Empirical Verification of a Typology of Atheism

Starting from the assumption that atheism as a personal conviction - in a similar way to religious belief - may appear in different forms, the basic aim of this paper was to verify the hypothesis on the existence of 7 different types of atheists, which resulted with preliminary scientific survey res...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revija za sociologiju 2011-08, Vol.41 (2), p.185-212
Main Authors: Culig, Benjamin, Klasnic, Ksenija, Jaksic, Jelena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atheism
Empirical research
Religious beliefs
Social research
Sociology
Typology
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Summary:Starting from the assumption that atheism as a personal conviction - in a similar way to religious belief - may appear in different forms, the basic aim of this paper was to verify the hypothesis on the existence of 7 different types of atheists, which resulted with preliminary scientific survey research conducted in 2008th on a stratified proportional quota sample (N = 353) of students at the University of Zagreb. The research has shown that it is possible to talk about 5 types of atheists: rational type, positivistic type, anti-theist type, fatalist type and admirer of force majeure. The rational type is absolutely convinced in the absence of God and believes that religion is a set of meaningless settings and logical inconsistencies. The positivistic type blindly believes in science. He/she also believes that science will one day explain the meaning of all existing. The anti-religious oriented atheist or anti-theist type is not even interested in cognitive issues, or in questions of meaning; instead, he/she is primarily interested in the personal social environment. This type usually spends time with atheists, considering them more intelligent than believers. The fatalist type is neither a classic atheist nor a believer. Instead of faith in God, this type is prone to another kind of belief. He/she believes in fate and he/she looks for answers in horoscopes and similar sources of alternative explanations of his/her own life and the lives of people around him. The admirer of force majeure is a cognitive relativist, a believer in the existence of force majeure. The only type determined in the research which is considered to be a "real" atheist is - the rational atheist. All others are merely different types of alternative believers. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0350-154X
1846-7954
DOI:10.5613/rzs.41.2.3