Introduction
Living without gods or other religious beliefs does not necessarily involve hostility towards religion, though religions have often been very hostile towards non-believers. Most atheists oppose those aspects of religion which impinge on their lives and rights, but are prepared to live and let live on matters of private belief. People with no religious beliefs have often been in the forefront of progress towards more tolerant, compassionate and democratic societies, and have contributed to major advances in our knowledge and understanding of the universe. Non-believers may choose to call themselves freethinkers, secularists, rationalists, atheists, agnostics, sceptics (or skeptics if they are American), humanists, secular humanists, or scientific humanists. Though there may be subtle differences between the labels, all of these would reject belief in a god or gods, an immortal soul or an after-life. Humanist is often used to describe convictions which combine the absence of belief in the supernatural with a positive ethical philosophy. In addition, many people in the western world who do believe in God live their daily lives without reference to a deity and are not actively religious: they rarely or never worship, and they decide moral issues on humanistic rather than religious grounds. Some religions, for example Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, include sects that do not believe in a living god. Deists, who do not believe in an active, living god, live their lives without god. A few people never think about religious issues and would not call themselves believers or non-believers thus religion has no influence on their lives. So, altogether, many millions of people live their lives today without a god or gods. Thoughtful non-believers ask themselves the same questions as everyone else: Why am I here? Whats the purpose of life? How did life begin? What will happen to me when I die? Why should we be good? Most religious people come up with answers based on faith in God; those who are not religious look for answers based on reason and experience.