It is hard to count the number of atheists in the world for several reasons. First, global surveys on religion often do not provide atheism as an option. The classical options in such surveys are the world religions and “other” or “none”. These “other” options group together agnostics, atheists, non-religious people, and adherents of minority religions. Second, as we have seen, definitions of atheism vary, and some people who identify with atheism could be believers in non-theistic religions, people who reject naive ideas of the Abrahamic god1, or just people who are non-religious based on the definitions advanced earlier. Third, atheism is socially unacceptable, oppressed, or even illegal in a number of countries. This makes it hard or unrealistic for pollsters to ask and awkward (or even unimaginable) for atheists to answer truthfully. Vice versa, some governments support or even enforce atheism, which may yield an overrepresentation of atheism in the polls.
The 2019 Eurobarometer poll2 said that 64% of European Union citizens identify as Christian, 17% as agnostics or non-believers, and 10% as atheist (see map). Polls by Gallup International in 20123 and 20254 found the number of atheists to vary from 0-4% in African countries to 14% in Europe, 20% to 30% in some richer countries, and closer to 60% in China (which could be a product of government suppression of religion). According to these polls, the overall percentage of atheists increased from 6% in 2005 to 10% in 20254. As cautioned before, all such statistics have to be taken with a grain of salt.
What makes atheists atheist?
We have seen that the vast majority of people in the world are religious and have been so throughout written history. This is due to a number of factors that we will discuss later, in the Chapter on Following Religion. Then we can ask why these factors (whatever they are) do not apply to atheists. What makes someone an atheist?
Before the 19th century, there were actually few atheists. The concept of atheism took hold only in the late 19th and 20th century — possibly because the factors that make people religious have become gradually less strong. For example, there is less need today to explain the phenomena of nature by the supernatural. This has nurtured the debate whether the supernatural exists at all. Some people then resolve that it does not, and become atheist. Other people become atheist by rejecting religious dogmata. They find that religious stories, values, or philosophies are incompatible with what they know or what they believe. Some of them might have started out as religious “seekers”1, who, driven by the desire to learn more about religion, delved into scripture and then found it incompatible with their convictions. A few might be born into atheist environments. Much like religious children follow the religion of their parents, children of atheists then might follow atheism1.
There appear to be a number of conditions that influence whether or not someone would become an atheist. We know, for instance, that people who live in an unstable environment (with a high risk of losing their job, falling ill, or being victimized by crime) have a tendency to be more religious. Thus, atheism generally flourishes more in stable environments. Similarly, people without access to education are less able to pursue an interest in alternative life philosophies and scientific knowledge. Thus, atheism generally finds more adherents in educated environments. This does not mean that religious people are uneducated, but rather that those who become atheist are more likely to come from the pool of those who are educated. Indeed, atheism correlates positively with education456718, and in general, people without a religious affiliation are among the most educated of the world’s major religious groups9. Last but not least is a contrarian spirit. More often than not, becoming atheist means opposing the thought of the mainstream society.
Are most atheists men?
Surveys on atheists usually find that the majority of self-proclaimed atheists are male. The ratios vary somewhere between 50% and 75% of male atheists. This still means that there are millions of female atheists, but the discrepancy is nevertheless significant. In general, women are more likely to say that religion is important to them410.
Several reasons have been proposed11: In most contemporary societies, women have statistically speaking less control over their lives than men. Women usually earn less than men, they are often expected to deal more with child care than their husbands, they are less likely to have dominating positions in industry or politics, and in some countries they have less legal rights. In many societies, women are (or have been) less educated than men, with two-thirds of the illiterate population in the world being women12. This imbalance in equal treatment is due to cultural, legal, historical, and sometimes religious biases13. Now we know that people who have less control over their own lives tend to be more religious. This could be part of the explanation for why statistically women are more religious. And if this explanation is true, then women and men should be roughly equally religious in societies that give an equal position to men and women. That is indeed the case: In the Nordic countries, the difference in religiosity is smaller, and in Germany it has disappeared14.
I’m an atheist and a secularist. I think everyone should be free to believe what they like, as long as they express these beliefs peacefully and allow others the same freedom. I also believe that all governments, schools and public institutions should be secular and base their laws, teachings and judgments on reason and science. I believe in being kind to people and in treating everyone equally, whichever belief system they follow. Moreover, I think all children should be free to grow up in a world where they are allowed to question, doubt, think freely and reach their own conclusions about life’s big questions — and I hope that, within our lifetimes, this will happen.
Do atheists belong to an organization?
A religion often takes the form of an organization, i.e., a legal entity. This organization can run schools and hospitals, offer religious education, employ priests, own territory, build temples, promote a world view, define social values, and defend these values politically.
Atheism has none of this. Atheism is just unbelief in the supernatural. Atheists are as organized as people who do not play golf. They are individuals spread over the globe, whose only common point is that they do not share enthusiasm for a certain activity. There is no “atheistic value system”. Most atheists subscribe to certain values, but these are not unified, let alone “atheistic”. Likewise, there is no unified atheistic world view. There is also no “Atheist Church”. Therefore, atheists have no specific community — much like non-golf-players have no specific community.
