Category Archives: Atheism

Students packed the CUB auditorium on Friday night to hear an atheist and a Christian discuss whether science supports atheism.

The event was presented by the Veritas forum, a non-profit Christian organization that holds discussions across college campuses to ask life's hardest questions, according to their website.

The discussion featured WSU professor Margaret Davis, an atheist, and Washington University in St. Louis professor S. Joshua Swamidass, a self-identified scientist Christian.

Davis said she was raised Christian but began to question it at an early age. She said she became an atheist at age 14 and now also considers herself a humanist.

Swamidass was raised Christian and, like Davis, soon began asking himself if he would still be a Christian had he not been raised that way. It was then that he began to study and try to find something within the Bible that he said was not man-made. It was once he began to study Jesus Christ that he really started believing, Swamidass said.

He said he believed the evidence that Jesus had risen from the dead, pointing to the book More Than a Carpenter, by Josh McDowell, as something he read early on that cemented his faith.

Swamidass said the only evidence he could find for the existence of God was Jesus.

Davis said she believes the world is governed by science. She said she lives her life thinking from a rationally scientific point of view, and from that she did not think a creator was the most plausible explanation.

I dont think there is a higher reason for us being here, Davis said.

Swamidass asked Davis if there was any part of her that wondered about the existence of a God, to which she replied that she believed the Christian God was a human creation. She said if there was a God, it may or may not be a cloud, or a giant turtle floating in space.

Davis said she could not imagine an accumulation of evidence which could convince her of the existence of God.

Both discussed how historically natural phenomena such as earthquakes or lightning were said to be Gods doing and now are explained scientifically.

Theology is just the attempt to understand what transcends human understanding, Swamidass said.

Davis said she believes one day science will come close to, or answer, all of life's questions, including those about human consciousness.

Many students described the event as interesting, but also said it was not what they were had expected. Two students said they identified as Christians but did not believe Swamidass accurately represented them in his role.

There is a lot of value in hearing two different perspectives, said Ty Bjornsom, a WSU junior.

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Professors debate relationship between atheism and science - The Daily Evergreen

Apr 5, 2017 at 3:50 pm | Print View

DES MOINES An atheist urged members of the Iowa House to invoke the holy trinity of science made up of reason, observation and experience as they went about their work Wednesday.

The trinity, Justin Scott of Waterloo said in offering the opening prayer, would allow lawmakers to address issues before them without allowing confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance or intellectual dishonesty to blindly guide positions and votes.

Scott, believed to be the first atheist to offer the morning invocation in the House, said his trinity isnt rooted in dogma or doctrine and doesnt care what our feelings are or what our deeply held beliefs are.

Scott, the guest of Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, D-Waterloo, said he put a lot of thought into preparing for the invocation but it didnt hit him until about 4 a.m. that the message should be about process, because at the end of the day, we are all humans and when we face challenges, all we can count on is ourself, the abilities weve been born with, the talents weve developed.

Science, he said, is all about thinking about something, analyzing it, processing it and being open to the fact that what you thought about Subject A may not be what the evidence actually tells you.

Thats something lawmakers deal with every day as they come to the Capitol with preconceived notions not even on a religious level, he said.

Scott, a professional photographer and social media consultant, said he was representing not only atheists but freethinkers, skeptics and humanists. He hopes his appearance before lawmakers helps normalize what atheism is, what atheism isnt.

Theres a negative connotation to the word atheist, he said, as well as an image of the angry atheist.

But by coming in here and being really calm, really happy, cheerful, smiling as we walk around shaking hands, there wasnt any pushback, said Scott, who was accompanied by his wife, Brandi, and their three children. It was just a respectful conversation about religious freedom. Am I as an atheist allowed the same religious freedom as everyone else in the state?

Scotts appearance did not attract the same attention or reaction as the invocation offered in 2015 by Cedar Rapids Cabot witch Deborah Maynard. Several people came to the Capitol to protest her prayer. A lawmaker turned his back during the invocation and many legislators stayed away.

