What is Atheism? Atheism is one thing: A lack of belief in gods.. Atheism is not an affirmative belief that there is no god nor does it... Atheism is not a belief system nor is it a religion.. While there are some religions that are atheistic (certain sects... Not all non-religious people are ...

In principle, an atheist could believe in fairies, although the thinking that leads to unbelief in gods, in most cases leads to unbelief in other things that cannot be shown to be real. Consequently, atheists most likely will not believe in Satan, demons, angels, karma, heaven, hell or anything else that relies on the supernatural but, in principle, they could.

Atheism is the lack of belief in a god or gods. That’s it. Despite common stereotypes, atheists aren’t necessarily anti-religion, nor do they “worship” themselves instead of a god. Atheists don’t “hate God”—it’s impossible to hate something if you don’t believe it exists. Atheism indicates what someone does not believe, but it says nothing about what someone does believe.

And the vast majority of U.S. atheists fit this description: 81% say they do not believe in God or a higher power or in a spiritual force of any kind. (Overall, 10% of American adults share this view.) At the same time, roughly one-in-five self-described atheists (18%) say they do believe in some kind of higher power.