The picture is different for Humanism, the particular brand of atheism advocated in this book. The umbrella organization Humanists International15 represents the interests of Humanists. However, this organizations, and its member organizations in different countries, are de facto nowhere as established as the major religious organizations. Most people who are technically Humanists will probably not even know about these organizations.
Atheism is a non‐prophet organization.
How do Atheists Live without God?
How do atheists find a purpose in life?
One of the biggest philosophical conundrums of humanity is the quest for the “meaning of life” or its “purpose”. From a religious worldview, people exist to worship God, to go to Heaven, to reach Nirvana, etc.. Thus, the life of religious people has a purpose, whereas the life of an atheist appears to lack meaning.
In an atheist worldview, there is no god or supernatural being who could give our lives a purpose. This does not mean that atheists cannot have a purpose of life — it’s just that this purpose does not come from God. Atheists have to give a purpose to their life by themselves. They have to discover for themselves what they want to do with their time on Earth. Everyone makes their own choice. And hence atheists dedicate their lives to a variety of ends, including raising a family, doing their job well, or being a constructive member of society. As we shall see, some atheists dedicate their lives to the moral advancement of society, to the arts, or to science.
Not all those who wander are lost.
Where do atheists get moral values from if not religion?
Religion is often portrayed as the sole source of morality. Where do atheists get their moral values from if they do not believe in God?
To answer this question, we observe that, in general, people want to live their lives unharmed. This is true for believers and atheists alike. Now people quickly arrive at the conclusion that if they want others to avoid harm, then they have to avoid harm to these others as well. From this simple insight springs the necessity to develop moral rules. And indeed, systems of moral rules develop spontaneously in any group of people that have to make do with each other — be it fishermen, farmers, herders, plane crash survivors, soldiers, or even criminal gang members. No religion is needed for this.
The best known moral rule is probably the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you want to be treated”. It appears in Classical Greek and Latin texts already16 — without reference to any of today’s major world religions. Many of the other rules in our societies have likewise been developed without a religious basis: The ideals of freedom of belief, of accepting people of other religions without proselytizing them, of democratic decision taking, of marriages regardless of the faith or gender, and of gender equality, for example, were not born from religious sources. On the contrary, they were often developed in opposition to religious teachings — thus showing that morality can be independent of religion. Beyond that, the major world religions have at times defended values that are outrageous by today’s standards: Slavery, the caste system, brutal punishments, the persecution of apostates and heretics, homophobia, and the oppression of women were upheld well into the 19th century by several major religions (and still are by some of them). In atheist eyes, this disqualifies these religions as a source of morality.
The ideals of freedom, mutual care, and democratic societies have given rise to Humanism, the specific moral philosophy advocated by this book. Many atheists use Humanist values for their personal moral yardstick, and we will later propose a Humanist moral framework for everyday life. We will also see that, de facto, atheists are not in any way more immoral than believers. On the contrary, the countries with the highest proportion of atheists are actually those that are least crime-ridden. We list morally inspired atheists below, and will later dedicate an entire chapter to the topic of morality.
Humanists are those who embrace a morality centered on human welfare and human flourishing that does not appeal to any supernatural or divine entities.
Where do atheists get inspiration?
Shelley got inspired by Lake Como in Italy17.
Throughout history, people have always been inspired by religion. So then the question arises what inspires atheists.
There are different sources from which atheists can draw inspiration. Some atheists are inspired by nature. We will later see several examples, including French painter Claude Monet and English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Other atheists are inspired by philosophy — the human attempt to understand the principles of being. Again other atheists draw inspiration from the works of other people: from poetry, music, literature or the arts. We will later list dozens of famous authors, philosophers, and artists who found inspiration without being religious.
How do atheists protect themselves from the winds of fortune?
A religious person can pray to gods in order to ask for protection from illnesses, bad luck, accidents, or being fired. An atheist has no such remedy. How do atheists protect themselves against the difficulties of life?
Atheists cannot hope for supernatural intervention to save them. Thus, they cannot protect themselves from misfortune — and they believe no one can entirely. All that atheists can do is try to reduce the risk of mishap by making careful life choices. In many countries in the world, this means first and foremost to conceal the fact that they are atheist. This is often the only way to avoid the stigma, discrimination, and persecution associated with atheism. Beyond this, atheists can try to take the basic steps that anybody can try to take in order to make life a bit less prone to mishap and a bit more likely to be stable and happy: finding a job that one enjoys, and making sure one has the necessary qualifications for it; taking one’s work seriously and trying to be good at it; choosing a life partner whom one loves; taking care of one’s body and monitoring one’s health; as well as following the law. To protect against accidents that may still occur, atheists can try to build up a financial buffer and subscribe to health and accident insurance.
These are, of course, pedestrian measures, but they provably mitigate against the risk of mishap.
You can prepare only in advance.
Atheists and Religion
What would an atheist do if a god showed up?
If a god appeared, then an atheist would be in the same position as a theist when a god appears that she or he does not believe in. What would a Christian do if the Ancient Greek god Zeus showed up? What would a Shintoist do if Khonvoum showed up?
