ATHEIST

ATHEIST, Ἄθεος, a Person who denies the Deity; who does not believe the existence of a God, nor a Providence; and who has no Religion, true nor false.

See GOD, PROVIDENCE, RELIGION.
In general, a Man is said to be an Atheist who owns no Being superior to Nature, that is, to Men and the other sensible Beings in the World. See NATURE.
In this Sense, Spinoza may be said to be an Atheist; and it is an Impropriety to rank him, as the learned commonly do, among Deists; since he allows of no other God beside Nature, of which Mankind makes a Part; and there is no Atheist but allows of the Existence of the World, and of his own in particular. See SPINOZISM. See also EXISTENCE, SUBSTANCE, etc.
Plato distinguishes three kinds of Atheists—Some, who deny absolutely that there are any Gods; others who allow the Existence of Gods, but maintain that they don’t concern themselves with human Affairs, and so deny a Providence; and others, who believe there are Gods, but think they are easily appeased with a little Prayer, or the like; and that they remit the greatest Crimes for the smallest Supplication. See EPICUREAN, etc.
The Word Atheist is derived from the privative α, and Θεός, God.

ATHEIST