The word antitheism (or hyphenated anti-theism) has been recorded in English since 1788. The etymological roots of the word are the Greek anti and theos.
Opposition to theism
The Oxford English Dictionary defines antitheist as "One opposed to belief in the existence of a god". The earliest citation given for this meaning dates from 1833. Antitheism has been adopted as a label by those who regard theism as dangerous, destructive, or encouraging of harmful behavior. Christopher Hitchens offers an example of this approach in Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001), in which he writes: "I'm not even an atheist
so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions
are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of
churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful."
Opposition to the idea of God
Other definitions of antitheism include that of the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (1953), for whom it is "an active struggle against everything that reminds us of God" (p. 104), and that of Robert Flint (1877), Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Flint's Baird Lecture for 1877 was entitled Anti-Theistic Theories. He used it as a very general umbrella term
for all opposition to his own form of theism, which he defined as the
"belief that the heavens and the earth and all that they contain owe
their existence and continuance to the wisdom and will of a supreme,
self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, and benevolent Being,
who is distinct from, and independent of, what He has created." He wrote:
In dealing with theories which have nothing in common except that they are antagonistic to theism, it is necessary to have a general term to designate them. Anti-theism appears to be the appropriate word. It is, of course, much more comprehensive in meaning than the term atheism. It applies to all systems which are opposed to theism. It includes, therefore, atheism, but short of atheism, there are anti-theistic theories. Polytheism is not atheism, for it does not deny that there is a deity; but it is anti-theistic since it denies that there is only one. Pantheism is not atheism, for it asserts that there is a god; but it is anti-theism, for it denies that God is a being distinct from creation and possessed of such attributes as wisdom, and holiness, and love. Every theory which refuses to ascribe to a god an attribute which is essential to a worthy conception of its character is anti-theistic. Only those theories which refuse to acknowledge that there is evidence even for the existence of a god are atheistic.
However, Flint also acknowledges that antitheism is typically
understood differently from how he defines it. In particular, he notes
that it has been used as a subdivision of atheism, descriptive of the
view that theism has been disproven, rather than as the more general
term that Flint prefers. He rejects non-theistic
as an alternative, "not merely because of its hybrid origin and
character, but also because it is far too comprehensive. Theories of
physical and mental science are non-theistic, even when in no degree,
directly or indirectly, antagonistic to theism."
Opposition to the existence of a god or gods is frequently referred to as dystheism, which would actually mean "belief in a deity that is not benevolent", or misotheism
– strictly speaking, this means "hatred of God". Examples of belief
systems founded on the principle of opposition to the existence of a god
or gods include some forms of Atheistic Satanism and maltheism.
Other uses
Another use of the term antitheism was coined by Christopher New
in a thought experiment published in 1993. In his article, he imagines
what arguments for the existence of an evil god would look like:
"Antitheists, like theists, would have believed in an omnipotent,
omniscient, eternal creator; but whereas theists in fact believe that
the supreme being is also perfectly good, antitheists would have
believed that he was perfectly evil." New's usage has reappeared in the work of Wallace A. Murphree.