As for the atheist, she or he would recognize this as a proof of that god’s existence. Any physical and verifiable appearance of a god would prove atheism wrong. It is just that this has never happened.
What would atheists do if a god showed up? This really depends on which god shows up. Dionysus or Pan: party time. Jehova: run for cover. Zeus: lay low. Shiva the Destroyer: try to undo as much karma as possible. Krishna: break out your dancing shoes. Aphrodite? Hold my calls!
Do atheists want to abolish religion?
Atheism is the rejection of belief in the supernatural. Thus, one might think that atheists would want to abolish this belief, and religion in general. And yet, a personal rejection does not imply a desire to abolish. As an analogy, take people who opt not to play golf. From the fact that they do not play golf, we cannot deduce that they wish to abolish golf.
There are some atheists who take an active stance against religion. They see religion as an institution that stifles free thought, encourages harmful rituals, and induces intolerance (see the Chapter on Criticism of Religion). Many atheists also demand the separation of state and church and criticize certain religious practices. However, most atheists do not demand the abolition of religion in general. When asked what advice they give a person who pondered atheism, only 11% of atheist Americans said in a poll they would say religion was wrong and atheism was right. Most (86%) said they would instead advise the person to search among alternative beliefs and decide for themselves. In the same vein, only 4% of respondents wanted their children to be atheist, and 96% wanted them to search and make up their own minds18. This is also the viewpoint of Humanism, the life stance advocated in this book.
I think of religion like alcohol. I don’t want to make it illegal. I just want to keep it out of the workplace, schools, and government decisions. And, like alcohol, until I believe they are ready for it, I'd like for it to be kept away from my children.
Couldn’t atheists just try out religion?
Atheists do not follow a religion. Hence, we may ask why the atheists do not at least give religion a chance and try it out. Then they can decide first-hand whether it makes sense to them or not.
The first question to ask is which religion they should choose. There are several thousands of them, and they are all incompatible: some of them believe in several gods, others believe in one god, and again others believe in no gods, but in spirits or aliens. Believers tend to forget from time to time that there are more religions than their own.
If told to just pick an arbitrary religion, many atheists could reply that this is indeed what they did: They were brought up in a religious household, taught to pray, and went to church or temple. They participated in religious rituals, and yet in spite (or as a result) of this they have decided to become atheist(preface). These people have tried both options, the religious one and the atheist one, and have made a conscious decision between them. Few believers can say the same.
The greatest good you can do to another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to them their own.
Can atheists marry religious people?
Nothing in the concept of atheism prohibits an atheist from marrying a religious person. Humanism, too, has no constraint whatsoever on marrying religious people. On the contrary, the UN Human Rights, to which Humanism subscribes, stipulate that everyone has the right to marry, no matter their religious views or those of their partner[Human Rights: §16].
Things are different from a believer’s perspective. Most religions urge their followers to marry within their own faith. Some denominations even forbid interreligious marriage explicitly. Therefore, a reason against an atheist-theist marriage is more likely to come from the believer’s side than from the atheist side.
Can atheists go to church?
Whether an atheist may attend a religious ceremony or not is foremost the decision of the respective religious group. Some groups forbid atheists from participating in their ceremonies. Others explicitly welcome nonbelievers as “lost sheep”.
Some religious ceremonies serve to express a certain intention. For example, taking the Eucharist or saying the Apostle’s Creed indicates a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In general, it is not ethically permissible to engage in these actions if one does not share these intentions. Naturally, this applies also to atheists. Other parts of religious ceremonies are noncritical. For example, an atheist can listen to sermons or sing religious songs without believing what they express — just as they can sing a love song not because they love somebody, but because they like the tune.
Thus, an atheist attending a religious ceremony is much like an anthropologist attending a Khonvoum ceremony at a Bambuti tribe: They are interested in the ceremony and maybe respect the believers’ faith, but do not share it.
How is the Bible different from the Harry Potter books?
The majority of Harry Potter fans have actually read the Harry Potter books.
Can atheists celebrate Christmas?
The Christmas Tree — linked to an old pagan symbol of life and spring19
in Germany
Yes, atheists can celebrate Christmas. To see why the most important Christian celebration can be enjoyed by atheists as well, let us take a look at its history: Many cultures had a winter festival long before Christianity existed. One reason for this is the winter solstice on December 21st, which marks the turning point in the year, when days become longer again in the northern hemisphere. Christmas, as the celebration of Jesus’ birth, was placed in this time by the early Church, possibly to weaken pagan traditions20. Later, the old pagan symbol of life and spring, an evergreen bough, found its way into the Christmas celebration as the Christmas tree2119. Thus, the origins of the festival are unrelated to Jesus’ birth.
Today, Christmas is a mixture of several aspects — religious ones as well as social ones and even economic ones. For many atheists, it is the social aspect that is most important: reuniting with the family, giving gifts, and spending time together. This aspect can be enjoyed without any reference to religion.
Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold...”
Stereotypes about Atheists
Atheists are immoral
One of the most common stereotypes about atheists is that they would be immoral.