About half the representatives were in the chamber for the invocation Wednesday, far fewer than usual, but it was not clear that was in response to Scott or that they had debated until 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Scott closed his invocation in a prayerful style.

Let this trinity guide you and protect you, he said. May this trinity inspire you and be honest to you ... lift up the truth upon you and give you peace.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com

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Atheist calls on 'holy trinity of science' in Iowa House invocation ... - The Gazette: Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines

MICHIGAN CITY Young adults in their 20s and 30s are invited to an evening of free Christian fellowship at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Barker Mansion. The casual evening, which is hosted by the Queen of All Saints Young Adult Ministry, will center around a discussion lead by the Rev. Kevin Scalf titled, God doesnt believe in atheists, but is it reasonable for atheists to believe in God?

Scalf is a member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood religious order and is currently a special assistant to the President for Mission and Ministry and Theology chairperson at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Hammond.

He was appointed by Pope Francis as one 800 priests throughout the world to be a Missionary of Mercy throughout the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The evening will feature complimentary beer and snacks, courtesy of the Young Adult Ministry. The ministry aims to reach those in their 20s and 30s through social events, service opportunities, and spiritual growth activities.

The local Knights of Columbus Chapter is also providing support for the event.

The Barker Mansion is located at 631 Washington St. For more information, visit the Young Adult Ministry Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/youngadultministryqas or contact Jen at 608-295-5534.

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Christian young adult event features discussion of atheism | LaPorte ... - nwitimes.com

There is no dearth of religious holidays. Be it Christmas, Diwali, Eid or Hanukkah, all religions in the world have some or the other festivities going on throughout the year. But, these holidays carry little meaning for atheists.

For people who lack belief in gods, there is National Atheist Day April 1. And the story behind how the day cameabout is amusing.

In 2003, a spoof story said a Florida man sought American Civil Liberties Unions help and filed a case about discrimination inflicted on atheists by Christian and Jewish festivals and said atheists did not have any holiday to celebrate. To this, the judge replied that April 1, which is April Fools Day, was the holiday for atheists. Readers believed the story when it first appearedonline and accepted that April 1 was declared as National Atheist Day.

Since then, April 1 is also known as National Atheist Day. However, there has been no recorded activity for this day.

Check out somequotes on atheism, gathered from Goodreads, Ask Atheists and Brainy Quote.

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National Atheist Day 2017: Quotes, Facts To Mark The Day - International Business Times

Redated from March 2009.

I was a Christian recently enough to remember what it felt like to really believe the Creator of the universe talked to me, to really believe I would go to heaven and unbelievers would go to hell, to really believe that prayer made a difference.

It sure felt like I really believed that stuff. And other Christians tell me they really believe that stuff, too.

But somethings not quite right with that.

Supposedly, my parents really believe that I am going to hell now that Im an atheist. They believe their son, whom they love dearly, is going to be tortured forever. Literally.

And yet, they dont seem very upset by this. Sure, theyre upset that their son has rejected most of the values and truths they tried to instill in me. Theyre upset that I reject their way of life as both deluded and immoral. Thats a major blow for any caring parent to take.

But they dont seem upset that their beloved son will be tortured forever in hell. And that seems odd.

If they really believed that, wouldnt I see some serious mourning? Some pleading? Some great distress?

But its not just my parents. Its Christians in general. I had these questions even when I was a Christian.

This is not a post for attacking Christian beliefs or promoting atheistic views. This is a post about understanding. Id like to understand Christians better. So, Christians: I have a question for you.

If you really believed some of the people you love dearly were going to spend an eternity in hell, wouldnt that motivate you to try harder to save them?

Lets say we all lived in Poland at the start of World War II and you got word that soon, the Nazis were going to invade the town where several of your friends and family lived. The Nazis were going take everybody off to concentration camps in chains, and possibly kill them. And lets say this information came from a very reliable source, so that you really believed this was going to happen.

