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While polytheism dominated much of ancient Greek thought and theism dominated medieval Christian view, atheism has had its day in the modern world. Of course not all who lack faith in a divine being wish to be called “atheist.” Some prefer the positive ascription of “Humanist”. Others are perhaps best described as “materialists.” But all are nontheists, and most are antitheistic. Some prefer the more neutral term a-theists. In distinction from a theist, who believes God exists beyond and in the world, and a pantheist, who believes God is the world, an atheist believes there is no God either beyond or in the world. There is only a universe or cosmos and nothing more. Since atheists share much in common with agnostics and skeptics, they are often confused with them. Technically, a skeptic says “I doubt that God exists” and an agnostic declares “I don’t know (or can’t know) whether God exists.” But an atheist claims to know (or at least believe) that God does not exist. However, since atheists are all nontheists and since most atheists share with skeptics an antitheistic stand, many of their arguments are the same. It is in this sense that modern atheism rests heavily upon the skepticism of David Hume and the agnosticism of Immanuel Kant. Broadly speaking, there are differing kinds of atheism. Traditional (metaphysical) atheism holds that there never was, is, or will be a God. The many with this view include Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Antony Flew. Mythological atheists, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, believe the God-myth was never a Being, but was once a live model by which people lived. This myth has been killed by the advancement of man’s understanding and culture. There was a short-lived form of dialectical atheism held by Thomas Altizer which proposed that the once-alive, transcendent God actually died in the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ, and this death was subsequently realized in modern times. Semantical atheists claim that God-talk is dead. This view was held by Paul Van Buren and others influenced by the logical positivists who had seriously challenged the meaningfulness of language about God. Of course, those who hold this latter view need not be actual atheists at all. They can admit to the existence of God and yet believe that it is not possible to talk about him in meaningful terms. This view has been called “acognosticism,” since it denies that we can speak of God in cognitive or meaningful terms. Conceptual atheism believes that there is a God, but he is hidden from view, obscured by our conceptual constructions. Finally, practical atheists confess that God exists but believes that we should live as if he did not. The point is that we should not use God as a crutch for our failure to act in a spiritual and responsible way. There are other ways to designate the various kinds of atheists. One way would be by the philosophy by which they express their atheism. In this way one could speak of existential atheists (Sartre), Marxist atheists (Marx), psychological atheists (Sigmund Freud), capitalistic atheists (Ayn Rand), and behavioristic atheists (B. F. Skinner). For apologetics purposes the most applicable way to consider atheism is in a metaphysical sense. Atheists are those who give reasons for believing that no God exists in or beyond the world. Thus we are speaking about philosophical atheism as opposed to practical atheists who simply live as though there were no God.