Indeed, most scientific studies find that religiousness correlates positively with pro-social (and non-criminal) behavior22. However, such studies tend to assume that “less religious” means “more atheist”. This assumption lumps atheists together with the less serious adherents of a religion23. That is a mistake: Lower religiosity is not identical with higher atheism23. Atheists form their own distinct group of people, and this group is systematically underrepresented in scientific studies. In what concerns criminality, the few studies that do concern themselves with atheists find that atheists and agnostics offend at a rate similar to committed religious believers24. Atheists and believers also tend to have the same opinion on all types of moral dilemmas25. Indeed, it is usually impossible to tell whether someone believes in the supernatural or not just based on their moral behavior.
If we go to the level of countries, however, a clear picture emerges: The most atheist countries (Sweden, Denmark, etc.) are by and large also those with the lowest rates of murder, the lowest rates of corruption, and the highest rates of peacefulness and social stability26. The most religious nations, in contrast, are by and large those with high rates of corruption, social unrest, and crime. Even the United States, as a developed, but religious country, does not fare as well as the (developed, but more atheist) Nordic countries in terms of societal stability, rule of law, and crime26. We will later argue that it is not religion or atheism that makes people moral or immoral, but an unstable (“immoral”) environment that makes people religious: People who live in an unstable environment feel a greater need to appeal to the supernatural, and thus they are more likely to be religious. Be that as it may, these statistics invalidate the theory that atheists in general would be immoral.
On the philosophical level, atheism is just the rejection of belief in the supernatural. It has nothing to say about morality, or, for that matter, immorality. Therefore, atheism is usually combined with ethical values — for example in the form of Humanism, the philosophy that we advocate in this book. We discuss Humanist ethical values in the Chapter on Morality.
The belief that atheists would be immoral stems probably from the fact that some religious people cannot imagine where morality could come from if not from God. This belief has been reinforced at times by religious authorities, with the goal to present atheism as a slippery slope towards immorality, and their religion as the only bulwark against indecency. And yet, morality predates all of today’s major religions: The prohibition of killing, the Golden Rule, and entire legal frameworks were in place thousands of years before Jesus or Muhammad set foot on Earth.
One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion,
because religion makes men virtuous.
So I am told; I have not noticed it.
Many evil people are atheists
The so-called Famous People Argument says that many famously evil people were atheists, and that, hence, atheism is evil.
It is true that some evil people were atheists. However, these people do not derive the motivation for their deeds from atheism. They cannot do this, because atheism lacks a moral stance. Atheism is just the rejection of a supernatural belief. It cannot instigate people to kill. Therefore, evil atheists need other motives for their deeds: the belief in a class struggle, the desire to impose a communist regime, or the belief in the superiority of their race. Atheism alone cannot provide a motivation to act — either way.
The picture is different on the religious side. Religious arguments have been brought forward (rightly or wrongly) to justify slavery, female genital mutilation, terrorist acts, and even war. In such cases, religious people cause harm, and they derive their motivation from their religion alone — something an atheist cannot do.
Atrocities are committed by atheists, but never in the name of atheism.
This distinguishes atheism from religions.
Atheists are satanists
Satan (also known as the devil) is a supernatural entity who is considered responsible for the evil on Earth in the Abrahamic religions. Atheism is often linked with satanism, i.e., the admiration of Satan.
But atheists reject belief in the supernatural. As Satan is supernatural, atheists reject belief in Satan as well. For atheists, Satan is a fictional character — just like all the other mythological figures. Thus, atheists cannot be satanists.
It is mainly Christians, Muslims, and Jews who believe that Satan exists.
Of the two of us, only one believes in Satan.
Hint: It’s not me.
Atheists do not respect authority
Atheists do not acknowledge any personified authority above humankind. This makes it look as if atheists are by definition egoistic or anarchistic. However, the rejection of belief in God does not mean the rejection of authorities in general. As we have seen, most atheists respect all authorities of their country. They submit to the law just as everybody else. The only difference to believers is that atheists see no supernatural authority above humanity. This means that atheists believe that humanity has to take matters of law into its own hands. And this is indeed what happens: The law of a country is always written by humans and not by gods. This is true even if people have the habit of ascribing their laws to the gods.
Some believers, on the other hand, hold that their god has the highest moral authority. That said, this god has never spoken to them (at least not in a verifiable way). Thus, what these people mean by that god’s authority is in fact their own (human) interpretation of what they have read and what they have been told. With this, these people raise their own viewpoint to the status of the divine — i.e., to a status that is higher than human laws. This can be not just arrogant, but also dangerous.
There is indeed a correlation between exposure to stress and frequency of prayer27. This may be because powerlessness increases the need to appeal to the supernatural. However, by assuming that all military personnel would be theist, we are doing injustice to those who are not. The atheists in the American military are represented by the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers28. The association speaks for thousands of these people in the military. However, due to public discrimination against atheists in the United States, only a few hundred have spoken out.
If the faithful truly and fully believe in a protective deity, why would they dive into a foxhole to protect themselves from the bullets whizzing by? A part of their brain knows damn well that if they do not protect themselves, the bullets will hardly discriminate between those who claim faith and those who reject it.
