." And beat the monster.

V. G. Belinsky spoke very well about the atheism of the Russian people in his famous letter to N. V. Gogol. “The foundations of religiosity,” Belinsky wrote, “is reverence, the fear of God. And a Russian person pronounces the name of God, scratching himself ... He talks about an image (icon), it’s good - to pray, but it’s not good - to cover pots.

Take a closer look and you will see that this is a deeply atheistic people by nature ... Mystical exaltation is not in their nature; he has too much common sense for this, clarity and positivity in his mind ... Religiosity was not instilled in him even to the clergy ... "

Scientific atheism has evolved as knowledge of nature, society, and human thought has been accumulating. Every era, every nation gave birth to courageous, proud people who, despite the wrath of the priests, not fearing persecution and persecution, opposed religious obscurantism force scientific knowledge. Mankind will always remember the names of these people. We will talk about them further.

Scientific atheism is essential side materialistic worldview. Being a philosophical science, scientific atheism in explaining the essence of religion, in its criticism proceeds from the provisions of dialectical and historical materialism.

The strength of scientific atheism is not only in the criticism of religion, but also in the affirmation of the healthy foundations of the spiritual life of society and each individual.

Literature:

• Grigoryan M. A course of lectures on the history of atheism. M.r. Thought, 1974
• Frantsov G. Scientific atheism. M., Nauka, 1972.

For some reason, it is generally accepted that an atheist is a person who does not believe in God. This is partly true, but in fact, the denial of the supreme deity does not mean the rejection of faith as such. Like the "Nautilus" of the 80s: "You can believe in the absence of faith." In this regard, the denial of the divine should also lead to other steps: a revision of the value picture of the world and the adoption of a new model. In fact, this is the production of moral values, ethical standards of behavior. However, atheists (by the way, they are mainly Europeans and Americans), while proclaiming themselves as such, remain in the bosom of the Christian code. It turns out a strange thing: the denial of God does not provoke the denial of religion.

The essence of man and his positioning in the world

Let's look into this issue. An atheist is not just a person who denies any manifestation of the supernatural. This, as they say, is not enough. He recognizes nature, the Universe, the surrounding reality as a self-sufficient and self-developing reality, which is independent of the will of a person or any other being. Cognition of the world is possible only by means of science, and man is recognized as the highest moral value. Thus, an atheist is a person who adheres to ordinary, to some extent liberal views. Moral questions, of course, are of interest to him, but only in the context of protecting his own interests. He can be a cynic, a sycophant, an agnostic, honest, decent - whatever. But this does not mean a denial of those moral principles, thanks to which he lives and is part of the social whole - the circle of the family, the work team, the circle, the professional group, etc. Social habits formed on the basis of the same Christian upbringing (even if indirectly, school), there is no getting away from it. And that means faith, just in a slightly different, unusual for everyone, form.

If not, whose slave?

You can often hear that an atheist is someone who hates the phrase "God's servant." On the one hand, this is understandable. For atheism as an ideological movement, it is important to recognize absolute freedom, however, like any other. On the other hand, the same moral problem arises: if not a servant of God, then who (or what) then is the highest ideal for such a person? And then a void arises - there are no offers in return for God. And a holy place, as you know, is never empty ...

atheist communists

As a result, it turned out that the glory of almost the predecessor of communism was fixed behind atheism. Marx and Engels, of course, publicly positioned themselves as atheists, claiming that God exists only in people's imaginations. But, again, this does not mean denying God as a moral ideal. Moreover, classical Marxism did not analyze religion from an institutional point of view, as it did

The poet Diagoras is also considered the first atheist in the world, who claimed the personal essence of the gods, their intervention in the affairs of Athens and, in general, the ability to change the world. A little later, Protagoras proclaimed: “Man is the measure of all things,” which, in principle, was in tune with the “physical” tradition of early Greek philosophy. In the 19th century, a theory of human psychogenesis was created, B. Russell in the 20th century - the thesis of absolute doubt. But this does not mean the denial of gods and religiosity! Simply put, for some reason it is believed that an atheist is a person with a special type of philosophical and scientific mind, which does not directly mean his godlessness. He just doesn't think like everyone else. But is it a crime?

Believers quite often point out in their “arguments” that atheism is satanism, paganism, or even an ideology that claims to “scientifically prove that there is no god.”

Since most often this is broadcast without unnecessary controversy, i.e. "believers - to believers", then this is presented as a dogma, as something that should not be doubted. But in disputes with atheists, everything is more difficult, since the most important task is to defeat an atheist in an argument, and not to tell any nonsense to your blind admirers.

This, by the way, is excellent material for an atheist, so that he can formulate his position exactly, so that he can not succumb to a variety of provocations and " tricky questions”, which are often used in such disputes.

So now the main task is to briefly try to answer this question, as well as dispel a few myths of priests and idealist philosophers.

First, which is the most important. Atheism is not the denial of God. It is the “denial of God” that various “believers” often try to attribute to atheists. This argument, they believe, is very strong, since it supposedly puts atheists themselves in an awkward position.

