When and where did atheism first start ?

[Losty]

This question is, sadly, found in google autofill... well... "who started atheism"... a much worse, much more ignorant version of the question. I'm hoping it's mostly children who return from Sunday school with this sort of question. But I bet the sad truth is, it's asked by adults for the most part... adults with really skewed visions of the world.

Atheism predates religion. Humans learned believe in the nonsense that is religion.

As an interesting aside, this brings up the question if disbelief can predate the proposal that said thing exists. If it can, that would mean that you categorize nonbelief as a kind of "default." But doing this creates all kinds of problems.

It would mean that you "disbelieve" every future scientific theory that will be proposed. Who would assess their attitude concerning future scientific theories and come to this conclusion? Not me. I think that some future scientific theories will be correct, others will be incorrect. I'd have to hear/read about the theory first before I determine a potential belief status. Taking this way of thinking about it into mind, the "first" atheist would be the first caveman who disbelieved a "God story" after having heard it.

I’m not sure I agree with you here.
Atheism doesn’t mandate that you disbelieve something.
Only that you don’t believe it. Which I don’t think is actually the same.
You may not actively disbelieve every future scientific theory, but
you certainly don’t believe them either. You can’t possibly believe in
a theory that hasn’t been made up yet. So, I would say atheism,
at least agnostic atheism, has existed since the existence of mankind.
Please ignore the annoying spacing. I’m on my phone and I’m tired, so
I’m just being lazy and hitting enter every time the words get to the edge
of my screen so that I can see what I’m typing.

[Losty]

This question is, sadly, found in google autofill... well... "who started atheism"... a much worse, much more ignorant version of the question. I'm hoping it's mostly children who return from Sunday school with this sort of question. But I bet the sad truth is, it's asked by adults for the most part... adults with really skewed visions of the world.



As an interesting aside, this brings up the question if disbelief can predate the proposal that said thing exists. If it can, that would mean that you categorize nonbelief as a kind of "default." But doing this creates all kinds of problems.

It would mean that you "disbelieve" every future scientific theory that will be proposed. Who would assess their attitude concerning future scientific theories and come to this conclusion? Not me. I think that some future scientific theories will be correct, others will be incorrect. I'd have to hear/read about the theory first before I determine a potential belief status. Taking this way of thinking about it into mind, the "first" atheist would be the first caveman who disbelieved a "God story" after having heard it.

Actually, that only works if atheism is defined as 'disbelief' instead of 'nonbelief'. I cannot believe in theories that haven't been invented or plants that haven't been discovered - it isn't possible to believe or not believe in them.  My position regarding these has to be one of nonbelief, as the word indicates a lack of belief.  'Disbelief', on the other hand, implies a refusal to believe or an outright rejection of some proposition.  It isn't possible to reject a scientific theory that hasn't been formulated.

Boru

Ah. I was ninjad.

[Losty]

Hello Friends,

Can anyone tell me from where did atheism start and when did it start ?

Thanks

As others have said, pretty much as soon as someone claimed that a god exists (and failed to meet their burden of proof), there was most likely someone else who was not convinced of their claim.

Just to clarify a bit, atheism not a claim in itself, it is a response to a claim. At its most basic level, atheism is NOT being convinced that gods exist. Atheism would not be a thing, unless and until, someone made a god claim.

Are you sure about that?
I think you can easily not believe in something
even if no one has every thought of that
thing before. No one believed in gods before
gods were ever made up. So, I’d say all
those people were atheists, they just didn’t know it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I was raised in an areligious household. Never went to church, no prayers before meals, no admonitions that God was watching me, etc. Outside the home I didn't encounter religious much at all. Maybe because I wasn't looking for it.

[Belacqua]

No it's not like language or math because atheism is free thinking

I am assured that the only thing atheists have in common is a lack of belief in God. So there is nothing intrinsically free-thinking about atheism. Some atheists may be parroting people they have heard. Sad but true. 

But the point I was making holds: people aren't born with language, math, religion, or knowledge of how to behave in groups. All these things are learned. 

 and imposing religion on a child is transforming that child from a natural question-poser to a socialized question-rejecter. It is attack on human mind and its capacity to ask and know altogether.

It depends on who is doing the teaching. Do you think that no religious person asks questions or seeks new knowledge? 

If you say it is always true, in the case of every religious family, I think you are making an overly general statement, and it appears that you have shut down your ability to think questioningly about this issue.

[ignoramus]

Dumb question ... probably just semantics.
Can one be an atheist without understanding the "theist" portion?

Are we all a-jgkrtgkje45o6tu954 -ists?

[Belacqua]

Dumb question ... probably just semantics.
Can one be an atheist without understanding the "theist" portion?

Are we all a-jgkrtgkje45o6tu954 -ists?

I'm pretty sure that a baby, rock, or lizard is nominally an atheist, in a trivial sense, because they have no concept of god. In that sense we are all a-jgkrtgkje45o6tu954 -ists.

Adult humans who are capable of language and live in a society have all heard about theism and have decided it isn't persuasive. It may be going too far to say we "understand" the theist position. Even theists may not understand it. But they have heard it and hold to it, while we have heard it and don't. 

Some people have claimed to me that they still have the minds of babies, but I don't believe them.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Some people have claimed to me that they still have the minds of babies, but I don't believe them.

Oh, I dunno - I still like to be woken up for feeding and cuddling every few hours.

Boru

[Losty]

Dumb question ... probably just semantics.
Can one be an atheist without understanding the "theist" portion?

Are we all a-jgkrtgkje45o6tu954 -ists?

That’s the question, though, isn’t it?
It seems like in order to be an atheist there has to first exist a theist.
But going by definitions alone atheism doesn’t really have anything to do with theism. Looking at the word you would expect the definition to be “A person who is not a theist”, but that’s not it at all. In that case everyone who didn’t prescribe to a specific religion would be an atheist, but actually some people are deists. The only actual qualification for being an atheist is not having a belief in god. I feel like it’s possible to not believe in a god even if no one else has ever believed in a god.

[Losty]

Dumb question ... probably just semantics.
Can one be an atheist without understanding the "theist" portion?

Are we all a-jgkrtgkje45o6tu954 -ists?

I'm pretty sure that a baby, rock, or lizard is nominally an atheist, in a trivial sense, because they have no concept of god. In that sense we are all a-jgkrtgkje45o6tu954 -ists.

Adult humans who are capable of language and live in a society have all heard about theism and have decided it isn't persuasive. It may be going too far to say we "understand" the theist position. Even theists may not understand it. But they have heard it and hold to it, while we have heard it and don't. 

Some people have claimed to me that they still have the minds of babies, but I don't believe them.

Wut?