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.
Arguments about religion can get extremely intense, especially when its a devote believer against an atheist. There are a lot of common arguments that are brought up in these debates, one of which is the inevitable, “Then were DID we come from?” argument. Since no atheist is the same as another I can’t say this is 100% true, but a good percent of atheists believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. This puts the origins of humanity into the hands of nature, I believe we evolved and adapted to the species that we are today. Another common debate is the argument of where our morality comes from. “A popular claim among religious theists is that atheists have no basis for morality — that religion and gods are needed for moral values.” (Austin Cline. About.com). As u read, most theists conclude that morals are given to us by a God, because you need a reason to have morals otherwise there is no basis for r...
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...m over organized religion. Religion does have its positives, but its negatives greatly outweigh them. So when the time comes to choose religion or freethought, it comes down to one simple question, logic or faith?
Works Cited
Cline, Austin. "Godless Moral Values: Can Godless Atheists Have Moral Values? Morality Does Not Depend on Religion, Gods." Agnosticism / Atheism - Free Inquiry, Skepticism, Atheism, Religious Philosophy. Web. 16 May 2010. .
Cline, Austin. "Godless Moral Values: Can Godless Atheists Have Moral Values? Morality Does Not Depend on Religion, Gods." Agnosticism / Atheism - Free Inquiry, Skepticism, Atheism, Religious Philosophy. Web. 16 May 2010. .
Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
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.
Contrary to popular belief, there is not so much a “war on Christianity” as there is a war on the first amendment by the religious and atheists. However, if we are to have this discussion properly, we must assert which is better for moral and ethical teaching. Paul Kurtz in his article, Atheism Teaches Morality and Ethics, argues from the view that—though it is quite obvious from the title—atheism is the best source for these teachings; Stephen J. Pope argues from the opposite view in his article, Only Religion Can Teach Morality and Ethics. Although I do not believe either writer quite gets it right, these two present quality perspectives from both sides of the aisle.
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”.
This counters everything that conservative Christians argue: that a society without God would be “hell on earth: rampant with immortality, full of evil, and teeming with depravity.” Neither of these extreme philosophies seem to be correct. A society that claims that there is no God, can, in fact be pleasant, as is evident with Sweden, Denmark and Scandinavia. However, a society without God cannot exist. This is because even if there is no external belief in God within a society, God still exists in that society. Camus once stated, “The silence of the universe has led me to conclude that the world is without meaning." But if this is true, this lack of meaning is simply a factor of Camus’s opinion, because if there is no God in society as Albert Camus and Zuckerman propose, there are merely opinions and people acting on those opinions, because an opinion without God has no weight as we do not know what is
The reasons behind atheism is very diverse and varies on a person to person basis, but the most common reason is the conflict religion has with science and how it contradicts itself and other such religions. The other biggest trend is the discrimination and negative experiences people have when they are still apart of a religious community weather it is discrimination against women or against homosexuals. The only sure fact is of its existence and its growing population within America, even with its negative connotations. Atheism is going to exist no matter what reason atheists have to be atheist.
Morality and ethics have always been a large source of debate and contention between different factions of various interests, beliefs, and ideals due to its centrality and foundational role in society and civilization and incredible importance to everyday life and decision making. In many of these disputes religious belief, or a lack thereof, serves as an important driving force behind one or both sides of the argument. In the modern world, one of the bigger instances of this can be seen in the many debates between Atheistic and religious individuals about the implications of religious belief on morality. One of the most famous Atheists, Christopher Hitchens, asserts that religion is not only unnecessary for morality, but actually impedes it. In his work God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens challenges religious believers to “name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer”, and proudly states afterwards that many have made the attempt but no one has given him a satisfactory answer. However, the best response to this challenge is to point out the inherent flaws in his logic, the unfairness of his challenge, and the fact that Hitchens is asking the wrong question in the first place.
Morals are usually the standards by one which lives in, whether them being good or bad. However, how about when religion influences ones morals? Religion isn’t or it doesn’t work for everyone, and that’s okay. But, there are many people out there that religion influences their morals; and the most common reason for that is that religion was influenced into them and into their morals as a child. Iri...
“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...
The first step a “starting point”(Smith, 2011). He finds that a “belief in God and religious practice had characterized their lives at some point” (Smith, 2011). Most atheists start out in a religious family and actually practicing a religion of some sort for a portion of their lives. The United States bolsters a culture where, “92 percent of people expressing belief in God, about 60 percen...
What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' [...] Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine It is that belief (that we believe we no longer need deities for the understanding of what is moral) that is highlighted by the quote above. The problem with morality is the argument of who decides what is moral, and it is this problem where absolutism meets perspectivism.
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.
Typically many religious people claim that ethics and morality relies on what God rules them to be and fail to see that morality can still be just as significant to a person that doesn't believe in God. Theists, followers of God presume religion to be a substantial reason for our moral conduct. Nonbelievers such as atheists are still capable of understanding the difference between what is right and wrong without religion. John, believes that if there wasn't a higher power to give us the set rules and reasons of how to behave then anything we do would be measured equally. Whereas Andrea, who is against this theory points out that God is not the key for having moral values. Her argument seems to be more convincing because an atheist can still to do the right thing based on their own interest if it has a rational explanation for moral values. The only difference is that non-believers don't have a supreme ruler to measure the intensity of how moral their actions are. Doing the right or wrong thing should be justified on a level of whether or not your actions hurt or harm someone in any w...
“Agnosticism is the philosophical position that it is impossible to know about the nature or existence of God.” The term was invented in 1869 by Thomas H Huxley from the Greek “agnostos”. So one can define the difference between an Atheist and an Agnostic is simply as the Atheist emphasizes that there is no God, whereas the Agnostic maintains only that he does not know. Agnosticism is not a position one can take like theism or atheism, rather it’s more like an rational process.
Divine command ethics is a theory that states, that an action's moral content is equivalent to if it was commanded by God. It states that if God is all powerful, then he must also be all good. It then follows that if God is all good, everything He commands must be moral. It uses God as the only basis of determining if a particular action is moral. Moreover it states that an action cannot be moral if, God did not expressly command the action to be performed, this theory also does not allow an atheist to be able to perform a moral action even by mistake. Since the morality of the action depends entirely on if God would have commande...
Calvinism is the theological system of John Calvin who exerted international influence on the development of the doctrine of the Protestant Reformation (Warfield, 2004). Calvin and his followers marked by strong emphasis on the sovereignty of God, the depravity of mankind, and the doctrine of predestination. This system was developed as a biblical Christianity. It has stirred countries such as Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, England and America. Calvinist theology spread rapidly, and became the basis for many protestant denominations. These included the Swiss Reformed Church, The Dutch Reformed Church, The English Puritans, The French Huguenots, The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, The Baptist Churches, and through them the Pentecostal Churches and Assemblies of God. Jansenism, a Catholic form of Calvinism, was condemned as heretical in 1653.