10 Questions: Atheism Multiple Choice Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What does the word atheism mean?

Answer: A nonbelief in a god or gods

The word "atheism" comes from the Greek "atheos" meaning 'without god(s)'. The word "atheist" was first used in the 18th Century during the Age of Enlightenment which dealt with the idea of reason as the basis of authority and tolerance.

2. Atheism doesn't always conflict with religion. What religion started by the teachings of Gautama Buddha is considered by some to be an atheistic religion?

Answer: Buddhism

Buddhism has its roots in Nepal. Some people believe that Buddhism was born out of Hinduism. Buddhism started around 520 BCE. Other religions that can be considered atheistic include Taoism and Jainism.

3. While many atheists in Western countries believe in the Theory of Evolution, there are some who believe in Raelism. What is Raelism?

Answer: Aliens created life on Earth

Also known as Raelianism, it was created in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon. The basis of Raelism is that an extraterrestrial race called the Elohim implanted life on Earth.

4. While religious children tend to be raised to believe that morality comes from their god(s), atheist children are raised a bit different. What is the main thing that atheists state their morality comes from?

Answer: Collective Culture

Atheists tend to get their morality from the development of our culture and society around us, our laws, the way the average person behaves, and the teaching of our parents and peers. This is how atheists learn various things, including morality.

5. Just as with different religions, there are different kinds of atheism. There are strong atheists and weak atheists, agnostic atheists and apatheists. What kind of atheist believes that the whole discussion of god is meaningless without a single universal definition of a god?

Answer: Ignostic atheist

Rabbi Sherwin Wine coined the term "Ignosticism" in the 1960s. He is also a founder of Humanistic Judaism. There are up to 20 different kinds of atheism that have been listed over the years.

Christian atheism is a real belief. It's the belief that the God of the Bible is rejected as an interventionalist, and that Jesus (not seen as a god or is the whole of what God is) is the ruler of the entire world. Similar to Jesuism.

6. It's very difficult to find out the true number of atheists in the world. In most recent surveys conducted in the past decade state that Asia and parts of Europe have the highest levels of those who consider themselves to be atheist. What country in Europe do you think has the highest percentage of atheists according to a 2010 Eurobarometer Poll?

Answer: France

According to "Secularization and the World Religions (2010)", a broad viewpoint of the number of atheists in the world is 1.1 billion. One of the main reasons why an exact number cannot be determined is those in atheistic religions usually state their religion first rather than stating "atheist", such as a Buddhist or Hindu.

7. There are not too many children's books written for atheists. This children's book was written by a Pulitzer prize-winning writer from The Washington Post in 2014. It's a story about a dog thinking his owner is God. What's the name of this book?

Answer: Me & Dog

Gene Weingarten wrote "Me & Dog". He has been awarded two Pulitzer prizes. Once in 2008 for "Pearls Before Breakfast" of violinist Joshua Bell, and again in 2010 for "Fatal Distraction" which is about parents who leave their children in cars with disastrous results.

8. A beloved author of the children's series "Winnie-the-Pooh" was an atheist. Who is this author?

Answer: A.A. Milne

Alan Alexander Milne was born in Kilburn, London, England on January 18, 1882. He served in both WWI and WWII. His son, Christopher Robin Milne (the model of Christopher Robin) verified after his father's death that he was an atheist based on a letter he sent his father after reading "The Martyrdom of Man".

His father replied that he was glad that they both shared the same beliefs. A.A. Milne died January 31, 1956.

9. There's sometimes a misconception of atheists and the belief in the supernatural and/or spiritualism itself. While many atheists put stock in what they can see and feel, some do share a belief with theists about what happens to them after they die. Can you tell me what that is?

Answer: The Afterlife

The Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture conducted a survey in 2014 listing the percentage of religions and non-religions in the US on belief in life after death. 32% of atheists and agnostics stated they did believe in life after death.

Atheism is just defined as non-belief in god or gods. That's it. There are atheists who believe in supernatural things. This is also how Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, Toaists etc., can hold to their beliefs, many of which are of a supernatural nature, yet still contend that a god or gods do not exist.

10. What is the most widespread understanding about the religion or non-religion of most of the Founding Fathers?

Answer: Deism

There were Christians (Protestant and Catholic), deists (people who believe in a creator God who doesn't intervene in the universe) and atheists among the Founding Father of the United States of America. Most modern scholars believe that the vast majority of the Founding Fathers were deists, based on analysis of their personal, philosophical and political writing. Most of them were also active members of various churches, so perceived as Christian due to their conforming to the conventions of the time.

Source: Author Nammage

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor MotherGoose before going online.
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