In David A. Williamson and George Yancey’s book, There Is No God, Atheists in America, they do a great job of stating a clear argument that they will be testing throughout the chapters in the book. The chapters are also split up into easy to read topics that allow for a better understanding of the book. They start off by giving the reader a brief history and understanding of Atheism before discussing who the atheists really are. After a few chapters about that they go into the ways atheists view religion as being foolish and how politics is a principle of atheism. They wrap up the book by writing about atheism in the United States and giving a final conclusion where they restate their initial hypothesis and bring it all together too summarize what their studies have found. In the following paragraphs I will be giving my critical review of this book and examining what great things the authors have done and things they may have been able to do to make the book better.
In the first chapter of the book, the authors describe and try to get an understanding of atheism in the United States. Here is where the authors set up boundaries for the people they are going to be considering atheists for the continuation of the book. Those people they are focusing on are the ones who refer to themselves as atheists and make up 24% of the 5% of Americans that reported they did not believe in God. It is clear in this chapter that as the generations are changing, so has atheism and religion in the United States. With this new atheism comes a surge of numbers for people who report themselves as atheists, although the numbers may still be the same, more people may be publicly saying they are atheist.
Through their research for writing this book,...
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...late the reader to the atheist and really view how the atheists were speaking.
This book has led me questioning my own beliefs and has accomplished its goal of explaining and going into detail of atheists and their beliefs. Although they cannot be full understood without more research this book and the research done by the authors have created great starting conclusions for the understanding of atheists. After reading this book it is clear that atheism seeks to negate the social action of religion and that their aggressive traits are formed through religions trying to influence society. Atheists also derive their morality from the idea that what is good will save us. Atheists also come about from all parts of the United States and no matter if the come from a religious family or not, higher education seems to have an effect on their views of the supernatural.
H.J McCloskey’s article, “On Being an Atheist,” is an attempt to show atheism as a more practical alternative to the Christian belief. McCloskey reasons against the theistic beliefs of the cosmological argument, the teleological argument and design. He references the presence of evil in a world created by God and the absurdity of living by faith. This article is an attempt to reason that God does not exist because He is perfect and the world is not perfect; evil exists therefore God cannot exist. McCloskey’s article labels these arguments as “proofs” and concludes none of these arguments would be evidence of God’s existence. I find McCloskey’s article to lack logic and coherence which only serves to invalidate his arguments. I find this little more than an attempt to justify his own atheistic worldview.
John and Hannah discuss how there have been a series of books on atheism that would not have been written before millennials that millennials are reading which also convinces them not to believe in Christianity. It made them feel safer. Hannah displays the belief that it is also due to the fact that science is moving farther forward which gives more evidence, and also that parents are giving there children the free will to believe what ever they want. They aren’t being forced to believe it. They say there is actually rising numbers in smaller religions other than Christianity that millennials
In his book, An Imperfect God, Henry Wiencek argues in favor of Washington being the first true president to set the precedent for the emancipation of African-American slaves. Wiencek delves into the evil paradox of how a nation conceived on the principles of liberty and dedicated to the statement that all men are created equal was in a state that still preserved slavery for over seven decades following the construction of the nation. Washington’s grandeur estate at Mount Vernon at its peak had the upkeep of over 300 slaves 126 of which were owned by Washington. First, it must be understood that Washington was raised on slavery receiving ownership of 10 slaves at the age of 11 years old and that Washington was a man of his time. However, it must also be understood that Washington’s business with slavery was in the context of a constrained social and political environment. Weincek maintains that this does not exonerate the fact that Washington maintained slavery however; it does help to quantify the moral shortcoming by which Washington carried until his last year of life.
Writing in the late 1980s, Herbert Schlossberg provides a thorough analysis of current trends in American culture in his book Idols for Destruction: The Conflict of Christian Faith and American Culture. Many scholars have examined Western civilization and concluded that we are in its declining years. Some use analogies of space: rise, zenith, and fall; others use analogies of biology: birth, maturity, and death. Schlossberg refuses to see all cultures as following these patterns, but rather attempts to use the concept of judgment, based on the biblical example of the prophets: “With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction” (Hos. 8:4). If the idols are destroyed, and we return to worship the true God, we can expect God’s blessing. However, if we continue down the road of idolatry, our culture will certainly be judged just as many cultures that went before us.
