atheist

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. heretic, unbeliever. See irreligion, heterodoxy.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. freethinker, nonbeliever, disbeliever, unbeliever, agnostic, infidel, heathen, irreligionist, materialist, nihilist, nullifidian; see also skeptic .

an atheist rejects all religious belief and denies the existence of God; an agnostic questions the existence of God, heaven, etc. in the absence of material proof and in unwillingness to accept supernatural revelation; deist , a historical term, was applied to 18th-century rationalists who believed in God as a creative, moving force but who otherwise rejected formal religion and its doctrines of revelation, divine authority, etc.; freethinker , the current parallel term, similarly implies rejection of the tenets and traditions of formal religion as incompatible with reason; unbeliever is a more negative term, simply designating, without further qualification, one who does not accept any religious belief; infidel is applied to a person not believing in a certain religion or the prevailing religion

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

nonbeliever, agnostic, skeptic, free thinker, infidel, *doubting Thomas, heathen. ''A man who has no invisible means of support.''—John Buchan. ''A man who believes himself an accident.''—Francis Thompson. ''An orphaned heart.''—Jean Paul Richter.

ANT.: believer, the faithful. see agnostic