Definition
Atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of deities or gods. It is not a religion, a philosophy, or a belief system — it is simply the position that the claims made by religious traditions (the existence of one or more gods, divine revelation, supernatural intervention) are not supported by sufficient evidence. Atheism exists on a spectrum: implicit atheism (never having been exposed to the concept of God, as in the case of infants or uncontacted tribes), weak atheism (lacking belief in God without actively asserting that God does not exist), and strong atheism (actively believing that God does not exist). Atheism has been documented throughout human history — from the ancient Indian materialist school of Charvaka to Greek philosophers like Democritus to Enlightenment thinkers like David Hume — but it has become a visible social and political identity primarily in the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly in the West.
Why It Matters
Atheism is the internet’s favorite identity to fight about. In the 2000s, the “New Atheist” movement — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett — turned atheism into a brand, a book genre, and a debate circuit. The internet amplified this: YouTube channels like “The Amazing Atheist” and Reddit’s r/atheism (once a default subreddit) became hubs of atheist discourse, creating a culture that was part intellectual community, part anti-religious subculture, and part teenage rebellion. The internet’s relationship with atheism is complicated: for many, it was a lifeline — a place to find community after leaving religious families, a source of arguments against Creationism, a space to question without fear. For others, it became a cringe memory: the fedora, the “m’lady,” the “euphoric” copypasta, the certainty that science had all the answers. The backlash was inevitable: “Atheism Plus” tried to add social justice to atheism and fractured the community. The alt-right co-opted some atheist figures. And today, “atheist” on the internet is as likely to be a joke as an identity. Atheism matters because it represents the internet’s ability to turn a philosophical position into a culture war, a meme, and a movement. And then to watch that movement collapse under its own contradictions. God may not exist. But the drama is real.
Example
“He became an atheist at 15. He found r/atheism. He found arguments. He found community. He found memes. He argued with his parents. He argued with strangers. He felt smart. He felt right. He felt euphoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. He posted the copypasta. He was mocked. He mocked others. He was 18. He left r/atheism. He found the mockery. He found the cringe. He found that certainty was the problem. Not God. Certainty. He still didn’t believe. But he stopped arguing. He stopped posting. He was still an atheist. But he was not the atheist he had been. The internet had changed him. The internet had changed atheism. And atheism was just a word. A word that meant less. And mattered more.”
Related Terms
- New Atheism — The 2000s movement led by Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and Dennett
- Agnosticism — The position that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable
- Atheism Plus — The attempted movement to combine atheism with social justice, which divided the community
- Secular Humanism — The ethical philosophy often adopted by atheists to replace religious morality
- Euphoric — The infamous internet meme/copypasta that became synonymous with cringe atheism