Would you just go on about your life? Would you just mention this to your friends and family in passing, and send them the occasional tract with information on the threat of the Nazis? Would you merely pray for them to see the threat and save themselves?

Or, would you do everything you could to save your friends and family? Maybe you would drive out there and try to convince them of the threat until you were blue in the face. Maybe you would refuse to leave until they came away with you. Maybe you would I dunno what, but it would be pretty drastic. I know if I were in that situation, then I would do some pretty drastic things to save my friends and family.

But this is not what Christians do for their friends and family who they really believe are on the verge of falling into eternal torture, even though they say they really believe this, and even though they feel they really believe this.

So something weird is going on. Millions of Christians really believe this stuff, but they dont act like it.

As best we can tell, humans always act so as to fulfill the strongest of their current desires, given their beliefs. But I very much doubt that Christians do not have a strong desire to save their spouses, their children, and their best friends from eternal agony. So there seems to be something weird about the belief end of the equation.

Do Christians really believe what they say and feel they believe? Whats going on here?

If you really believe this, you shouldnt have to tell yourself, Youre right, I really should try harder to evangelize. No, if you really believed, you would already have that motivation! You wouldnt need to try to manufacture it!

And if you really believed, you wouldnt need to constantly repeat the doctrines of Christianity to yourself, and do everything you can to build up your faith. I dont need to remind myself that the Holocaust happened or that gravity is real. I dont need to constantly build up my faith in the existence of magnetism.

Something is fishy here, and I dont get it. Any thoughts?

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Do Christians REALLY Believe? - Common Sense Atheism

Featured In the land of Periyar, speaking out against religion and God led to the killing of 31-year-old Farook Hameed.

Farook Hameed. Courtesy: A. Joseph

Kolaivaalinai edadaaKodiyor seyal aravey Bharatidasan

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): Thus reads a black t-shirt withwhite print in Tamil, uploaded by Farook Hameed as his profile picture on Facebook on November 6, 2015. This quote from the famous Tamil poet Bharatidasan translates as Take the sword to put an end to acts of evil men.

Barely a year-and-a-half later, the sword sickles and knives, rather would be taken. Not by 31-year-old Farook, but by six childhood friends consumed by an evil the police are still trying to fathom. Hameed was stabbed 18 times on March 16 at Ukkadam, Coimbatore. His crime was that he was a rationalist and an atheist following in the Dravidian tradition established so famously in Tamil Naduby Periyar E.V. Ramasamy.

It would seem that it is worse to actively propagate atheism than being an atheist. What were initially arguments between friends about the existence of God, or the lack thereof, turned into a bloodbath, leaving behind two young children bereft of their father and a family distraught at the callousness of it all.

The Wire visited Farooksmodest home in Bilal Estate in Ukkadam. The green-coloured, small house wore a mournful look. Farookis survived by his parents Hameed and Nafisa,his wife Rasheeda, brother-in-law Shahjahan, 11-year-old son Afrid, and six-year-old daughter Anafa.

The family cried in silence, refusing to speak. They have yet to come to grips with their loss. Rasheeda finally agreed to narrate her version on onecondition that her face must not be shown and no photographs must be taken.

Jaffar, Anshanth, Munaf and my husband were very good friends and would all go together out of town quite often, she said, sobbing silently. Munaf was his thickest friend. They would keep arguing [about religion]. We used to tell Farooknot to speak openly but he never listened. Ten days before the murder, my husband was often deep in thought. When I asked him why, he said it was nothing. My younger brother told my husband frequently that Munafs behaviour was suspicious. But my husband brushed it aside.

Rasheedas eyes strayed to her young ones. Our son took to Islam, he believes in Allah. But our daughter is like my husband she does not believe in God, she cried.

