History of Atheism
Historically speaking I would assume atheism hasn't been too widespread. Early Jains lacked belief in any creator although they did believe in various gods/spirits and that one could attain godhood, the universe according to them was uncreated(thus, no big bang). Some early Hindus such as the Samkhya and Mimamsa also disbelieved in a creator God. The earliest and closest thing to modern day atheism I can see is the Cārvāka school of thought which was completely centered on materialism. Followers of that school disbelieved in anything whatsoever and the purpose of life, according to this thought, is to enjoy life as much as you can because nothing happens, good and bad, young or old, suffering or happy, the end of men is equal. Ajita Kesakambali, and ancient Indian philosopher and the first known proponent of materialism had this to say
"There is no such thing as alms or sacrifice or offering. There is neither fruit nor result of good or evil deeds...A human being is built up of four elements. When he dies the earthly in him returns and relapses to the earth, the fluid to the water, the heat to the fire, the wind to the air, and his faculties pass into space. The four bearers, on the bier as a fifth, take his dead body away; till they reach the burning ground, men utter forth eulogies, but there his bones are bleached, and his offerings end in ashes. It is a doctrine of fools, this talk of gifts. It is an empty lie, mere idle talk, when men say there is profit herein. Fools and wise alike, on the dissolution of the body, are cut off, annihilated, and after death they are not."[4]
He believed as modern atheists and other nonbelievers believed, that there is no such thing as a reward for something good or that there is justice for a wrongful action.
We can also see in early Greece, nonbelievers such as Euripedes and Aristophanes negated any belief in any gods. Pslams(which is attributed to David(PBUH)) 14:1-3 is read "The fool says in his heart 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good." So early Israelites may have been aware of atheistic beliefs. It's around the Enlightenment however that atheism really picked up the pace. Baron d'Holbach and other Enlightenment speakers openly dismissed religion. In the past 50 years, atheism in Western societies has skyrocketed with secularism. Church attendence has dropped and I think more nonbelievers are found in younger generations. From what I can understand, the most atheistic countries are Northern European countries, Veitnam, Japan and China. Atheists number up to 85% in Sweden, 80% in Denmark, 72% in Norway, and 60% in Finland.[14] In France only 35% of respondents to a Eurobaremeter poll in 2005 responded that they believed in a God (another chunk said they believed in some spirit or life force). http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf.
Arguments against atheistic beliefs
Well.......as Muslim we're faced with a world filled with nonbelievers. It's easy to disprove atheism-who created the universe? If it was the big bang, what started it? Actions don't take place automatically-something causes it to happen. If every event is caused by something preceding it than the big bang is no exception. Since the universe changes from order to disorder, and according to science, dies when it reaches heat death, meaning there isn't enough energy for anything to happen, than that means we are in some process and there was a beginning. Big bangs don't happen all around us-they had to have been caused by something. In short, it's logically impossible for atheism to be true(plus you kind of have to wonder, that there are humans all around us with feeling and thought and intelligence and every other being on earth is far different from us in terms of intelligence and we love and hate and get married ..etc. Was that some random accident?).
The way the Quran addresses atheism
So what does the Quran do to address atheism? I have two answers for that. Bear in mind, this IS speculation on my part and God forgive me if I'm wrong and may He guide me always. First, Godwilling I'll address the beliefs of atheists that the Quran clearly addresses. Second I'll move into my example which may or may not be correct. Look to the evidence and judge for yourself, may Allah guide you and I.
Well, first lets begin with what the Quran clearly and obviously addresses. Atheists for the most part deny the hereafter. Disbelief in the hereafter is disbelief according to the Quran, not just disbelief in Allah (this is said many times in the Quran).
"And surely you are indeed calling them to a straight Path.And surely the ones who do not believe in the Hereafter are eschewing the (right) Path."
So anybody who denies that there is a next life is a disbeliever. From the verse above we have a clear cut argument(apart from the obvious) from the Quran that atheists are not believers.
My first example of an atheist in the Quran in Pharoah. Now the man clearly thought he was God Himself and so that would be the first criticism of my analysis. However, I think that his beliefs can be grouped with atheistic beliefs. Here are my reasons-
1) He asks Moses "Who is the Lord of the Worlds?". From this I can assume he doesn't know who God is even though other nonbelievers believed in God as a creator but associated partners with Him.
2) He said "I am your Lord Most High". So yes, he thinks he's God, but seeing as he isn't the creator of the universe(and I'm going to assume he knew that) than who did he believe was the creator? Did he just forget or just reject the idea in his mind?
3) He said "You have no god besides me" and also "Worship ye him before I give ye permission?". So he didn't believe in any god besides himself, didn't even think he was associating himself with God but attacked those who believed in God without his permission. So I don't exactly know what he thinks, God Himself knows what he thought, but from this I think I can assume this-Pharoah, like atheists of today, did not believe in a creator. I'm also going to assume that when he thought he was the only god around, he thought that because he had so much power, not because he thought he could do amazing things like break the earth open or create the universe. So from this I can make the assumption, God willing I am right, that Pharoah was an atheist or that at least his beliefs can be a subgroup of atheism which itself, alongside trinitarian beliefs and other polytheistic beliefs are a subset of nonbelief.
My second example draws on the evidence of early Indian atheists who were different from other non believers at that time as modern day atheists are different from polytheists such as Hindus. They were completely materialistic and believed the purpose of life was purely to enjoy and there is no reward beyond death, nor any punishment.
http://quran.com/45/20-26
http://quran.com/25/40-46
So, from these verses I interpret it to be that some nonbelievers can actually take their desires and make them gods for themselves besides Allah. In my opinion this applies both to both polytheists and atheists. It's worthy to consider-the modern atheist thought is enjoy life. Since they don't believe there is any judgement and all people are equal in life and death and existence is without purpose, they spend their lives attempting to enjoy they lives they currently have. From this, I assume that atheists literally worship their own desires whether they know it or not. And so from this they are taking gods besides Allah and disbelieving in Allah. This may be wrong analysis or it may be right may Allah guide us all.