Atheists are arrogant in ignoring God’s will
Atheists do not believe that there is a God, and therefore can ignore his will with impunity. To the faithful this makes them look arrogant.
In the view of atheists, gods are mythical creatures — invented by humans in order to explain and justify the events of life. Thus, what people mean by “God’s will” is in fact just what some prophet or preacher wanted people to do. That preacher called it “God’s will” mainly to immunize it against critical questions. That, atheists hold, is not a good reason to follow it.
This reasoning does not mean that atheists are immune to the risks and dangers of life. Atheists know very well that they, as well as anybody else, can fail an exam, lose their job, fall ill, or suffer an accident. Not believing in gods does not imply believing in immunity from distress. In fact, two famous atheists died as a result from illness: Christopher Hitchens, one of the driving forces behind the New Atheism movement, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2010, and died one year later29. Stephen Hawking, one of the most famous physicists of the 20th century, was diagnosed with a motor neurone disease that paralyzed him over the decades until his death in 201830. Yet people of faith also suffer. Bill Johnson is an active faith healer who believes he can heal people from cancer by praying. Yet, he was unable to heal his father who died from the disease31.
Thus, both atheists and believers can suffer distress. The only difference is that atheists believe that this distress is either made by man or made by nature — and not the will of God.
Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.
Atheists make their life easy
Atheists do not have to follow religious rules, and therefore, the thinking goes, they make their life easy. And indeed, atheists don’t have to follow rituals or traditional rules and it may appear easier for them to justify their world view.
Now making life easy is not necessarily bad. On the contrary, if one succeeds in making life easier without violating moral norms then such a life might even appear desirable. However life is not necessarily easier for an atheist. Unlike believers, who can follow the values given by their religion, atheists have no such guidance. They have to decide for themselves for a set of values and for a view of life — despite the claims of religious parties that this is impossible. We discuss this journey in the Chapter on Morality and the Chapter on the Meaning of Life. Beyond this, atheists are actually socially shunned, legally discriminated against, or even persecuted in large parts of the world. Being atheist is not always easier.
You see me as an atheist. God sees me as the loyal opposition.
Atheists think humans are creatures of instinct like animals
Many atheists take a scientific view of the world. This view includes the theory of Evolution and the theory of the Big Bang. This is sometimes seen as evidence that atheists believe that everything can be explained by the drive to survive.
Certainly, the drive to survive plays a role in many decisions. But it is for sure not the only factor: Empathy, pleasure, or moral duty are others. Claiming that an atheist’s decisions are determined only by the drive to survive is as false as claiming that a believer’s decisions are determined only by the fear of the Last Judgment.
— Atheists are miserable. No light at the end of the tunnel.
— Yep. Just darkness. But at least we have light in the tunnel.
Atheists think they know everything
Atheists do not believe that God created the Earth. This makes it seem as if atheists are arrogant in thinking they know better than theists how the Earth came into existence.
In fact, most atheists make no such claims. Nobody knows for sure how the Universe came into existence (if it did at all). Most atheists will plainly admit that they do not know the answer. Many atheists (and Humanists in particular) believe that science is best positioned to answer these questions one day.
Most religions, in contrast, do claim to have an answer for the big questions of life and the Universe. Adherents of these religions believe that they know with certainty how the world came into existence, what the nature of the human soul is, what is good and what is bad, and what will happen after death — even though there is no scientific evidence for their theories. This is what many atheists then consider arrogant.
Don’t think we cannot see the Sun as clear as you,
we just think it comes from a different source.
Atheists are angry
If atheists in general were angry people, that would indeed be reason for concern. However, there is no reason to believe that atheists in general are angry. On the contrary, a number of studies suggest that atheists enjoy very good mental health3223. If we zoom out to the level of entire societies, atheist countries as a whole tend to be even happier than theist ones. Thus, there is no reason to believe that atheists in general are angry (unless, maybe, when you tell them they are immoral, satanic, or without a purpose in life).
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
Atheists have a satirical view of faith
We first note that there is no single view on religion that all atheists share. Some atheists have the highest respect for religion — for example when it contributes to social justice, when it encourages people to show empathy towards others, or when it helps adherents cope with their life. Other atheists are very critical of religion, and it may happen that they are satirical.
To understand why these atheists are satirical, it is worth observing that some religious practices are surprisingly bizarre. Some religions believe that a man has to suck the penis of a baby boy, others that a certain ritual can protect them against throat illnesses, others that God wants them to cut off a part of their body, again others that they have to throw their babies from a 10 meter balcony, and yet another one believes that they eat a human.
Beliefs such as these are incompatible with enlightened values. Therefore, many atheists believe (and Humanism holds) that they deserve to be exposed and discussed in public. Unfortunately, believers themselves are often unable to see the absurdity of their beliefs, having been brought up with them since childhood. Many will not even have noticed that the above rituals are those of conservative Judaism, Catholicism, Islam, variants of Hinduism, and Christianity. Therefore, the task of exposing such absurdities falls disproportionally on the unbelievers — and satire may sometimes be the most effective means to that end.
