What are the differences between atheism and nihilism?

Question

I KIND OF know some of the basics. Will you enlighten me please?

Answer 1

Excuse the dictionary cut and paste, but I think it's a good start:

Atheism

1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.  

2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.  

Nihilism

1. total rejection of established laws and institutions.  

2. anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity.  

3. total and absolute destructiveness, esp. toward the world at large and including oneself: the power-mad nihilism that marked Hitler's last years.  

Answer 2

They are completely separate and different, and in a sense opposites.  Believers often believe that meaning and purpose in life are given to them from On High, i.e. from an external source (god).  Atheists don't believe in gods, and so also do not believe that there is any objective, external meaning or purpose to life.  (Unless you count reproduction, looking at it from a purely biological point of view.)

This is what often trips up believers, and makes them confuse atheists with nihilists.  But the big difference is, that we atheists DO believe that life has meaning and purpose.  We simply believe that such meaning and purpose is created by the individual rather than handed down by a god.  Purpose exists, it's just subjective rather than objective, internal rather than external.  Nihilists, by contrast, see no purpose to life at all, either subjective or objective.  You live for a while and then you die, and in the end none of it matters.

Atheists disagree with nihilists in that we think that living DOES matter.  We are sentient beings with free will, thus it is up to each of us to make the most of our lives while we're here.  The fact that we'll eventually die does not lessen the significance of the fact that for now, we are living.  Learning, improving, and experiencing are all ways in which we can make our lives more enjoyable and fulfilling.  Once we're dead it won't matter, so why not live life to the fullest?  How to go about doing that, of course, is something that only an individual can decide for himself.  The nihilist looks only at the future after he's dead, and concludes that today doesn't matter.  The atheist sees his finite life, and for him, that makes today all the more valuable.

Answer 3

Atheism is just simply you dont believe in god or a higher power...

Nihilism includes so much more... its the fact that existance is pointless. It has no objective meaning, purpose or value.

  

Answer 4

Simple,

Atheism deals with the existence of God, an atheist is a person that believes there is no God or lacks the believe in a God, just that.

Now, Nihilism deals mainly with the meaning and the purpose of life. From the nihilistic point of view life is pointless, there is no objective morality, well you get the point also a nilist person might believe that there is a creator they just think we have no moral obligation to worship it.

F. Nietzsche was an atheist but he actually criticized Nihilism heavily.

Answer 5

personally, i don't think there are any differences except for the letters of course

Answer 6

Atheism is non-belief in deities.

Nihilism is non-belief in objective ethics or knowledge.

Answer 7

I pose a question to you.

Can morality exist without a divine creator? My answer is yes.

Atheism is the belief that the supernatural does not exist, at the same time atheism doesn't have to stand for no purpose in life.

Nihilism is the existence without meaning.

Christians argue that atheists are nihilists, of which I don't agree with. I love life and have purpose in my life. For my life is short with no afterlife.