Our Atheist Worldview

Thanks to Jason for this topic:

If we don't use religion for the basis of our worldview, what should atheists use? Are we all nihilists, existentialists, humanists, idealists??

Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is a philosophical position which argues that Being, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following:
- there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator,
- a "true morality" does not exist, and
- objective secular ethics are impossible; therefore, life has, in a sense, no truth, and no action is objectively preferable to any other.

Existentialism is a philosophical movement that posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating it for them.

Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities ? particularly rationality. Humanism entails a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests. In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, humanism rejects the validity of transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on belief without reason, the supernatural, or texts of allegedly divine origin. Humanists endorse universal morality based on the commonality of the human condition, suggesting that solutions to human social and cultural problems cannot be parochial.

Idealism is the doctrine that ideas, or thought, make up either the whole or an indispensable aspect of any full reality, so that a world of material objects containing no thought either could not exist as it is experienced, or would not be fully "real."

We could also briefly look at the following ideas :-
· Analytic · Aristotelianism · Ash'ari · Averroism · Avicennism · Continental · Critical Theory · Cynicism · Deconstructionism · Deontology · Dialectical materialism · Dualism · Empiricism · Epicureanism · Existentialism · Hegelianism · Hermeneutics · Humanism · Idealism · Illuminationism · Kantianism · Liberalism · Logical positivism · Marxism · Materialism · Monism · Mu'tazili · Neoplatonism · New Philosophers · Nihilism · Objectivism · Ontology · Ordinary language · Phenomenology · Platonism · Positivism · Postmodernism · Poststructuralism · Pragmatism · Presocratic · Quietism · Rationalism · Realism · Relativism · Scholasticism · Skepticism · Stoicism · Structuralism · Transcendent · Utilitarianism · Virtue ethics ·