Question: How Old Is Atheism?
Yeshayahu Leibowitz noted well, there have been believers and unbelievers in every age.
I posit the true age of atheism started symbolically with the evil French Revolution and de Sade. Indeed, the first people to defend atheism in writing appear to be Matthias Knutzen, Kazimierz Łyszczyński, Jean Meslier, and Baron d’Holbach. (Since “atheism” per se is possibly incoherent, I use the word in the colloquial sense of those publically identifying as such.)
Preternaturally-biased Wikipedia has two articles on the history of atheism claiming it’s both quite old, and quite popular since ancient times.
Nonsense.
Let’s see. Was Adam Harishon an atheist? Ah, I doubt it. He spoke to Hashem as a prophet. So did his children. Enosh started idolatry.
In Tanach (Scripture) it’s unclear there was even one atheist. Even such verses as אמר נבל בלבו אין אלהים in Tehillim 14 and 53 refer to what stays in the heart (as Chazal say, Iyov sinned by Birkas Hashem in his heart) and might refer to denying Divine Providence alone, etc.
Amalek is misotheistic; he hates Hashem. Even Amalek doesn’t deny Hashem’s very existence!
Even pagan societies often recognized One, de-emphasized special “Creator-God”, but focused on deifying their own Henotheistic Mazel\Sar. There are many hundreds of words for Him across numerous cultures, such as the Chinese “Shangdi“, and even the Egyptian “Aten”. As the Psalmist says ממזרח שמש עד מבואו מהלל שם השם, see Menachos 110a “Elaha De’elaha“.
Atheists say every young child is an atheist (and cows are atheists too, presumably!). Well, if we speak of intellectual discourse, they can’t say too much about “Juice!”, either. And if we speak of the weak “Sensus Divinitatis“, that’s there from the start, including presuppositionally. (Although I do suspect they cry more because we can’t teach them much about Emuna yet.)
Skipping to less ancient times, the very fact “Atheist” was an insult, not a proud mantle, shows just how “popular” it was in generations past. Indeed, this means we cannot know “Theodorus the Atheist” was one since this title was given him by his enemies (OK, bad example).
Wikipedia deceptively includes the names of people who denied the truth of various false deities. But by that ridiculous measure, Avraham Avinu, a literal “iconoclast”, was an atheist, too…! (Not to mention אבנימוס הגרדי.)
Here’s an example:
“Little is known for certain concerning his philosophical views or the nature of his alleged atheism. All that is known for certain on the point is that Diagoras was offended by the worship of the Athenian national gods.”
Then why mention him here at all? To poison the well!
And again from Wikipedia:
In the fourth century BC, he points to Plato, as the philosopher imagines a believer chastising an atheist: “You and your friends are not the first to have held this view about the gods! There are always those who suffer from this illness, in greater or lesser numbers.”
That’s “gods” plural, so stop wasting my time! Mishlei says, 17:28: גם אויל מחריש חכם יחשב, אטם שפתיו נבון.
Even by the low standards demanded of modern historians of ancient times (because their work is near-futile), identifications are strictly tentative.
As for “the Epicureans, who were often called “Atheoi” in antiquity, and the atheistic writings of Xenophanes of Colophon“, this may be because they denied Divine Providence, and endorsed hedonism, as we explained elsewhere.
The word “Emuna” itself translates better as native or adopted “loyalty” than anything else (as in ויהי ידיו אמונה), and philosophers are on the wrong track, see Rabbi S. R. Hirsch’s “The 19 Letters”. The supposed “Belief in\Belief that” distinction is unclear because, on the one hand, humans anthropomorphize everything so belief in Avoda Zara becomes a strange “relationship”, while, on the other hand, we simply cannot deny our knowledge.
The words “Kafar ba’ikkar” (as by Adam Harishon) mean nothing more than denial of Divine Providence, as seen in Sanhedrin 45b: מה מקלל זה שכפר בעיקר, and in the Haggadah:
רשע מה הוא אומר, מה העבודה הזאת לכם. לכם ולא לו. ולפי שהוציא את עצמו מן הכלל כפר בעקר. ואף אתה הקהה את שניו ואמור לו, בעבור זה עשה השם לי בצאתי ממצרים, לי ולא לו. אלו היה שם לא היה נגאל.
Sure, there were some ancient atheists (Indian “Carvakas” maybe? Al-Ma’arri?).
And so says the Ramban, Shemos 13:17:
הנה מעת היות עבודת גילולים בעולם מימי אנוש החלו הדעות להשתבש באמונה, מהם כופרים בעיקר ואומרים כי העולם קדמון, כחשו בה’ ויאמרו לא הוא, ומהם מכחישים בידיעתו הפרטית… ומהם שיודו בידיעה ומכחישים בהשגחה…
And the various “proofs” brought in Sha’ar Hayichud of Chovos Halevavos and other works were obviously in demand. But there weren’t a large number of atheists. Foolish knavery has since increased exponentially (Yeridas Hadoros).
By the way, we referenced the above article in our free, special ebook on answering atheists. To receive the full Hebrew ebook, subscribe to Hyehudi’s Daily Newsletter here.