There are quite a lot of formulations that would say what atheism is. In the environment of the so-called. "believers" they are almost always of the same type. Here is the most "intelligent" one:

"Atheism is the denial of God on the basis of scientific data"

For believers, there is nothing strange here, but I would like to say that this formulation is a substitution of concepts.

The most important thing to remember about atheism is that the concept itself does not mean negation. Believers mistakenly believe that atheism is originally an English word, where a is an abbreviation for anti (against). And theism, respectively, is a deity.

Atheism is actually a Greek word that means "without gods." In Russian it is "Godlessness".

Those. atheism is the fundamental rejection of the unscientific and illogical concept of god/gods and nothing more. Simply refusing to accept as truth is a ridiculous statement.

Today, this is not accepted by everyone adequately. However, imagine for a second that even about 500 years ago, the so-called. "God" was everywhere. He was in history, in chemistry, in physics, in biology and astronomy. This abstraction was inscribed in the life of society, and the rejection of it often promised persecution and even death. How seriously this hindered progress is not worth saying. The history of scholasticism directly testifies to this. And it confirms that the main role of religion is to “freeze” the current situation, leave it in the rank of “divine”. This is beneficial to the rulers, high society of any time period, as well as to the priests ("Superstructure").

Skepticism initially developed in ancient society, but this is a separate conversation. And if we are talking specifically about a closer period, then it is worth starting with the industrial revolution, which literally changed the mode of production and production relations. The role of science has grown, and it has become redundant to artificially support the reactionary superstructure in the form of religion.

The development of science (and often philosophy) gave rise to skepticism about the concept of God. Doubt won over blind faith. Often scientists did not directly call themselves atheists, but abandoned scholasticism and even created their own idealistic concepts. But the direction was correct, and therefore they, even being idealists in philosophy, when they were engaged in science, tried to exclude God.

Newton's God is the "first impulse", and further development characterizes the conversation between Laplace and Napoleon:

- You wrote such a huge book about the system of the world and never mentioned its Creator!
- Sir, I didn't need this hypothesis.

Scientists of that era possessed truly encyclopedic knowledge, and the contradictions of the Bible were striking. They could not understand in any way what is so “divine” there, where is the “truth”, and therefore, over time, they simply abandoned the strange concept, which simply does not make any sense, there is no causal relationship.

Over time, this doubt spread more widely. Natural science quickly "liberated itself". Then came the time for the humanities, well, and then it was reflected in ordinary education. In the 19th century, this process was largely completed. Often there were lessons where religion was promoted, but a clear separation of secular and religious appeared.

In essence, it is precisely the rejection of absurd abstraction that is atheism. A special role in the popularization of atheism was played by the French enlighteners of the 18th century, who possessed the advanced knowledge of their time and published the largest encyclopedia of available knowledge, excluding the ridiculous concept and prejudices of the past.

It is important to say that atheism is not an attempt to "prove that God does not exist". The question of God in itself is a ridiculous question. This is from the category of the existence of a fairy or, for example, Russell's invisible flying teapot. If some madman says that he is a god, then no one will scientifically prove to him that this is not so. Because it just doesn't make any sense.

By the way, atheists often attribute the denial of a particular god - Christian or Islamic (monotheistic). However, in reality we are talking about any god, and there are thousands of them.

Stephen Robins spoke of arguing with believers:

“I maintain that we are both atheists. Only I believe in one god less than you. When you understand why you deny all other possible gods, you will understand why I deny yours."

Therefore, in general, we can summarize. God is an abstraction, and an unnecessary one, without which everything works fine. And if you know history, then belief in a deity not only did not help humanity, but rather even harmed, because when the religious community had real political power and actively influenced global processes, it did not create any “ideal society”. According to Engels:

“Every religion is nothing but a fantastic reflection in the minds of people of those external forces that dominate them in their daily life, a reflection in which earthly forces take the form of unearthly ones"

And if this tool is still used as a reflection today, then active supporters are people who go to deliberate self-deception, since it is scientific data that does not work abstractly, but concretely, in general, does not need the hypothesis of God. So the last "attempt" of the rabid fanatics is, in the most ignorant way, to try to "deny" the scientific evidence and continue to claim that everything in the bible is true.

Fortunately, such figures are mostly marginalized, and the vast majority of supporters of the concept of God are conformists. Those. this issue does not actually affect them and they do not bother themselves with worship. As evidenced by the authority of Orthodoxy (and not only).

Therefore, in general, it can be said with confidence that in everyday life people are more atheists than believers. Faith, even among supporters, does not occupy the entire space (as it was in the Middle Ages), but only a certain segment, and, it must be said, a very shaky one. So the only way out of the supporters of the concept of God today is a wild reaction, an attempt to impose their abstraction on the world by "force". Otherwise, the process of withering away of religion will continue. But still, what is important modern society radically different from the past, and therefore the hypothesis does not have the best prospects.