He uses this point to support his central claim by delineating three distinct features within the American society. These include fervor for religion, a continued prominence of populist religious leaders, and the vitality of mass democratic movements which characteristically reflect the leaders of the nineteenth century. Hatch states, “studies show that two out of three adults in American still maintain fairly strong religious beliefs” (210). The same was said to be true in that era. Despite the nature and culture of the religious wars and mass movements, Americans as they do today, claimed
The daughter of an atheist, Michael A. Newdow, attended public school in the Elk Grove Unified School District in California, where teachers started school days by leading students in a voluntary narration of the Pledge of Allegiance. The pledge included the phrase “under God”, which was added to it in 1994 through a Congressional act. The atheist sued the school district in federal district court in the state on the basis that making students listen to the phrase even if they were not willing to participate was an infringement on the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He had argued that his right to influence the religious views of his daugh...
In the article,"An Atheist Manifesto," by Sam Harris he discusses how God does not exisit because if he did exist there would not be any evil in this world. As I was reading this article I found it very intresting how Harris is so negative and believes that everything that happens is God's fault. "....at this very moment that an all-powerful and all-loving God is watching over them and their family. Are they right to believe this? Is it good that they believe this?No,.." stated Harris. He should understand that God gave us a gift called "free will," and with that gift it comes with a price that we should live with the consequeces by the descisions we make as human beings. I liked this article because it showed me the other side of the coin
In Stephen Prothero’s, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn’t (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2007), 297 we discover the average American’s lack of religious knowledge. Prothero discusses religious illiteracy in three ways. How it exists, came to be, and just how to possibly solve this problem. Today religious illiteracy is at least as pervasive as cultural illiteracy, and certainly more dangerous. Religious illiteracy is more dangerous because religion is the most volatile constituent of culture, because religion has been, in addition to one of the greatest forces for good in world history, one of the greatest forces for evil. Religion has always been a major factor in US politics and international affairs.
Penn Jillette is a very well-known atheist and a research fellow at Cato Institute and has lectured at Oxford and MIT. He also authored an article entitled, “There is no God.” In this article, Jillette declares himself to be “beyond atheism.” He argues that everyone needs to take a step back and start with no belief in God. Then, we can all start to look for evidence of God. Even Jillette believes that whatever conclusion we end up with, it has to be “some leap of faith that helps one see life’s big picture, some rules to live by.” Jillette's conclusion is simply “This I believe: I believe there is no God.” The rest of the article he goes on to explain that this decision has informed every moment of his life. He concludes his article by stating that believing there is no God gives him more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, and beauty.
The Canadian philosopher J.L. Schellenberg has recently put forward an argument for atheism based on the idea that God is supposed to be perfectly loving and so would not permit people to be deprived of awareness of his existence. If such a deity were to exist, then, he would do something to reveal his existence clearly to people, thereby causing them to become theists. Thus, the fact that there are so many non-theists in the world becomes good reason to deny the existence of God conceived of in the given way. I first raise objections to Schellenberg’s formulation of the argument and then suggest some improvements. My main improvement is to include among the divine attributes the property of strongly desiring humanity’s love. Since to love God requires at least believing that he exists, if God were to exist, he must want widespread theistic belief. The fact that so many people lack such belief becomes a good argument for atheism with respect to God conceived of in the given way. Some objections to this line of reasoning are considered, in particular the claim that God refrains from revealing himself to people in order to avoid interfering with their free will or to avoid eliciting inappropriate responses from them or some other (unknown) purpose. An attempt is made to refute each of these objections.
Slezak, P. "Gods of the State: Atheism, Enlightenment and Barbarity." Politics and Religion in the New Century: Philosophical Reflections (2009): 20. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
“As of 1994 there were an estimated 240 million atheists around the world comprising slightly more than 4 percent of the world’s population, including those who profess atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion”(Michael). Disbelief in God might be considered arrogant, but as you can see the group we refer to as atheists includes not only simple-minded imbeciles, but also the great American diplomat, Thomas Jefferson. “Atheists are frequently asked what atheism has to offer as opposed to religion. To answer this question, I need to assume that there are no gods or supernatural entities to reward us with a peaceful eternity if we follow some established morality. If the reason for this assumption is proven false, then the question is meaningless, as atheism ceases to exist”(Goluboff). A strong one-sided statement that gives little attention the fact that we presently...
5. Smith, J. M. (2011). Becoming an atheist in America: Constructing Identity and Meaning from
Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 deals with many issues that mankind is prone to deal with. One issue that is raised is the subject of theism versus atheism.
6. Bohdan R. Bociurkiw and John W. Strong, Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and