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Beyond the Absence of Belief: The Implications of Atheism

Beyond the Absence of Belief: The Implications of Atheism

Last updated on: September 27, 2026 at 10:46 am by David Schloss

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Beyond the Absence of Belief: The Implications of Atheism 2026-09-27T10:46:18-04:00 David Schloss

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Atheism and its effects.

Atheists frequently claim that atheism is not a religion or a philosophy. It is only the absence of belief in God or gods. It makes no other claims. This holds even if one argues that the lack of belief is predicated on insufficient evidence.

If we accept this as reasonable, we can still ask whether denying God’s existence entails consequences. Put differently, what follows (if anything) from denying God’s existence?

This essay will argue that atheism entails consequences and conclusions that ought not to be dismissed or overlooked. Finally, I will juxtapose the atheistic worldview with a theistic (admittedly Catholic) paradigm.

A Brief History Of Atheism

Atheism (a Greek word meaning “godless” or “without gods”) as a belief system predates Christianity by about five hundred years.

In ancient India, a philosophy called Charvaka rejected belief in the divine and instead focused on materialism, empiricism, and skepticism.

While ancient Greece was known for its polytheism, atomists like Leucippus and Democritus sought to explain the physical world through natural movements of atoms rather than divine intervention. Early polytheistic cultures also did not entirely reject skepticism or non-belief.

After Christianity became the dominant religion of the Middle Ages, authorities suppressed atheism and even treated it as heresy. For this reason, premodern skepticism often took the form of practical or constructive doubt against church authority rather than formalized systems of non-belief.

The Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries prioritized scientific observation and rationalism over religious dogma. The French Revolution brought secular and anti-religious sentiments to the level of the State.

Atheism found natural alternatives to the biblical creation narratives in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The work of philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx raised the profile and intellectual gravitas of atheism in the 19th and 20th centuries.

With this background in mind, what exactly are the arguments for atheism?

Why Atheism?

As a worldview or philosophy, atheism seems to have one significant advantage; it is remarkably simple. Specifically, the atheistic position is recommended for its metaphysical and scientific parsimony.

To see why, we must examine the basic premises and presuppositions that constitute atheism. These premises relate to three fundamental aspects of reality: cosmology (including ontology), morality, and teleology.

Cosmology, morality, and teleology represent three foundational pillars of philosophy and human inquiry (epistemology), each addressing a unique dimension of how we understand existence, activity, and purpose.

Together, they provide a fairly comprehensive paradigm or ideology of what the universe is, how we should live within it, and its purpose (if any).

Cosmology studies the universe’s existence, origin, and fate. Cosmology can be divided into physical and philosophical branches. Physical cosmology incorporates astrophysics to study the Big Bang and cosmic expansion. Philosophical cosmology uses metaphysics (the nature of reality) and ontology (the study of being) to inquire into space, time, matter, and causation.

Generally speaking, atheism asserts that the universe is neither planned nor designed for any purpose. It “just is” as a brute fact. Moreover, life results from blind (that is, unguided) evolutionary processes.

The second pillar is morality. We may define morality as a system of principles, values, and standards that guide individuals in distinguishing right from wrong, good from bad, and just from unjust behavior.

Atheism holds that morality is either a product of evolution and/or an artificial construction designed to promote social cooperation, well-being, and survival without relying on divine commands.

Finally, there is teleology. Teleology is synonymous with Aristotle’s final cause. Specifically, it is a philosophical concept that all things exist, happen, or take their shape because of an inherent purpose, goal, or final end. A kitten’s “goal or end” is to become a cat. It is important to point out that this goal or end is not a conscious or subjective principle. Rather, a thing’s teleology is intrinsically tied to its nature. A kitten’s nature is to become a cat, and an acorn’s nature is to grow into a tree.

For its part, atheism says very little about the concept of teleology. At best, atheism suggests that things act toward an end in accord with unguided evolutionary processes or physical laws.

It must be admitted that the above section involves some projection. As stated above, most atheists today simply deny the existence of God. They make no attempt to distill the consequences of that denial.

Regardless, the above summary allows for one to juxtapose atheistic “philosophy” with theism in the form of traditional Catholicism.

A Theistic Explanation Of Reality

At the heart of the matter is this question: given the antecedent probability of reality, does atheism or theism provide the most viable worldview? Put differently, does atheism or theism offer greater explanatory power given what we do know about the world we inhabit?

To answer this question, we begin with a rather obvious observation: we exist, as do the things around us. Nevertheless, this need not be the case. We can quite well conceive of us not being here.

Moreover, the world is composed of causes and effects. That is to say, our existence is entirely contingent. Things pass into and pass from existence. Since this regression of contingency cannot be infinite, is it not reasonable to infer a non-contingent cause of this contingency?

The problem with an infinite chain of causation is that it removes a first cause. If no first cause exists, no subsequent causes and effects can exist. In other words, if no ultimate fixed first cause exists, nothing would exist. Significantly, any such cause must, by definition, transcend the effect (e.g., the universe).

One may object that the universe could be the fixed first cause. However, facts such as the mutability of matter and the presence of entropy suggest that the universe is fluid and contingent.

In light of this, we can examine the three foundational pillars of reality mentioned above (cosmology, morality, and teleology) from a theistic (and primarily Catholic perspective).

With respect to physical cosmology, it must be noted that science presupposes the foundational framework of the universe – specifically, the laws of physics, space-time, and quantum fields. As such, science presupposes intelligibility in the universe. Intelligibility is never a property of random events; only of design. Moreover, chance is possible and meaningful only within a framework of predictability.

In accord with the Big Bang Theory, the Catholic Church asserts that the universe had a definitive beginning. Significantly, Catholicism claims the universe is a product of the creative power of God. Because the universe is spoken into existence through the divine Word (Logos), it reflects a rational structure that makes mathematical and scientific exploration possible.

Regarding morality, the Church suggests a multi-tiered approach. Positive law (laws made by human beings) ought to reflect natural law. Natural law is defined as a moral order rooted in the mind of God that is knowable to human reason. The precepts of natural law are true at all times, apply to all people, and are independent of the mind that perceives them (i.e., they are objective).

Finally, teleology. Catholic theology asserts that God is not only the cause of creation, but also the highest or best end. To paraphrase Saint Augustine, God has made us for Himself. Therefore, from a teleological perspective, human beings are made for communion with God. Moreover, all of creation reflects this teleology (Psalm 19:2).

Conclusion

The so-called “new” atheists are often content with simply claiming that atheism consists of nothing more than the denial of the existence of a deity or deities. However, whether atheists accept it or not, the denial entails numerous consequences.

Ultimately, whether one believes in the existence of God directly influences many other positions. Matters such as the nature of reality, objective morality, ultimate meaning, and cosmology are all affected by what one believes vis-à-vis God.

In this paper, I argued that the existence of God is the most intelligible, or logical, conclusion based on the reality we all experience.

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