We live in an insane world, where adults with imaginary friends believe that those without imaginary friends are the insane ones.
Atheists insult the faithful
Atheists reject belief in God. If they say in public that God does not exist, that belief in God is nonsense, or that religion is harmful, then this can be seen as an insult to the faithful.
It turns out that it all depends on how we define the term “insult”. In most countries, a person who harms another person’s reputation through an insult can be sued for defamation33. The key point here is that, at least in liberal democracies, an insult always concerns a person, and not an ideology. This definition disallows any unreasonable attack against a person, but it allows criticizing philosophies, concepts, and world views. In particular, it allows atheists to criticize belief and religion, and it allows believers to criticize atheism.
Humanism (the variant of atheism promoted in this book) holds that human progress happens mainly when people are open to question beliefs. The right to question and criticize opinions is one of the fundamental bulwarks against totalitarian, extremist, Stalinist, fascist, and also Islamist ideologies. If we prohibit or even just discourage criticism, we will never be able to find out which world views are wrong. Worse, we risk that harmful ideologies take hold and proliferate. A Humanist’s nightmare is being dominated by an ideology that prohibits criticism of its tenets. Such an ideology is a trap that humanity cannot leave.
In this spirit, religious viewpoints, like all others, deserve to be criticized. This holds even more if they aim to shape laws or politics. From that moment on, they are no longer a personal belief. They are a political program. In a democracy, political programs have to be criticizable.
When you sing about religion you run the risk of hurting religious feelings, that’s not my intention. But at the same time my enlightened-humanistic feelings have been hurt for quite some time, too.
Atheists don’t realize God loves them
In discussions about faith, religious people will often state that God loves everybody — even the atheist. Thus, no matter what an atheist says or does against God, God will still love them.
To atheists, this is surprising. In all Abrahamic religions, the holy scripture asks believers to kill the atheists. Once that is achieved, the god promises to burn them in eternal hell fire. This is not exactly what atheists would call love. And even if these scriptures have since been superseded (or re-interpreted), God has never retracted his original words from the scripture, let alone apologised for them. These words have led to very brutal persecutions of atheists in the past, and they still do in the present.
We atheists question your beliefs because you’re too afraid of a vengeful fictional character to do it yourself.
Atheists hate God
Atheists have no belief in God. They cannot hate him.
Suggesting that I hate people with religion because I hate religion
is like saying I hate people with cancer because I hate cancer.
Prejudice and Persecution against Atheists
Prejudice against atheists
Atheists are widely subjected to prejudice in the United States. They are the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry — ahead of Jews, Muslims, and black people34. They are the least liked group of most major religious groups35. 40% of Americans say they would not vote for someone who is an atheist36. Many Americans associate atheism with criminality37, and harbor distrust and antipathy towards atheists1. Atheists then face social exclusion, harassment, stigmatization, and threats38. In some extreme instances, if someone identifies as atheist, family members turn against them, they lose friends, people denounce them in prayer groups, and they are excluded from clubs and associations39. It is therefore unsurprising that a 2019 study showed that 31% of non-religious people in the United States mostly or always conceal their nonreligious identity, even from members of their immediate family40.
Prejudice is not limited to the United States. Over 70% of people in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia believe that one has to believe in God in order to be a moral person41. This means that they believe that atheists are immoral people — although, as we have seen there is no factual reason for this belief.
Legal discrimination against atheists
In the United States
In quite a number of countries, one can be legally discriminated against for being an atheist. The American constitution, for example, explicitly states that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”42. However, the constitutions of Arkansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas explicitly require belief in a supreme being as a precondition for holding a public office43 — effectively excluding atheists. To this date, some states instruct all public schools to teach the Bible or to display the (Christian) Ten Commandments44.
In Germany
In many other Western countries, the discrimination against atheists takes more subtle forms. In Germany, for example, religious organizations run hospitals, kindergardens, and senior citizen homes. Nearly all financial support for these institutions comes from the state (or the insurance companies), but the religious organizations have free reign in their governance. They can teach their faith in state-sponsored kindergardens, and legally reject atheist job candidates.45
The German constitution identifies religious education as a subject in school46, and the course content is designed by the respective religious community. The subject is mandatory in confession-based schools, which are one third of Germany’s schools. Secular alternatives are often not available in rural areas. The constitution of several German states (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland) requires children to be educated in obedience to God.45
Public tax money is used to sponsor theology professors that are appointed by the churches. The advisory council of the public radio and television is staffed with representatives from the churches, but not with representatives for an atheist or Humanist world view — even though less than half of the German population adheres to a church47. By law, the churches can request broadcasting time for their messages, which leads to daily religious broadcasts on state-sponsored radio and television. The state levies taxes for the churches. In a nod to the churches, dancing is prohibited on religious holidays (“dancing ban”). Blasphemy is a crime, and a dozen people are convicted each year.45
The situation is similar in several other nominally secular countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Kenya, New Zealand, Poland, and Romania. While these laws do not threaten the life or freedom of belief of atheists, they still constitute a state-sanctioned legal bias against non-believers.
