Atheism as a historical philosophy and its relevance in contemporary America

4179 Words9 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of religions in a political society

Disbelief in the existence of God is an enduring, worldwide phenomenon that is quite possibly also one of the most misunderstood belief systems in the world. For many, the term “atheism” immediately spurs negative imagery inspired by years of indoctrination – churches proclaiming the sins of the infidels, and how questioning God’s infinite love will result in instant damnation. Atheists are perceived as dark, nihilistic, immoral, amoral, pessimistic, and even evil, because without God, clearly they are also without morality and goodness. But if this disbelief is so negative, why would nearly 1 billion people globally, and more than 16 percent of the American population identify themselves as “nonbelievers”? In fact, a survey published in January 2007 by the Pew Research Center for the People & The Press found that “20 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 say they have no religious affiliation or consider themselves atheists or agnostics – nearly double those who said that in a similar survey 20 years ago” (Abel). Surely there is something to be gained in denying one of contemporary civilization’s most accepted and cherished beliefs in order to garner the respect of (and often participation from) some of the greatest minds in human history. Indeed, for most nonbelievers, it seems the justification for atheism far outweighs the justifications for theism, which they view as moot, obsolete, and inaccurate.

THE PHILOSOPHY

Put simply, atheism is the belief that there is no God or gods. In this sense, it is true that atheism is a “negative” philosophy in that it is the negation of theism (the word is derived from the Greek ‘a’ - without, ‘theos’ - God). However, as we shall see, this perception of atheism as a negative w...

... middle of paper ...

...008 .

Martin, Michael. Atheism : A Philosophical Justification. New York, MI: Temple UP, 1990.

Martin, Michael, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. New York: Cambridge UP, 2006.

Mills, David, and Dorion Sagan. Atheist Universe : The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism. New York: Ulysses P, 2006

Nielsen, Kai. God, Scepticism and Modernity. Boston: Paul & Company Consortium, Incorporated, 1989.

Odell v. Koppee, 5 Heisk. (Tenn) 91.

Religulous. Dir. Larry Charles. Perf. Bill Maher. Film. 2008.

Thrower, James. Western Atheism : A Short History. New York: Pyr Books, 1999.

"17th Century - Investigating Atheism." Investigating Atheism. 2008. University of Cambridge. .

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of On Being An Atheist By H. J Mccloskey

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Stephen Evans Religion

    1884 Words  | 4 Pages

    Peterson, Michael - Hasker, Reichenbach and Basinger. Philosophy of Religion - Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press, NY.

    Read More

  • On Euthyphro's Dilemma and Divine Command

    1747 Words  | 4 Pages

    Russell, Bertrand. Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related

    Read More

  • Nonbelief as Support for Atheism

    3168 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Protest Atheism: The Myth that Denies God's Existence Due to Evil

    1850 Words  | 4 Pages

    Theology is an intentionally reflective endeavor. Every day we reflect upon the real, vital, and true experience of the benevolent God that exists. We as humans tend to be social beings, and being so we communicate our beliefs with one another in order to validate ourselves. Furthermore atheism has many forms, three of the most popular atheistic beliefs include: scientific atheism, humanistic atheism and the most popular one being protest atheism. Scientific atheism is the idea that science is the answer for everything and god is not existent. The humanistic approach states that society is self-sufficient; therefore God is not needed for survival. Therefore how could he exist? The position that I will argue in this paper is the pessimistic idea of protest atheism.

    Read More

  • Atheism

    1741 Words  | 4 Pages

    “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...

    Read More

  • Atheist in America

    2567 Words  | 6 Pages

    The topic of atheism has become an increasingly investigated topic in the United States. With the slow, but steady, rise of the atheist population in the United States, the inquiry is becoming more relevant in modern research. The atheist population in America are considered to be cognitively deviant because they reject a theist view which are the majority. They are also one of the most discriminated groups and hold a very large and pervasive stigma.. There are a multitude of recent studies that address the topic of atheism in the United States in varying ways.

