Dr. Robert A. Morey

(The following is an excerpt taken from Dr. Morey’s work “The New Atheism and the Erosion of Freedom”)

“Surveys have shown that the average person considers an “atheist” someone who denies the existence of God; he refuses to believe any god or gods of any shape or form existed in the past, exist now, or will exist in the future.  “Atheism,” in this popular sense, is a simple, flat denial of the existence of God.

When seeking to understand modern atheism, or anti-theism, however, we encounter a problem: The popular meaning of atheism does not fit. Therefore, to surmount this problem, we must follow the rules we normally use when attempting to define any word.

The etymology of “atheism” is found in the combination of two Greek words, a + theos, which literally means “no god.” The term was first used to describe those who denied the existence of the gods of Greece or Rome. In this sense, the early Christians were legally tried and convicted of “atheism” because they believed only in the biblical God and claimed that the gods of the pagan religions did not really exist. 

After western culture was Christianized, “atheism” came to mean a denial of the Christian concept of God as the invisible, self-existent, all-powerful and all-knowing triune Being who is the creator of the Universe and the Savior of mankind. Atheism as a philosophical position, however, did not appear until the Renaissance. During this “Age of reason,” which the Rationalists called “Enlightenment,” various thinkers proposed that they could satisfactorily explain man and the world without the need for the concept of God.

Man had now come of age and no longer needed God or His revelation given in the Bible. The universe was one vast machine which functioned according to the dictates of “natural law,” so man had no further need for the idea of God. Infidel thinkers declared the universe to be a “closed” system in which there was no room for God. Materialism and empiricism had redefined reality in such a a way that the existence and nature of god were excluded from any serious discussion. People were not able to logically disprove the existence of God; they simply defined Him out of existence. Thus the issue was no longer open for debate.”