Atheism is the view that there is no God or gods. It is the opposite of theism which asserts that there is a God. Atheism is also distinct from agnosticism which declares that the evidence is inconclusive as to whether there is actually a God or not.
Atheists believe the concept of God is a human construct that has been used throughout human history to serve various psychological and social needs. For example, the idea of God has met the psychological need to believe that there is some controlling force in the universe in which people can believe. The notion of God has also been used as a unifying factor for some people groups to rally around. Atheists also believe that God has served as a convenient explanation for apparently unexplainable happenings. With the rise of science and technology, however, atheists believe that the need for a God will decrease as science and reason continue to offer natural explanations for matters once considered unexplainable.
Atheists use rationalistic and naturalistic explanations to explain reality and do not rely on other-worldly explanations for the universe. Atheists have offered several arguments for the non-existence of God, but most of these have been considered as counterpoints to arguments for the existence of God. One positive argument for atheism is the existence of evil. Allegedly, the presence of tragedies and evil in the world show that an all-good and all-powerful God cannot exist.
The history of atheism is often linked with some of the philosophers of ancient Greeceincluding Epicurus. In reality, though, Epicurus did not argue that there were no gods; he only stated that if they did exist they had no interest in what humans were doing. In 1841, Ludwig Feuerbach declared that God was a creation of the human mind to help people deal with their fears. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was important to atheism in that it offered a view of origins that was purely naturalistic. In the late nineteenth century Friedrich Nietzsche took a strong atheistic approach arguing that “God is dead” and that the old morality of Christianity needed to be replaced with something better.
The status of atheism today is debated. While there has been a strong influence of atheistic philosophers in the twentieth century, others have argued that classical atheism is in decline. The downfall of the Soviet Union, an atheistic state, and the increasing number of Christians and Muslims in several continents have led some to believe that atheism is decreasing instead of increasing.