Farook Hameed. Credit: Facebook

What happened on March 16

On the day of his murder, Farook wound up work at his scrap iron shop in Ukkadam and came home. As he was eating, he got a call, recollects Rasheeda. He said his friends were calling, he had to go because they wanted to discuss something related to business. We protested it was around 11:45 p.m. We said why do you want to go out so late at night, it can wait until the morning. My younger brother Shahjahan kept insisting that he not go. But he left anyway, she said.

Farook reached the meeting point the corporation sewage treatment facility in Ukkadam on his two-wheeler. A group of people lay waiting in the shadows, armed with knives and sickles. After the brutal attack, they fled on three motorbikes and one autorickshaw. Hearing Farooks plaintive cries, passersby rushed to help. But hesuccumbed to his grievous injuries.

March 16 was a Thursday. On Friday, after prayers, six people surrendered before a local court in connection with Farooks murder Anshanth, Saddam Hussein, Shamsudeen, Abdul Munaf, Akram Jinda and Jaffar. All of the accused were known to Farook for nearly 15 years friends and neighbours.

A sword against atheism

According to his family, Farook joined the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (DVK) five years ago. The DVK is an offshoot of the Dravidar Kazhagam founded by Periyar in the 1940s. The core values of the Dravidar Kazhagam atheism and rationalism were propagated by the DVK as well.

Farooks mother Nafisa claims that he was never religious, even at ayoung age. I never expected that those boys would do this. I have fed Saddam Hussein (one of the accused) with my own hands. They were all such good friends. I cant believe these six people would do this, she sobbed.

In September, Farook, as part of the DVK, was involved in protests and clashes that ensued near the Athupalam toll gate, following communal tensions over the hacking of Sasikumar, a local member of the Hindu Munnani, a fringe pro-Hindu outfit. Farook had been arrested and lodged in Salem jail and was only released recently.

Farook was vocal about his ideology. He had posted comments about atheism, criticising religion and caste on his Facebook page. All of his comments have now been wiped out whether by family or by the police remains unknown. A few days before he died, Farook had posted on his Facebook page that due to his ideology, his friends and co-workers had begun hating him.

Farook was also the administrator of a WhatsApp group called Allah Murdad, meaning There is no God. This group had a number of Muslim youth who had embraced atheism.

The Coimbatore police, who are investigating the case, saidFarook appeared to have received open and subtle threats to shut down his WhatsApp group and to stop spreading the message of atheism. This murder could be a warning to those who are against religion, said a senior official investigating the case on the condition of anonymity. Farook had refused to exit from this WhatsApp group. The murder could be a warning to other Muslims who are part of that group. In this group, Farook had even posted a picture of his daughter holding up a placard that reads There is no God, he said.

Members of DVK, of which Farook was a part, is angry. No one expected that Farook would be killed, said P. Selvam, Coimbatore district in-charge of the DVK. This shows how deeply religion has seeped into the minds of such fanatics and how an individual cannot express his own opinions. DVK and other like-minded organisations will fund the education of Farooks children. We are petitioning the state government to provide a government job to Farooks wife, he added.

A shocked local jamaat(assembly) has stated that no help will be given to the six accused in terms of fighting the case legally.

Following Farooks murder, vigilance has been stepped up in the Al Ameen Colony, a street adjacent to Bilal Estate where Farooks family lives, as all of the six accused murderers hail from that area. Al Ameen Colony is notorious in Coimbatore for being the residence of alleged extremists such as Kichan Buhari, arrested in connection with the Malleswaram blast of 2013 and said to be involved in the terror attacks of 1998 targeted at BJP leader L.K. Advani. Al Ameen Colony was also home to Mohammed Ansari, convicted in the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts that took 58 lives.

Coimbatore is a sensitive area. But it is of deep concern that a person born into a particular faith embraced Periyarism and was killed for that. There are a large number of clashes continuing in the name of religion here. But Farooks murder is unprecedented, said social activist S. Panneerselvam, capturing the mood of shock and despair in the city nestled in the foothills of the Western Ghats.

