And the very first sentence of the Wikipedia article says "Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities.". I first under

And the very first sentence of the Wikipedia article says "Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities.". I first understood atheism to mean an absence of belief in god as a child, and I wasn't hanging out in intellectual circles at the time! But it is certainly true that the meaning of it has shifted over time. I wouldnt say that the complication is for debate purposes only. It is a rather fundamental difference to me.