In other countries
Discrimination against atheists is not just a problem in the West. Several countries worldwide limit free speech, marriage rights, or public service for atheists48. For instance in Algeria, atheists cannot inherit, religious education is mandatory in schools, and the president must be Muslim. Indonesia demands that people declare themselves as one of six religions; atheism and agnosticism do not count49. Non-religious people are barred from government offices, atheist organizations cannot register, and the constitution requires the education to “increase the level of spiritual belief”48. In Lebanon, a non-religious person is dealt with according to the religious laws they had acquired at birth, even if they do not believe in or recognize them, including for marriage, inheritance, and public positions, divorce, and other personal matters50. In Morocco, adoption is permitted only for Muslims, religious instruction is compulsive, atheists cannot marry Muslims, and citizens are automatically assigned to either Islam or Judaism. Thailand, likewise, recognizes only 5 religions. In Tunisia, Islam is anchored in the constitution, Islamic education is mandatory, and non-Muslims are barred from the presidency. Egypt’s constitution allows for only three religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Muslim-born people cannot erase the association with Islam from their ID cards. Religious education is mandatory, it is illegal to register a Humanist organization, and the Ministry of Youth started a campaign to “eradicate atheism”48. In Israel, atheists cannot marry without a religious ceremony, because Israel does not recognize the concept of a civic marriage51. In India, atheists lack legal recognition52, and a member of parliament can openly call for the execution of apostates53. Overall, over 80 countries have laws that discriminate against atheists in one way or another48.
Persecution of atheists
In some countries, atheists are systematically persecuted. In 22 Islamic countries, for example, a Muslim is not allowed to commit apostasy, i.e., to abandon their faith for another or for atheism. Jordan, Egypt, and Indonesia imprison people who publicly profess their atheism. In 12 countries (Brunei, Maldives, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Malaysia, Mauritania, Qatar, Somalia, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, and Yemen) apostasy is punishable by death48. This means that those who want to become atheist risk being legally executed in these countries. Just imagine that a Western country enacted a similar law, establishing the capital punishment for those who want to become Muslim. That would spark an outcry and protests all over the world — and rightly so.
These laws are just the tip of the iceberg. In general, atheists in the Islamic world are met with severe social stigma, hatred or violence. They suffer widespread social persecution, up to beatings or beheadings49. All four schools of Sunni Islamic law teach that male apostates should be put to death49.
Famous Atheists
Famous atheist beaux-esprits
Despite the negative attitudes directed at atheists, quite a number of philosophers, artists, and authors who have been recognized or honored by society were or are atheists54.
Atheist philosophers
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
French philosopher, and the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopédie, the first systematic collection of human knowledge.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Pessimistic German philosopher, often considered the father of existentialism.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
German philosopher known for his criticism of religion and his work on morality.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Bertrand RussellCC0 Anefo
British philosopher, who co-wrote the Principia Mathematica, the quintessential work of classical logic, and won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1950.
Karl R. Popper (1902-1994)
Austrian-British philosopher of science, who promoted falsifiability as a necessary criterion of empirical statements in science.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and novelist who rejected the Nobel Prize in literature in 1964.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
French author and existentialist philosopher.
Atheist authors
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Irish playwright who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925, and who wrote the play Pygmalion (which later became the plot of the musical My Fair Lady).
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
Czech-born writer, who is best known for his novella The Metamorphosis and novels such as The Castle and The Trial.
George Orwell (1903-1950)
British journalist and author, best known for his dystopian Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, who “lost faith”55.
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
Chilean poet and diplomat who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1971.
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
French existentialist philosopher and novelist who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957.
Nigerian writer, poet and playwright who was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in literature.
Gao Xingjian (born 1940)
Chinese émigré novelist, dramatist, critic, and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 2000.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001)
British radio and television writer and novelist, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Atheist Artists and Actors
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
The Water Lily PondClaude Monet, 1899
French painter regarded as a founder of French impressionist painting and known for paintings such as “The Water Lily Pond”(pictured).
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Dutch post-Impressionist painter, known among other things for his painting “The Starry Night”.
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
French artist, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, known primarily as a painter.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, and ceramicist who founded the Cubist movement.
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements.
Woody Allen (born 1935)
American screenwriter, who directed over 50 movies, among which Annie Hall and Midnight in Paris.
Rowan Atkinson (born 1955)
British comedian, who is best known for his character of Mr. Bean.
Jodie Foster (born 1962)
American actress, film director, and producer.
Atheism — because the Universe is far more fascinating than any god your imagination can create.
Famous atheist social reformers
Several atheists have worked towards making society more just and more open54.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
British philosopher of law, who founded modern utilitarism — the idea that humanity should aim for the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people.
African-American civil rights leader, who was the head of the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech.
Saraswathi Gora (1912-2006)
Indian social activist who campaigned against untouchability and the caste system.
Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)
Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 (and lent his name to the Sakharov Prize, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for people and organizations dedicated to human rights).
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022)
Soviet president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War.
José Mujica (1935-2025)
President of Uruguay, who donated 90% of his salary to charity, declined to use the presidential palace and lived on his farm instead62.