A. Joseph is an independent journalist with The Lede and is based in Coimbatore.

Categories: Featured, Religion, Rights

Tagged as: A Joseph, atheism, Bilal Estate, BJP leader, Coimbatore, Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, DVK, Hindu Munnani, L.K. Advani, Mohammed Ansari, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy, Saddam Hussein

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How an Atheist Was Silenced in Coimbatore - The Wire - The Wire

Christian atheism is a system of ethics which draws its beliefs and practices from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Gospels of the New Testament and other sources, while rejecting the supernatural claims of Christianity at large. Christian Atheism takes many forms - some Christian Atheists take a theological position, in which the belief in the transcendent or interventionist God is rejected or absent in favor of finding God totally in the world (Thomas J. J. Altizer), while others follow Jesus in a godless world (William Hamilton). Hamilton's Christian atheism is similar to Jesuism.

Thomas Ogletree, Frederick Marquand Professor of Ethics and Religious Studies at Yale Divinity School, lists these four common beliefs:[1][2]

According to Paul van Buren, a Death of God theologian, the word God itself is "either meaningless or misleading".[2] He contends that it is impossible to think about God. Van Buren says that

"We cannot identify anything which will count for or against the truth of our statements concerning 'God'".[2]

The inference from these claims to the "either meaningless or misleading" conclusion is implicitly premised on the verificationist theory of meaning. Most Christian atheists believe that God never existed, but there are a few who believe in the death of God literally.[3]Thomas J. J. Altizer is a well-known Christian atheist who is known for his literal approach to the death of God. He often speaks of God's death as a redemptive event. In his book The Gospel of Christian Atheism he speaks of how

"Every man today who is open to experience knows that God is absent, but only the Christian knows that God is dead, that the death of God is a final and irrevocable event, and that God's death has actualized in our history a new and liberated humanity".[4]

Theologians including Altizer and Lyas looked at the scientific, empirical culture of today and tried to find religion's place in it. In Altizer's words,

"No longer can faith and the world exist in mutual isolationthe radical Christian condemns all forms of faith that are disengaged with the world."[4]

He goes on to say that our response to atheism should be one of "acceptance and affirmation".[4] Colin Lyas, a Philosophy lecturer at Lancaster University, stated that

"Christian atheists are united also in the belief that any satisfactory answer to these problems must be an answer that will make life tolerable in this world, here and now and which will direct attention to the social and other problems of this life."[3]

Altizer has said that

"the radical Christian... believes that the ecclesiastical tradition has ceased to be Christian".[4]

He believed that orthodox Christianity no longer had any meaning to people because it did not discuss Christianity within the context of contemporary theology. Christian atheists want to be completely separated from most orthodox Christian beliefs and biblical traditions.[5] Altizer states that a faith will not be completely pure if it is open to modern culture. This faith "can never identify itself with an ecclesiastical tradition or with a given doctrinal or ritual form." He goes on to say that faith cannot "have any final assurance as to what it means to be a Christian".[4] Altizer said, "We must not, he says, seek for the sacred by saying 'no' to the radical profanity of our age, but by saying 'yes' to it".[5] They see religions which withdraw from the world as moving away from truth. This is part of the reason why they see the existence of God as counter-progressive. Altizer wrote of God as the enemy to man because mankind could never reach its fullest potential while God existed.[4] He went on to state that "to cling to the Christian God in our time is to evade the human situation of our century and to renounce the inevitable suffering which is its lot".[4]

Although Jesus is still a central feature of Christian atheism, Hamilton said that to the Christian atheist, Jesus is not really the foundation of faith; instead, he is a "place to be, a standpoint".[5] Christian atheists look to Jesus as an example of what a Christian should be, but they do not see him as God.