    Read More

  • New Atheism Essay

    2314 Words  | 5 Pages

    Religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods, a particular system of faith and worship or a pursuit or interest followed with great devotion (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). From religion, many new groups, communities and further derived religions have formed. Closely related to religion and with endless controversies surrounding it’s classification as a religion is the concept of Atheism- which is defined as the disbelief or rejection of a deity. Descending from this is a social and political movement in favour of secularism known as New Atheism. Understanding the historical content concerning the emergence of atheism, this essay will then address how various aspects within the field inclusive the goals, structures and approaches have emerged and developed over time in comparison to the original atheist ideals.

    Read More

  • Theodicy and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

    2495 Words  | 5 Pages

    The problem of reconciling an omnipotent, perfectly just, perfectly benevolent god with a world full of evil and suffering has plagued believers since the beginning of religious thought. Atheists often site this paradox in order to demonstrate that such a god cannot exist and, therefore, that theism is an invalid position. Theodicy is a branch of philosophy that seeks to defend religion by reconciling the supposed existence of an omnipotent, perfectly just God with the presence of evil and suffering in the world. In fact, the word “theodicy” consists of the Greek words “theos,” or God, and “dike,” or justice (Knox 1981, 1). Thus, theodicy seeks to find a sense of divine justice in a world filled with suffering.

    Read More

  • The Role of Science, Ethics, and Faith in Modern Philosophy

    3618 Words  | 8 Pages

    ABSTRACT: Curiously, in the late twentieth century, even agnostic cosmologists like Stephen Hawking—who is often compared with Einstein—pose metascientific questions concerning a Creator and the cosmos, which science per se is unable to answer. Modern science of the brain, e.g. Roger Penrose's Shadows of the Mind (1994), is only beginning to explore the relationship between the brain and the mind-the physiological and the epistemic. Galileo thought that God's two books-Nature and the Word-cannot be in conflict, since both have a common author: God. This entails, inter alia, that science and faith are to two roads to the Creator-God. David Granby recalls that once upon a time, science and religion were perceived as complementary enterprises, with each scientific advance confirming the grandeur of a Superior Intelligence-God. Are we then at the threshold of a new era of fruitful dialogue between science and religion, one that is mediated by philosophy in the classical sense? In this paper I explore this question in greater detail.

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between God and Evil

    2975 Words  | 6 Pages

    Peterson, Michael. “Toward a Theodicy for Our Day.” Evil and the Christian God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1982.

    Read More

  • The Compatibility of Faith and Reason

    1234 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s modern western society, it has become increasingly popular to not identify with any religion, namely Christianity. The outlook that people have today on the existence of God and the role that He plays in our world has changed drastically since the Enlightenment Period. Many look solely to the concept of reason, or the phenomenon that allows human beings to use their senses to draw conclusions about the world around them, to try and understand the environment that they live in. However, there are some that look to faith, or the concept of believing in a higher power as the reason for our existence. Being that this is a fundamental issue for humanity, there have been many attempts to explain what role each concept plays. It is my belief that faith and reason are both needed to gain knowledge for three reasons: first, both concepts coexist with one another; second, each deals with separate realms of reality, and third, one without the other can lead to cases of extremism.

    Read More

  • Atheism

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    Let’s start off by explaining what atheism is, it’s when you don’t believe in any form of an “Intelligent Creator” or God, as usually referred to as. The word atheism comes from the root word “theism”, which is when you believe in a God, or numerous Gods depending on the religion, and the prefix “a”, which means “not”. There are no set practices of atheism, or a set list of beliefs. To be an atheist you must believe what you would like and simply live your life without constraints based on what you believe is good or bad, not what you are told is good or bad. There is a constant debate against atheism from the theist side, because both sides’ arguments are polar opposites and each believes their side of the argument is 100% valid. I will state my view on some arguments, and clarify some common atheist stereotypes.

    Read More

  • Karl Marx and His View on Religion

    1190 Words  | 3 Pages

    6. Bohdan R. Bociurkiw and John W. Strong, Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and

    Read More

  • Does God Exist? ; Philosophical Positions on God’s Existence

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    This paper will try to discuss the three Philosophical Positions on the Existence of God namely, the Theism, Agnosticism, and Atheism. Why do they believe? Why don’t they believe? How do they believe? What made them believe? Who helped them believe? These are just some of the questions that this paper will try to give answers and supply both believers and non-believers the enough indication that whatever their position may be, the responsibility in their hands of whatever reason they have must be valid and intellectual.

    Read More

More about Atheism as a historical philosophy and its relevance in contemporary America

Open Document