Atheism, agnosticism and new atheism as non-religious worldviews: HSC Studies of Religion

What this dot point is asking

This page covers the Atheism and Agnosticism parts of the Non-Religious Worldviews section of Religion and Non-Religion (Studies of Religion II only). The syllabus asks you to:

1. Outline the essential features of Atheism and Agnosticism. Short, precise definitions and key features.
2. Discuss how Agnosticism, Atheism and Humanism determine the aspirations and behaviour of individuals. What these worldviews lead people to hope for and how they lead them to act, with points for and against. (Humanism is covered in depth on the humanism page.)

New atheism is not named in the syllabus, but it is the most visible form of atheism in the 21st century and a strong source of examples for "essential features" and "aspirations and behaviour". Almost every recent HSC paper has tested atheism or agnosticism through multiple choice, so exact definitions are essential.

The answer

Atheism: essential features

Definition. Atheism is the absence of belief in, or the denial of, the existence of any god or gods. The word comes from the Greek a-theos, "without god".

Forms of atheism.

• Implicit (negative or weak) atheism: simply lacking belief in God, without asserting that God does not exist.
• Explicit (positive or strong) atheism: the claim that God does not exist.

Essential features.

1. Reason and evidence. Atheists typically argue that belief should be proportioned to evidence and that there is insufficient evidence for God. Bertrand Russell's "teapot" analogy puts the burden of proof on the person making the claim.
2. Naturalism. The universe and life are explained by natural processes: cosmology and evolution by natural selection, rather than creation.
3. The problem of evil. Many atheists argue that the scale of suffering in the world counts against an all-good, all-powerful God.
4. One life. There is no soul that survives death and no afterlife, so meaning and responsibility belong to this life.
5. Human morality. Ethics comes from human nature, reason, empathy and social cooperation (NESA's 2022 answer: morality is "a characteristic of the human race").
6. Not a complete worldview. Atheism is a position about God, not a full set of values; atheists usually draw their ethics from humanism.

Agnosticism: essential features

Definition. Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God or of any transcendent reality is unknown or cannot be known. The term was coined by the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869, from the Greek a-gnosis, "without knowledge".

Forms of agnosticism.

• Soft (weak or empirical) agnosticism: "I do not know whether God exists", but evidence might one day decide.
• Hard (strong) agnosticism: "No one can know whether God exists"; the question is beyond human knowledge.

Essential features.

1. Suspension of judgement: neither belief nor disbelief. NESA's key describes it as "uncertainty about a transcendent or divine reality" (2022 Q17).
2. The limits of knowledge: human reason and evidence cannot settle claims about the transcendent.
3. Openness: many agnostics remain "open to the idea that something might be out there" (NESA 2025 Q18).
4. Compatibility: agnosticism concerns knowledge, atheism concerns belief, so a person can be an agnostic atheist (does not believe, but does not claim certainty) or even an agnostic theist.

Atheist, agnostic or something else? Reading the cues

New atheism

What it is

New atheism is the assertive, public form of atheism that emerged in the first decade of the 21st century. The journalist Gary Wolf coined the label in a November 2006 Wired article, "The Church of the Non-Believers". Unlike quieter, private disbelief, new atheism argues openly that religion is not only unsupported by evidence but often harmful, and that it should not be protected from criticism.

The "Four Horsemen"

The four recorded a discussion together in 2007 that circulated as "The Four Horsemen". Hitchens died in 2011 and Dennett in 2024.

New atheism in Australia

The Atheist Foundation of Australia organised the Global Atheist Conventions in Melbourne in 2010 and 2012, featuring leading new atheists. The growth of Australians reporting no religion (38.9% at the 2021 Census, ABS) is often discussed alongside new atheism, although "no religion" includes agnostics, humanists and the "spiritual but not religious", not only atheists.

Religious responses

• Faith and reason. Religious thinkers argue that faith is not "belief without evidence" but trust grounded in reasons, experience and revelation. John Paul II: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth" (Fides et Ratio, 1998).
• The limits of science. Science explains how the natural world works but cannot, on its own, answer why there is anything at all or what is ultimately good. The Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (a former atheist with a doctorate in molecular biophysics) replied in The Dawkins Delusion? (2007); the mathematician John Lennox in God's Undertaker (2007).
• Religion's record. Critics of new atheism point to religion's role in hospitals, schools, charity and movements for justice, and argue that violence usually has political causes too.
• A caricature. Some critics, including non-religious ones, argue new atheism attacks the crudest forms of religion rather than serious theology.

How Atheism and Agnosticism determine aspirations and behaviour

The syllabus asks you to discuss this, so give points for and against a simple link.

Aspirations

• This-worldly goals. With no afterlife, atheists aspire to fulfilment, relationships, knowledge, creativity and leaving the world better for future generations. NESA's 2025 key: atheism helps a person find meaning "by supporting personal value and choice".
• Truth-seeking. A commitment to reason and evidence makes understanding the world an aspiration in itself.
• Agnostic openness. An agnostic may aspire to keep searching, to remain open to evidence and to avoid dogmatism.

Behaviour

• Ethics without God. Atheists and agnostics act on moral reasoning, empathy and concern for consequences; morality is "a characteristic of the human race" (NESA 2022).
• Secular rites of passage. Civil celebrants for weddings and funerals.
• Advocacy. Some atheists campaign for secularism, science education and the separation of church and state; new atheists speak and write publicly against religion.
• Cultural participation. Many agnostics still attend religious weddings, funerals or festivals for family and cultural reasons.

The other side

• Atheism and agnosticism do not prescribe values. Unlike religions (or humanism), they are positions on one question, so they determine aspirations and behaviour only indirectly; individuals' values vary widely.
• The critics' argument. Religious critics argue that without a transcendent source, morality lacks an ultimate foundation. Atheists and humanists reply that moral reasoning, empathy and human wellbeing are foundation enough, and that many religious people also reason about ethics in these terms.

In one sentence

Atheism is the absence of belief in, or denial of, any god, agnosticism is uncertainty about whether God exists or can be known, and new atheism is the assertive 21st-century case that religion is unsupported and harmful, and all of these direct people's aspirations to this life and ground their behaviour in reason, empathy and personal choice rather than in a transcendent source.

Try this

Q1. Which best describes an agnostic: "There is no God", "There is uncertainty about God", or "There are many gods"? (1 mark)

• What the marker wants. "There is uncertainty about God."

Q2. Outline the essential features of new atheism, naming TWO of its writers. (3 marks)

• What the marker wants. Assertive and public; argues religion lacks evidence and can cause harm; accurate authors and titles.

Q3. Discuss how Atheism determines the aspirations and behaviour of individuals. (5 marks)

• What the marker wants. This-worldly aspirations, human-grounded ethics and specific behaviours, with at least one point against a simple link.