Hamilton wrote that following Jesus means being "alongside the neighbor, being for him",[5] and that to follow Jesus means to be human, to help other humans, and to further humankind.

Other Christian atheists such as Thomas Altizer preserve the divinity of Jesus, arguing that through him God negates God's transcendence of being.

In the Netherlands, 42% of the members of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) are nontheists.[6] Non-belief among clergymen is not always perceived as a problem. Some follow the tradition of Christian non-realism, most famously expounded in the UK by Don Cupitt in the 1980s, which holds that God is a symbol or metaphor and that religious language is not matched by a transcendent reality. According to an investigation of 860 pastors in seven Dutch Protestant denominations, 1 in 6 clergy are either agnostic or atheist. In one of those denominations, the Remonstrant Brotherhood, the number of doubters was 42 percent.[7][8] A minister of the PKN, Klaas Hendrikse has described God as "a word for experience, or human experience" and said that Jesus may have never existed. Hendrikse gained attention with his book published in November 2007, in which he said that it was not necessary to believe in God's existence in order to believe in 'God'. The Dutch title of the book translates as, 'Believing in a God who does not exist: manifesto of an atheist pastor'. Hendrikse writes in the book. 'God is for me not a being but a word for what can happen between people. Someone says to you, for example, 'I will not abandon you', and then makes those words come true. It would be perfectly alright to call that [relationship] God.' A General Synod found Klaas Hendrikse's views were widely shared among both clergy and church members. The February 3, 2010 decision to allow Hendrikse to continue working as a pastor followed the advice of a regional supervisory panel that the statements by Hendrikse, are not of sufficient weight to damage the foundations of the Church. The ideas of Hendrikse are theologically not new, and are in keeping with the liberal tradition that is an integral part of our church, the special panel concluded.[7]

A Harris Interactive survey from 2003 found that 90% of self-identified Protestants in the United States believe in God, and about 4% of American Protestants believe there is no God.[9]

Catholic atheism is a belief in which the culture, traditions, rituals, and norms of Catholicism are accepted, but the existence of God is rejected. It is illustrated in Miguel de Unamuno's novel San Manuel Bueno, Mrtir (1930). According to research in 2007, only 27% of Catholics in the Netherlands considered themselves theist, while 55% were ietsist or agnostic deist, and 17% were agnostic or atheist. Many Dutch people still affiliate with the term "Catholic", and use it within certain traditions as a basis of their cultural identity, rather than as a religious identity. The vast majority of the Catholic population in the Netherlands is now largely irreligious in practice.[6]

In his book Mere Christianity, the apologist C. S. Lewis would object to Hamilton's version of Christian Atheism and the claim that Jesus was merely a moral guide:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunaticon the level with the man who says he is a poached eggor else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."

Lewis's argument, now known as Lewis's Trilemma, has been criticized for, among other things, constituting a false trilemma. As philosopher John Beversluis argues, Lewis "deprives his readers of numerous alternate interpretations of Jesus that carry with them no such odious implications."[10]

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Christian atheism - Wikipedia

A new study has found that religious individuals and atheists might actuallyshare a shocking similarity: both are among the least afraid of dying,according to at least some of the surveys and articles included in the meta-analysis.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, among other colleges, explored some of the most intriguing international studies that have explored the relationship between the levels of peoples faith and their fear or anxiety associated withdying.

While the assumption has long been that the more religious one is the less likely he or she is to fear death, researchers came to a complicated conclusion after analyzing 100 articles from between 1961-2014 thatrepresented a total of26,000 people.

READ: Princeton Rescinds Award From Tim Keller, Despite Having the SAME Views as the Awards Namesake

It shows that the very religious and atheists are the groups who do not fear death as much as much as those in-between, the University of Oxfordsaid in a press release, noting that the results were published in the journalReligion, Brain and Behavior.

