Atheism in Indian Philosophy

In Indian philosophy, real atheism, including sophisticated argumentation against the belief in a Creator, is already more than two Thousand years old. It emanated from different traditions: some of them have gone out of fashion (Sankhya), were annihilated (Buddhism), or became theistic (Vaishesika). Theism has won the day, a warning for those who crow that atheism is the necessary wave of the future. In this paper, we focus mostly on Sankhya, of which Nietzsche (who knew next to nothing about Indian thought) unwittingly used certain thought-forms.