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The term atheist (from the French athée), in the sense of "one who ... denies the existence of God or gods", [11] predates atheism in English, being first found as early as 1566, [12] and again in 1571. [13] Atheist as a label of practical godlessness was used at least as early as 1577. [14]
Of the global atheist and non-religious population, 76% live in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2%) and the Middle East and North Africa (less than 1%). [10] The prevalence of atheism in Africa and South America typically falls below ...
Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism and self-identification are context dependent by culture. [12] In 2009, Pew stated that only 5% of the US population did not have a belief in a god and out of that small group only 24% self-identified as "atheist", while 15% self-identified as "agnostic" and ...
Discrimination against atheists, sometimes called atheophobia, [1] atheistophobia, [2] or anti-atheism, [3] [4] both at present and historically, includes persecution of and discrimination against people who are identified as atheists. Discrimination against atheists may be manifested by negative attitudes, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear ...
In Islam, atheists are categorized as kafir , a term that is also used to describe polytheists , and that translates roughly as "denier" or "concealer". Kafir carries connotations of blasphemy and disconnection from the Islamic community. In Arabic, "atheism" is generally translated ilhad , although this also means "heresy".
Writers disagree on how best to define and classify atheism, [8] contesting what supernatural entities are considered gods, whether atheism is a philosophical position or merely the absence of one, and whether it requires a conscious, explicit rejection; however, the norm is to define atheism in terms of an explicit stance against theism.
The word "race", interpreted to mean an identifiable group of people who share a common descent, was introduced into English in the 16th century from the Old French rasse (1512), from Italian razza: the Oxford English Dictionary cites the earliest example around the mid-16th century and defines its early meaning as a "group of people belonging to the same family and descended from a common ...
Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. [1] The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of various kinds, including those characterized by close kinship relations. [2]