While religious people were found to haveless anxiety about dying in some of the associated studies, atheists too at least in some investigations are apparently not too worried about what happens in the afterlife.The press releasehas more:

The meta-analysis showed that while people who were intrinsically religious enjoyed lower levels of death anxiety, those who were extrinsically religious revealed higher levels of death anxiety.

The findings were mixed across the studies, with only 30% of the effects showing this finding. Surprisingly, perhaps, 18% of the studies found that religious people were more afraid of death than non-religious people; and over half the research showed no link at all between the fear of death and religiosity. This mixed picture shows that the relationship between religiosity and death anxiety may not be fixed, but may differ from context to context. Most of the studies were conducted in the United States, with a small number carried out in the Middle East and East Asia. This makes it difficult to estimate how the pattern varies from culture to culture, or religion to religion, says the paper.

In the end, theres a complex paradigm at work, with researchers wondering whether theres an upside-down U dynamic in which religious people and nonbelievers have lower anxiety about death, with others in between having increased fears.

More research is needed to more firmly understand the issues at hand, expertssaid.

This definitely complicates the old view, that religious people are less afraid of death than nonreligious people, saidDr. Jonathan Jong,a research associateat Coventry UniversitysInstitute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology. It may well be that atheism also provides comfort from death, or that people who are just not afraid of death arent compelled to seek religion.

Read more about the meta-analysishere.

(H/T:Daily Mail)

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Billy Hallowell

Billy Hallowell has been working in journalism and media for more than a decade. His writings have appeared in Deseret News, TheBlaze, Human Events, Mediaite and on FoxNews.com, among other outlets. Hallowell has a B.A. in journalism and broadcasting from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York and an M.S. in social research from Hunter College in Manhattan, New York.

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Are You Afraid to Die? Researchers Reveal Surprising Ties ... - CBN News

It's not surprising that, given the promise of an abundant and joyful afterlife, very religious people were among the groups found to be the least fearful of death in a series of studies led by researchers at Britains University of Oxford, published Friday. What was arguably far less anticipated, though, is that they were joined in that distinction by those who believe in no religion: atheists.

A team of researchers analyzed 100 relevant articles published between 1961 and 2014, containing information about 26,000 people worldwide and their feelings about death. They found that higher levels of religious belief were only weakly linked with lower death anxiety. The paper, which was published in the journal Religion, Brain and Behavior, also showed that strong religious believers and non-believers appeared to fear death less than those in between.

It may be that other researchers would have found this inverse-U pattern too if they had looked for it, said Dr. Jonathan Jong, a research associate at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology and research fellow at Coventry University, who led the team of researchers. This definitely complicates the old view, that religious people are less afraid of death than nonreligious people. It may well be that atheism also provides comfort from death, or that people who are just not afraid of death arent compelled to seek religion.

More than half of the 100 studies showed no link at all between anxiety over death and religiosity, while 18 percent found that religious people were actually more afraid of death than the non-religious.

The number of people in the United States identifying as atheists roughly doubled from 2007 to 2014 according to the Pew Research Center. As of 2014, atheists made up 3.1 percent of the U.S. population. During the same period, the percentage of the population who described religion as important declined, from 36 percent to 30 percent.

Pews research found that atheists were more likely to be younger than the overall population, which could perhaps go some way to explaining their relatively low levels of anxiety aboutdeath.

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Fear of Death Is Lowest Among Atheists as Well as the Very ... - Newsweek

Atheism Basics for Beginners:

There are a lot of resources here about atheism for beginners: what atheism is, what it isn't, and refutations of many popular myths about atheism. I've discovered, though, that it isn't always easy to direct people to all of the information they need - there are too many people who believe too many falsehoods about atheism and atheists. That's why I've collected some of the basics about atheism for beginners that I find myself linking to most often: Atheism Basics for Beginners

What is Atheism? How is Atheism Defined?

