Does atheism and Nihilism go hand in hand?
They have nothing to do with each other, an Atheist doesn’t believe in God but can still believe in morality, honor, and duty to society and his fellow man, one doesn’t need a God, a Holy Book, or the threat of eternal damnation to be a good person, no matter what the Christians claim. A Nihilist, on the other hand, believes in nothing at all. Gorgias of Sicily (485 – 375 BCE) summed it up with three principles: 1. Nothing exists; 2. If something did exist it couldn’t be known; 3. If it did and could it couldn’t be communicated. Many Atheists are also Rational Empiricists which means they accept the evidence of their senses and in those theories which can be supported through empirical demonstration. A Nihilist rejects even that, in fact the term is derived from the Latin “nihil” which means “nothing” or “that which doesn’t exist”, which in turn leads to a rejection of all social values or ethics. That makes it closer to the modern misconception of Anarchism than to Atheism, and since
No, they do not necessarily go hand in hand. Atheism is the lack of a belief in a god or gods. Nihilism is the lack of belief in any values at all. Atheism and loss of faith can lead to nihilism in many cases, but it can be overcome, and this likely only applies to people who lost a faith that they looked to for support. In many instances, a sense of freedom accompanies the loss of an oppressive belief system, so it really all comes down to an individual reaction to the loss of faith.
