Secular humanism. The philosophy or life stance of secular humanism (alternatively known by some adherents as Humanism, specifically with a capital H to distinguish it from other forms of humanism) embraces human reason, ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.[1][2][3][4] The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the world union of more than one hundred Humanist, rationalist, irreligious, atheistic, Bright, secular, Ethical Culture, and freethought organizations in more than 40 countries.
The "Happy Human" is the official symbol of the IHEU as well as being regarded as a universally recognised symbol for those who call themselves Humanists. Atheism. Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.[1][2] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.[3][4][5] Most inclusively, atheism is the absence of belief that any deities exist.[4][5][6][7] Atheism is contrasted with theism,[8][9] which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists.[9][10][11] The term "atheism" originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god(s)", used as a pejorative term applied to those thought to reject the gods worshiped by the larger society.[12] With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope.
The first individuals to identify themselves using the word "atheist" lived in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment. Arguments for atheism range from the philosophical to social and historical approaches. Definitions and distinctions Range. Ignosticism. Ignosticism is a set of ideas refuting the importance of determining the existence of God.
It claims that knowledge regarding the reality of God is altogether unprofitable. This idea is directly contested by the Christian belief in Jesus. Omnipotence paradox. Negative and positive atheism. A diagram showing the relationship between the definitions of weak/strong and implicit/explicit atheism.
Explicit positive/strong/hard atheists (in purple on the right) assert that "at least one deity exists" is a false statement. Explicit negative/weak/soft atheists (in blue on the right) reject or eschew belief that any deities exist without actually asserting that "at least one deity exists" is a false statement. Implicit negative/weak/soft atheists (in blue on the left) would include people (such as infants and some agnostics) who do not believe in a deity, but have not explicitly rejected such belief. (Sizes in the diagram are not meant to indicate relative sizes within a population.) The terms negative atheism and positive atheism were used by Antony Flew in 1976,[1] and appeared again in Michael Martin's writings in 1990.[4] Atheist existentialism. Atheist existentialism or atheistic existentialism is a kind of existentialism which strongly diverged from the Christian works of Søren Kierkegaard and has developed within the context of an atheistic worldview.[1] Thought[edit] Atheistic existentialism confronts death anxiety without appealing to a hope of somehow being saved by a God (and often without any appeal to supernatural salvations like reincarnation).
For some thinkers, existential malaise is mostly theoretical (as it is with Jean-Paul Sartre) while others are quite affected by an existentialistic anguish (an example being Albert Camus and his discussion of the Absurd). Sartre once said "existence precedes essence".