1.1. Atheistic Evolution
Atheists claim that the existence of God is a false proposition (Edwards, 2005). The term atheism originates from the Greek word ἄθεος which means “without god(s)”. A term used to describe them who rejected the worshippers of God. The first atheists lived in the 18th century (Armstrong, 1999).
Atheism ranges from philosophical to historical and social approaches. Some of their arguments involve the lack of empirical evidence, inconsistent revelations, concepts which cannot be falsified, the problem with evil and various arguments of nonbelievers (Pojman, 1998). The burden of proof lies on the theists to prove their argument and not atheists to prove there isn’t a God (Stenger, 2007).
There is not a certain set of traits that all atheists confront to. There are 6 different types of atheist.
1. Intellectual atheists- Sees themself more intelligent than religion. They create their own theories and explanations.
2. Activists- They have connections with humanist and naturalist causes.
3. The Seeker-Agonistic- Believes in the metaphysical but questions the interaction of the metaphysical with science.
4. Anti-Theists- Believes that religion is evil and works against religious influences.
5. Non-Theists- Is not interested in religious concepts.
6. Ritual Atheists- Only attend religious ceremonies believing that it meets a psychological and social need. (Veith, 2013)
1.2. Theistic Evolution
Theists believe that science and biological evolution is compatible with religious teachings and set to motion by God. The theistic evolution is not based on science and scientific theory, but rather a view about how religion and evolution relates. The conflict between science and religion are rejected by theists and thei...
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Neyman, Greg. 2012. Theistic Evolution. http://www.oldearth.org/theistic_evolution.htm Date of access: 7 May. 2014.
Numbers, Ronald. 2006. The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. Expanded ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Pojman, Louis. P. 1998. Philosophy of Religion. 3 ed. Wadsworth Publishing Co.
Scott, Eugenie. C. 2000. The Creation/Evolution Continuum. http://ncse.com/creationism/general/creationevolution-continuum Date of access: 7 May. 2014.
Stenger, Victor. J. 2007. God: The Failed Hypothesis—How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist. New York: Prometheus Books.
Veith, Gene. 2013. The Six Types of Atheists. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2013/08/the-six-types-of-atheists/ Date of access: 6 May. 2014.
In conclusion, it is possible for science and religion to overlap. Although Gould’s non-overlapping magisterial claims that creationism doesn’t conflict with evolution, it doesn’t hold with a religion that takes the biblical stories literally. Moreover, I defended my thesis, there is some overlap between science and religion and these overlaps cause conflict that make it necessary to reject either science or religion, by using Dawkins’ and Plantinga’s arguments. I said earlier that I agree with Dawkins that both science and religion provide explanation, consolation, and uplift to society. However, there is only conflict when science and religion attempt to explain human existence. Lastly, I use Plantinga’s argument for exclusivists to show that such conflict means that science and religion are not compatible. It demands a rejection t either science or religion.
The agnostic’s assertion may be expressed by the sentence, “We cannot know whether there is a God or not, and we cannot know whether the universe has been in existence since eternity or not.” He believes that nothing is or can be known. If the hypothesis “Matter had a beginning” is confirmed, the assertion that “Matter had no beginning” would be refuted and the contention “We cannot know whether it had a beginning or not” will be proved wrong. Thus, demonstration of the fact that matter had a beginning is a blow not only to atheism but also to agnosticism and skepticism. Once the hypothesis of the beginning and creation of matter has been confirmed, the atheists should abandon their disbelief and the agnostics their skepticism. If you remember the words in the sura The Prophets, verse 30, “Will they not believe even then?” this statement in the verse that described the Big Bang is a sign according to which the unbelievers will stick to their own convictions, or lack of conviction. It has become clear that an agnostic is no different than a man who worships the cow and the denial of the atheist is tantamount to the adoration of fire; these people base their philosophies on absolute lack of evidence, sheer delusion, total lack of logic and scientific reasoning.
Nancy Ammerman writes Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life to convey her findings of studying spirituality and religion in the ordinary life of her sample population. The inspiration for this book came from previous data about Christians and the “Golden Rule,” the concept of treating everyone how you would like to be treated (3). In order to understand this concept better, Ammerman decided to study religion and spirituality in everyday life. Her population included 95 people from the Boston and Atlanta areas. These participants came from “Catholic, liberal Protestant, conservative Protestant, African American Protestant, Jewish”, Mormon, Wicca and Neopaganism as well as an internet chat group (11). Unaffiliated participants were also
8- McDermid, Douglas. "God's Existence." PHIL 1000H-B Lecture 9. Trent University, Peterborough. 21 Nov. 2013. Lecture.
