Home > Atheism
7 Polemical usage
The word "atheism" has been used polemically to describe the position of someone who does not believe in one particular deity, even if they do believe in another. An example would be its use as an accusation of the pagan Romans against the early Christians, and vice versa. It was also used against Socrates. Polemical usages of this term as an ad hominem attack are not discussed within this article.
8 Atheistic religious organizations
Atheism is not synonymous with irreligion. There are religious belief systems, including much of Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, and Universism, which do not require theistic belief. A number of atheistic "churches" have been established such as the Naturalistic Pantheists, Brianism, and the Fellowship of Reason.
9 Views of religions on atheism
9.1 Jewish views of atheism
All formulations of Jewish principles of faith require a belief in God. In theory, the rejection of this belief is heresy of the highest form. It should be noted that such views are mainly fundamentalist in origin; in practice, rabbis have generally considered the behaviour of a Jew to be the determining factor in whether or not one is considered an adherent of Judaism. It is commonly recognized that it is possible for a Jew to strictly practice Judaism as a faith, while at the same time being an agnostic or atheist, giving rise to the riddle: "Q: What do you call a Jew who doesn't believe in God? A: A Jew." It is also worth noting that Reconstructionism does not require any belief in a deity, and certain popular Reform prayer books offer services without mentions of God.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, first Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in pre-state lsrael, held that atheists were not actually denying God; rather, they were denying one of man's many images of God. Since any man-made image of God can be considered an idol, Kook held that in practice one could consider atheists as helping true religion burn away false images of God, thus in the end serving the purpose of true monotheism.
10 See also
- Ideas that are related to secular atheism:
