Atheism

From Neoredemptive

Disbelief in a particular god, or belief that no gods (for any meaningful definition of "god") exist. Atheism can be accepted as an outworking of philosophical scientism, although it is more often adopted in an ad hoc and uncritical manner as part of a psychological reaction against some injury (whether real or perceived) inflicted by people claiming religious motives.

Atheism was also a trendy way of showing off what a "free thinker" you were from the early 19th through the late 20th century. Its popular appeal has largely run out, however, as it is now the de facto religion of our public institutions and our culture, making spirituality and religion the obvious "non-confirmist" option. Atheism is thus left evangelistically bankrupt, and its philosophical appeal is similarly weak for all but those who choose to pre-suppose scientism or lack the epistemological modesty to question naturalism.

Atheism does not stand on its own as a worldview; without a God at the center of the intellectual universe, atheists generally turn to various derivations of humanism or egocentrism or (in the worst cases) relativism or nihilism.