The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions by David Berlinski uses clever and unique critiques of militant atheism and its devotion to scientism. Ten in depth chapters shed light on the dogmatic stance of many of today’s popular “new atheists.” According to Berlinski new atheism poses itself as the sole holder of truth through science, “And like any militant church, this one places a familiar demand before all others: Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (10). Berlinski (a secular Jew) approaches ideas with his own mixture of intelligence and thought filled logic; exploring the world as well as important philosophical questions pertaining to “new atheism”. Thus providing the information needed to explore the sides for both and existence and nonexistence of God.
However, despite this when their belief is challenged, “They are able to show that it is not blind and unthinking”. Atheists don’t believe that any form of a God exists; they believe that everything (the world and its inhabitants etc) just appeared. The atheistic view says: “there is no explanation”.
Throughout our short time on Earth, a very common thought and feeling that many people have is, “What’s out there? Why are we here? What made us?” etc. This natural human tendency to ask these questions lead some people draw conclusions that may or may not be there. A belief I’ve held for years is the atheistic one. Christians, as well as many other moral institutions would refer to an atheist as someone who doesn’t believe in God. Where this may be the case, I feel as though this definition is a lazy and non-intellectual one. Rather I tend to believe that atheism is the lack of a belief in a given higher power. To that, I will reference a quote from Richard Dawkins, “I am an atheist with respect to around 2700 Gods, you (a christian) on the other hand are an atheist with respect to around 2699 Gods.” This is a quintessential and distinguishable difference between the two beliefs, or lack there of. What’s interesting in what Dawkins was saying was that you could infer that with this definition, Christians are statistically about as atheist as atheists are. Now with that being explained, one would start to bring in to frame the probability and the odds that maybe in fact the Christian God is the one real God vs. the chances that maybe another factor has been played into this belief.
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 Proof of the Existence of God There are many arguments that try to prove the existence of God. In this essay I will look at the ontological argument, the cosmological. argument, empirical arguments such as the avoidance of error and the argument from the design of the. There are many criticisms of each of these that would say the existence of God can’t be proven that are perhaps.
Hitchens, Christopher. "An Atheist Responds." The Washington Post. N.p., 15 July 2007. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
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.
“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...
Before delving into the problems with theistic evolution, let us define it. Theistic evolution rejects the Christian tradition of interpreting the creation days as having been normal 24-hour days. It insists that only naturalistic mechanisms be considered when considering creation and the origin of life. Theistic evolutionists believe that humans and all other life forms evolved from a bacterial precursor in the distant past. For theistic evolutionists, naturalistic science carries precedence over the Word of God. However, in order to justify Christian faith, theistic evolution allows for the supernatural in order to explain New Testament miracles. In Biology Through the Eyes of Faith, theistic evolutionist Richard Wright explains that theistic evolutionists rearrange the first chapters of Genesis into topical sections instead of interpreting them in a straightforward manner (2003, p. 92). He argues that the chr...
First, “Becoming an atheist in America: Constructing Identity and Meaning from the Rejection of Theism”, Jesse Smith explores the process by which atheists come to be self-labeled atheists. This study uses the qualitative research methods of participant observation and in depth interviews. Smith separates the process into four steps that ultimately end with self identifying as an atheist. Smith makes sure to note that “the construction of an atheist identity is a fluid and dynamic process rather than one that follows any simple pattern or trajectory.” (Smith, 2011) Its worth mention that the last comprehensive study found that there are “Only 1% of Americans [that] self identify as atheists”(Caldwell-Harris, 2011). That means that only one percent of Americans go through this process.
The existence of God is quite controversial issue. God has different names in the world, and a lot of people, strongly believe in his existence. While, on the other hand, there are also people who don’t believe in his existence. In their discussion entitled “Does God Exist?” William Lane Craig, who is the supporter of the idea of existence of God, debates with Austin Dacey, who is an atheist, on the idea of existence of God. They provide the strong arguments and their debates are quite interesting, and innovative (not similar to those arguments, we usually read about in book). These are the fresh views on the question of existence and non-existence of God.