atheist Hear it!

atheist Definition

athe·ist (-ist′)

noun

a person who believes that there is no God

Etymology: MFr athéiste: see atheism

atheist Synonyms

atheist

n.

freethinker, nonbeliever, disbeliever, unbeliever, agnostic, infidel, heathen, irreligionist, materialist, nihilist, nullifidian; see also skeptic.

an atheist rejects all religious belief and denies the existence of God; an agnostic questions the existence of God, heaven, etc. in the absence of material proof and in unwillingness to accept supernatural revelation; deist, a historical term, was applied to 18th-century rationalists who believed in God as a creative, moving force but who otherwise rejected formal religion and its doctrines of revelation, divine authority, etc.; freethinker, the current parallel term, similarly implies rejection of the tenets and traditions of formal religion as incompatible with reason; unbeliever is a more negative term, simply designating, without further qualification, one who does not accept any religious belief; infidel is applied to a person not believing in a certain religion or the prevailing religion

atheist Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • age: Has a contact list of mainly American and Canadian Atheists of secondary school age.

Converse of object

  • fulfill: We noted earlier that Richard Dawkins claims that his belief in evolution enables him to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.
  • confirm: A violent enemy of Church orthodoxy in al forms, yet he was not a confirmed atheist.
  • become: Once I became an atheist I really embraced the ideas that were being taught in my science courses.
  • say: Will Roger say that atheists have no right to do natural theology?
  • know: I know an atheist who says ' Oh god!

Adjective modifier

  • avowed: It is still bad taste to be an avowed atheist.
  • militant: The trouble with the vicar parody is that the most militant atheists in Britain don't believe vicars are evil.
  • committed: Is it out of concern for the likes of me¸ a lifelong and committed atheist?
  • fellow: The real surprise is when they talk to fellow atheists and find out that others often think very similar things.
  • famous: Even famous atheists like Bertrand Russell were in prison at the same time.
  • former: As a former atheist, his account is very convincing.

Modifies a noun

  • philosopher: One atheist philosopher has made a tentative step toward belief.
  • propaganda: Unless the working class is educated through its own struggle against capitalism, atheist propaganda will only have limited effect.
  • scientist: He is also suitable scathing about some atheist scientists ' attempts at metaphysics.
  • cannot: He said that atheists cannot rightfully deny god without first trying this experiment.
  • friend: Some of my atheist friends like nothing better than to talk about the Deity.
  • parent: It reflects a common problem faced by atheist parents.

Noun used with modifier

  • village: Nicolson ignores the growing tendency to question and the resulting emergence of " the village atheist " in Britain at that time.
atheist Quotes

He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who doesnot so much disbelieve in God as personallydislike Him), and took a sort of pleasure in thinking that human affairs would never improve.

—Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.

—Buchan,John, 1st BaronTweedsmuir

   I am a daylight atheist.

—Beethoven, Ludwig van

Are you grown an atheist? Will you turn your body, Which is the goodly palace of the soul, To the soul's slaughter-house? Oh, the curse'  d devil, Which doth present us with all other sins Thrice-candied o'er.

—Webster,John

Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing that Jesus really would've liked would be the guy that plays the kettle drums in the orchestra.

—Salinger,J(erome) D(avid)

Gra"  ce a'   Dieu, je suis toujours athe¤  e. Thanks be to God, I am still an atheist.

—Bun‹ u el, Luis