section_path: Definition
section_name: Definition
paragraph_text: Definition
  
  Writers disagree on how best to define and classify atheism, contesting what supernatural entities are considered gods, whether atheism is a philosophical position or merely the absence of one, and whether it requires a conscious, explicit rejection; however, the norm is to define atheism in terms of an explicit stance in contrast to theism. Atheism has been regarded as compatible with agnosticism, but has also been contrasted with it.