The more common understanding of atheism among atheists is "not believing in any gods." No claims or denials are made - an atheist is any person who is not a theist. Sometimes this broader understanding is called "weak" or "implicit" atheism. There is also a narrower sort of atheism, sometimes called "strong" or "explicit" atheism. Here, the atheist explicitly denies the existence of any gods - making a strong claim which will deserve support at some point. What is Atheism...

Who Are Atheists? What Do Atheists Believe?

There are a lot of misunderstandings about who atheists are, what they believe, and what they don't believe. People become atheists for many different reasons. Being an atheist isn't a choice or act of will - like theism, it's a consequence of what one knows and how one reasons. Atheists are not all angry, they aren't in denial about gods, and they aren't atheists to avoid taking responsibility for their acts.

Its not necessary to be afraid of hell and there are advantages to being an atheist. Who Are Atheists...

What's the Difference Between Atheism & Agnosticism?

Once it is understood that atheism is merely the absence of belief in any gods, it becomes evident that agnosticism is not, as many assume, a "third way" between atheism and theism.

The presence of a belief in a god and the absence of a belief in a god exhaust all of the possibilities. Agnosticism is not about belief in god but about knowledge - it was coined originally to describe the position of a person who could not claim to know for sure if any gods exist or not. Atheism vs. Agnosticism...

Is Atheism a Religion, a Philosophy, an Ideology, or a Belief System?

Because of atheism's long-standing association with freethought, anti-clericalism, and dissent from religion, many people seem to assume that atheism is the same as anti-religion. This, in turn, seems to lead people to assume that atheism is itself a religion - or at least some sort of anti-religious ideology, philosophy, etc. This is incorrect. Atheism is the absence of theism; by itself, it isn't even a belief, much less a belief system, and as such cannot be any of those things. Atheism is Not a Religion, Philosophy, or Belief...

Why Do Atheists Debate Theists? Is Atheism Better than Theism?

If atheism is just disbelief in gods, then there is no reason for atheists to be critical of theism and religion. If atheists are critical, it means they are really anti-theists and anti-religious, right? It's understandable why some might come to this conclusion, but it represents a failure to appreciate the cultural trends in the West which have led to the high correlation between atheism and things like religious dissent, resistance to Christian hegemony, and freethought.

Atheism vs. Theism...

What if You Are Wrong? Aren't You Afraid of Hell? Can You Take the Chance?

The logical fallacy argumentum ad baculum, literally translated as "argument to the stick," is commonly translated to mean "appeal to force." In this fallacy an argument is accompanied by the threat of violence if the conclusions are not accepted. Many religions are based upon just such an tactic: if you don't accept this religion, you will be punished either by adherents now or in some afterlife. If this is how a religion treats its own adherents, it's not a surprise that arguments employing this tactic or fallacy are offered to nonbelievers as a reason to convert. Atheists Have No Reason to Fear Hell...

Godless Living, Political Activism, Fighting Bigotry: How Do Atheists Live?

Godless atheists are a part of America just like religious theists.

They have families, raise children, go to work, and do all the same things that others do, except for one difference: so many religious theists can't accept how atheists go about their lives without gods or religion. This is one reason why atheists, skeptics, and secularists can experience so much discrimination and bigotry that they have to hide what they really think from others around them. This injustice can be difficult to deal with, but godless atheists do have something to offer America. Godless Living, Political Activism, Fighting Bigotry...

Top Myths About Atheism & Atheists: Answers, Refutations, Responses:

There are many myths and misconceptions about what atheism entails and who atheists are - not surprising, since even the basic definition of atheism is so misunderstood. Many of the myths and misconceptions addressed here will follow a similar pattern, exposing fallacious reasoning, faulty premises, or both. These arguments need to be identified as the fallacies they really are because that is the only way genuine arguments and dialogues can be made possible. Answers, Refutations, Responses to Common & Popular Myths about Atheism, Atheists...

The rest is here:
Atheism 101: Introduction to Atheism and Atheists