Peter Singer (born 1940)
Australian animal rights activist, who wrote Animal Liberation, and has been campaigning for veganism since the 1970s.
British animal rights activist and president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the world’s largest animal rights organization.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969)
Somali-Dutch feminist and activist who campaigns (among other things) against female genital cutting. Hirsi Ali converted to Christianity in 202364.
Sarah Haider (born 1991)
Pakistani-American political activist who helps those who have left Islam and campaigns for women’s rights and freedom of religion.
I dedicated myself to changing the world, and I didn’t change anything, but it was amusing and gave sense to my life.
Famous atheist scientists
Quite a number of famous scientists are or were atheists — some of them winning Nobel prizes54.
French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theoris, who was a co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie.
Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871)
British mathematician and logician, who formulated De Morgan’s laws and nailed down the principle of mathematical induction.
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896)
Swedish chemist, engineer, the inventor of dynamite, and founder of the Nobel Prizes.
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Nobel Prize winning Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician, widely known for first describing the phenomenon of classical conditioning (“Pavlov’s Dog”).
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912)
French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and a philosopher of science.
Andrey Markov (1856-1922)
Russian mathematician who is best known for his work on stochastic processes (“Markov Chains”).
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Austrian psychologist, the father of psychoanalysis.
Pierre Curie (1859-1906)
French physicist, who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on radioactivity.
Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
Danish physicist best known for his foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922.
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961)
Austrian-Irish physicist who won the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics, and who is best known for his thought experiment of “Schrödinger’s Cat”.
Julian Sorell Huxley (1887-1975)
English evolutionary biologist, the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund.
James Chadwick (1891-1974)
English physicist who won the 1935 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the neutron.
Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956)
French scientist, the daughter of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, and the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry in 1935.
Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
American chemist, double Nobel Laureate in chemistry (1954) and peace (1962).
Paul Dirac (1902-1984)
British theoretical physicist and one of the founders of quantum mechanics who predicted the existence of antimatter; won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1933.
Hans Bethe (1906-2005)
German-American nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.
Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)
German civil engineer and computer pioneer, whose greatest achievement was the world’s first functional program-controlled Turing-complete computer.
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
English mathematician, logician, and cryptographer, who is often considered the father of modern computer science.
Paul Erdős (1913-1996)
Hungarian mathematician who has published 1500 scientific articles in mathematics — more than any other author.
Francis Crick (1916-2004)
English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, who co-discovered the structure of the DNA molecule and was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1962.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988)
Richard FeynmanPublic Domain, via The Nobel Foundation
American theoretical physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1965 for his work on Quantum electrodynamics.
American biochemist and Nobel Laureate in chemistry in 1997.
John Forbes Nash, Jr. (1928-2015)
American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations (“Nash Equilibrium”).
James D. Watson (born 1928)
American Nobel Laureate and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.
Peter Higgs (1929-2024)
British theoretical physicist, recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics, known for his prediction of the existence of the Higgs boson (nicknamed the “God particle”).
Amartya Kumar Sen (born 1933)
Indian economist who won the 1998 Nobel Prize in economics.
Steven Weinberg (1933-2021)
American theoretical physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1979 for the unification of electromagnetism and the weak force into the electroweak force.
John Horton Conway (1937-2020)
British mathematician who is best known for the invention of the cellular automaton called Conway’s Game of Life.
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)
Arguably the world’s pre-eminent cosmologist.
There are so many scientists in Hell that it’s probably air‐conditioned by now.
Was Adolf Hitler an atheist?
Adolf Hitler was the German dictator who initiated the Second World War, and started a genocide against Jews, homosexuals, Roma, and other communities. He is often regarded as an atheist. However, Hitler was not an atheist. He was brought up as a Catholic, and although he distanced himself from Catholicism, he believed in divine ordination67. Going further, he wrote in his book Mein Kampf: “I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Almighty Creator. By fighting the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.”67 He was thus not only a believer, but used his belief to justify his killings (as others have before him).
Did Einstein believe in God?
German-born physicist Albert Einstein is often cited as a believer in God. This is seen as an argument for theism, because Einstein, as a physicist, should know something about the Universe.
Einstein did indeed believe in God, even if not in a personal God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings68. Many other physicists believe in God or have a theistic view of the Universe. However, as we have seen, many do not. In fact, 59% of American scientists do not believe in God69, and 40% of them identify as atheists. The percentage of atheists among American scientists has been steadily rising since studies began in 1914, and more eminent scientists are more likely to be atheist than less eminent ones1.
None of this is to say that atheism is true or false. A theory does not become true just because someone says it is. The only way to find out if a theory is true is to validate it. Thus, a claim by a scientist is not true just because that person is a scientist. The claim is trustworthy only in so far as the scientist reports about a scientific validation of that claim. For example, when a physicist (or anybody else for that matter) reports that an experiment validates some theory in physics, we have reason to believe in that theory. However, when the physicist makes a statement that is not validated by experiments (be it about God’s existence, his non-existence, or about the literary quality of the Harry Potter books), then that statement is a priori no more trustworthy than anybody else’s statement70.
The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
