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Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to personal limitations rather than a worldview. Another definition is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist."
Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, rationalism, and secularism. These perspectives can vary, with individuals who identify as irreligious holding a diverse array of specific beliefs about religion or its role in their lives.
Jewish atheism refers to the atheism of people who are ethnically and culturally Jewish.
Irreligion is common throughout all provinces and territories of Canada. Irreligious Canadians include atheists, agnostics, and secular humanists. The surveys may also include those who are deists, spiritual, pantheists. The 2021 Canadian census reported that 34.6% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, which is up from 23.9% in the 2011 Canadian census and 16.5% in the 2001 Canadian census. According to Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, among those estimated 4.9 million Canadians of no religion, an estimated 1.9 million would specify atheist, 1.8 million would specify agnostic, and 1.2 million humanist.
Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism vary considerably across different cultures and languages, ranging from an active concept to being unimportant or not developed. Also in some countries and regions atheism carries a strong stigma, making it harder to count atheists in these countries. In global studies, the number of people without a religion is usually higher than the number of people without a belief in a deity and the number of people who agree with statements on lacking a belief in a deity is usually higher than the number of people who self-identify as "atheists".
Christian atheism is an ideology that embraces the teachings, narratives, symbols, practices, or communities associated with Christianity without accepting the literal existence of God. It often overlaps with nontheism and post-theism.
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.
Atheism, agnosticism, scepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general irreligion are increasing in Australia. Post-war Australia has become a highly secularised country. Religion does not play a major role in the lives of much of the population.
Atheism and agnosticism have a long history in India and flourish within the Śramaṇa movement. Indian religions like Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism consider atheism to be acceptable. Doubt has been ingrained even in Indian spiritual culture.
Agnostic atheism – or atheistic agnosticism – is a philosophical position that encompasses both atheism and agnosticism. Agnostic atheists are atheistic because they do not hold a belief in the existence of any deity and are agnostic because they claim that the existence of a divine entity or entities is either unknowable in principle or currently unknown in fact.
Irreligion is common in Sweden, and Sweden is one of the most secular nations in the world. The majority of Swedish citizens are members of the Church of Sweden, but very few are practicing members. Sweden has legally been a secular state since 2000 when the Church of Sweden was separated from the state.
Irreligion in Egypt is controversial due to the prominence of conservative social traditions and the persecution by the religious institutions in the country. It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists or agnostics in Egypt, as the stigma attached to being one makes it hard for irreligious Egyptians to publicly profess their views and beliefs.
In the Philippines, atheists and agnostics are not officially counted in the census of the country, although the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2020 reported that 43,931 Filipinos have no religious affiliation or have answered "none". Additionally, an undated study by the Dentsu Communication Institute in Japan claimed that around 11 million or 11% of Filipinos are irreligious. Since 2011, the non-religious increasingly organized themselves, especially among the youth in the country. There is a stigma attached to being an atheist in the Philippines, and this necessitates many Filipino atheists to communicate with each other via the Internet, for example via the Philippine Atheism, Agnosticism and Secularism, Inc. formerly known as Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society.
Irreligion in Africa, encompassing also atheism in Africa as well as agnosticism, secular humanism and general secularism, has been estimated at over tens of millions in various polls. While the predominant religions in Africa are Islam and Christianity, many groups and individuals still practice their traditional beliefs. Despite this the irreligious population is notable, especially in South Africa where 15.1% of the population describe themselves as irreligious and in Botswana, where 20% of the population describes themselves as non-religious.
Irreligion in Latin America refers to various types of irreligion, including atheism, agnosticism, deism, secular humanism, secularism and non-religious. According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2014, 8% of the population is not affiliated with a religion. According to Latinobarómetro, the share of irreligious people in Latin America quadrupled between 1996 and 2020, from 4% to 16%.
Irreligion in Turkey refers to the extent of the lack, rejection of, or indifference towards religion in the Republic of Turkey. Based on surveys, Islam is the predominant religion and irreligious people form a minority in Turkey. Precise estimates of the share of deists, atheists, agnostics, and other unaffiliated people in the population vary, though in survey averages they constitute a larger percentage than Christians and Jews in the country.
Irreligion in Croatia pertains to atheism, agnosticism, and lack of religious affiliation in Croatia. Even though the 2011 census showed that only 4.57% of Croats considered themselves irreligious, Gallup polls conducted in 2007 and 2008 found that 30.5% of respondents did not consider religion important in their lives. The Japanese research center, Dentsu, conducted a survey in 2006 concluding that 13.2% of Croats declare themselves irreligious, compared to the 7% found by a 2010 Eurobarometer survey across Europe.
The Atheists In Kenya Society is an atheist organization, registered under the Societies Act in Kenya. It is the first non-religious society to be registered in the country.
Irreligion in Lithuania pertains to atheism, agnosticism, and lack of religious affiliation in Lithuania. Irreligious Lithuanians make up a small minority of the population, encompassing only 6.11% of the population in the Lithuanian census of 2021. Irreligion in Lithuania is associated with the period of Soviet rule in the late 20th century.
References
- ↑ "2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census Volume IV: Distribution of Population by Socio-Economic Characteristics" (PDF). Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ↑ "CIA World Factbook results for Kenya". CIA. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
- ↑ "Atheism Not Against Kenya's Constitution". The Star . Archived from the original on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
- ↑ "Atheism is greatly misunderstood in Kenya". Daily Nation. Archived from the original on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
- ↑ "Petition 308 of 2016: ATHEISTS IN KENYA vs. THE REGISTRAR OF SOCIETIES". Kenya Law. Retrieved 2020-11-16.
- 1 2 Nzwili, Frederick (2022-02-07). "After moving out of their comfort zone, atheists in Kenya gain visibility". Religion News Service. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
- ↑ Obama, Barack (16 October 2006). "My spiritual journey". Time. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.
- ↑ Leakey, Richard E. (1984). One Life: An Autobiography. Salem House. ISBN 9780881620559 – via Google Books.
I myself do not believe in a god who has or had a human form and to whom I owe my existence. I believe it is man who created God in his image and not the other way round; also I see no reason to believe in a life after death. Having said all this, I cannot deny that I am nagged still by that big question 'What is Life?'. What is the 'thing' that is there in an organism one minute and gone the next? There is, I know, more to life than I understand and to me this is epitomized in that mysterious frontier between life and death - the 'spirit' as it were - that cannot be quantified but which is in living things both animal and plant and not in the dead.
- ↑ Wasonga, Josaya. "God does not exist in Harrison Mumia's world" . Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- ↑ "The rise of atheism in modern Kenya".
