Noun

(en noun)

(narrowly) A person who believes that no deities exist (qualifier).

* {{quote-book, date = 1571-10-20

, first = Arthur , last = Golding , chapter = The Epistle Dedicatory , title = Psalmes of Dauid and others, with M. 's Commentaries , url = http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/calvin/cc08/cc08004.htm , passage = Ageine, the Atheistes , which say in their hartes there is no God; }}

* {{quote-magazine, date = 1953-11-03

, first = Bertrand , last = Russell , authorlink = Bertrand Russell , title = What is an Agnostic? , magazine = Look , url = http://scepsis.ru/eng/articles/id_5.php , passage = An atheist', like a Christian, holds that we ''can'' know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the ' atheist , that we can know there is not. }}

(broadly) A person who rejects belief that any deities exist (whether or not that person believes that deities do not exist).

* {{quote-magazine, year = 1843

, title = A Reciprocal Dialogue , first = G. J. , last = Holyoake , authorlink = George Holyoake , editors = Paterson, Thomas , magazine = , volume = 2 , issue = 64 , page = 89 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=1apbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA89&dq=atheism , passage = Minister—Are you really an Atheist ?
Atheist—Yes.
M.—Do you deny that there is a god?
A.—No. I deny that there is sufficient reason to believe there is one. There may be a god, but I think it rather unlikely. }}

* {{quote-book, date = 2006-09-18

, first = Richard , last = Dawkins , title = The God Delusion , publisher = Houghton Mifflin , location = Boston , chapter = The God Hypothesis , page = 51 , edition = 1st Am. , isbn = 978-0618680009 , lccn = 2006015506 , id = , ol = 7606171M , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=yq1xDpicghkC&pg=PA73 , passage = Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist . ‘I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.’ }}

(loosely) A person who has no belief in any deities, such as a person who has no concept of deities.

* {{quote-book, year = 1772

, original = Le Bon-Sens, ou, Idées Naturelles opposées aux Idées Surnaturelles , by = , year_published = 2004 , title = Good Sense without God: Or Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas , location = London , publisher = W. Stewart , section = §30 , page = 21 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=vTqR5r1_DqYC&pg=PA21 , passage = All children are born Atheists ; they have no idea of God. Are they then criminal on account of their ignorance? }}

* {{quote-book, year = 1910

, title = The Vermont Digest 1789-1905 , publisher = Free Press Printing Co , location = Burlington , volume = 2 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=HlgWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR137 , passage = Atheists. One who does not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, an atheist , is incompetent as a witness, being incapable of being sworn. [...] Changed by Acts of 1851, No. 12 (P. S. 1593), under which, no question can be raised as to a witness's "opinions on matters of religious belief." }}

(loosely, uncommon) A person who does not believe in a particular deity (or any deity in a particular pantheon), notwithstanding that they may believe in another deity.

* {{quote-book, year = 1840

, first = Edward , last = Gibbon , authorlink = Edward Gibbon , title = The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , edition = new , volume = 1 , chapter = 16 , page = 183 , passage = Malice and pejudice concurred in representing the christians(SIC) as a society of atheists , who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate. }}

* {{quote-video, year = 2002

, month = February , first = Richard , last = Dawkins , title = Richard Dawkins on militant atheism , work = TED , url = http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html , passage = An atheist' is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor or Baal or the golden calf. As has been said before, we are all ' atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. }}

Noun

(en noun)

Someone who is undecided as to what is true and enquires after facts.

Someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs and claims presented by others, requiring strong evidence before accepting any belief or claim.