Atheism

The definition of atheism is a 'rejection of belief in deities'.

Historical

It is usually said that Diagoras of Melos was the first atheist

However, it can be said that an earlier account of athiesm can be found in Asian religions such as buddhism

The word atheistic appears in ancient Greek and means 'godless' or 'disrespecting the local gods'.

It can also be found in the New Testament meaning 'without God', or that peopel had no real knowledge of God rather than they refused to believe.

In Renaissance and Reformation, the term atheist appeared largely as an insult because it implied that the person lacked moral restraint.

18th Century saw the Age of Enlightenment, encouraging people to speak for themselves appealing to reason and science.

The French Revolution was a revolt against the Church because they saw it as a support system for the monarchy.

1770s saw atheism as no longer a dangerous accusation and people could openly identify with.

The term atheist meant denying the existence of God.

Atheism emerged in other coutnries such as USSR and communist China.

In modern time there has been a rise in Athiesm.

There are different types of Athiems as Antony Flew identified.

Negative (weak) atheism-The atheist does not make a positive claim that God does not exist. They just assert their opinion.

'I don't believe that God exists, but why do you believe in God?'

Positive (strong) atheism-Both the atheist and theist have to explain their reasons.

I know God does not exist, and here is why, so why do you believe in God?'

Protest atheism-A reaction against God on moral grounds

'Even if God did not exist, I cannot accept God morally'

New Atheism-the belief that religion is a threat to the survival of the human race. It is hostile reaciton towards theism.

Agnosticism

Likewise, there are different types of agnosticism

It tends to mean 'without knowledge'.

Strong agnosticism-This refers to the belief that you cannot know if God exists or not being there is an epistemic distance between you and God. Our knowledge is limited.

'I dont' whether God exists and neither do you'.

Weak agnosticism-They believe that at this moment, it is hard ot nkow if God exists or not but that doesn't mean that we can't know in the future.

'I don't know whether God exists or not, but maybe you do'.

The rise of New Atheism (anti-theism)

Officially, it was triggered by the 9/11 attacks

This resulted in Sam Harris' book 'The End of Faith'. Richard Dawkins published 'The God Delusion' and Daniel Dennett 'Breaking the Spell'. The term New Atheism then came into use.

The main criticisms towards Theism

Religion involves faith

Faith and reliigon are irrational. This is because religion involves faith which implies that religous people dont look at evidence. Therefore Dawkins said that faith is irresponsibly and blind.

'Faith is the great cop-out. The great exuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidenc

In the God Delusion, he said that religious people are non-thinking because of the feeling that they are 'blessed when they have not seen yet believe'.

Faith is infantile because it forces children to believe without questioning. Dawkins said that this is just a ridiculous as believing in Santa or the Tooth Fairy at first, but then you grow out of it.

In addition to this, Dawkins and the New Atheists oppose religoin because they believe that it is the cause of terrorism. Were there not religion in the first place, then these acts of extremism would never happen.

Infantile world view

New Atheism believes that religion has a child-like way of looking at the world in comparision to scientific explanations. Dawkins sees the explanations about the universe provided by religions as a 'poky little medieval universe and extremely limited'. For example, the ideas of creation from certain faiths.

Dawkins believes that biology, and in particular theories such as evolution and natural selection sufficiently explain the funtions and random complexity observed in the world, thus rejecting an supernatural ideas.

God is not needed to explain the existence of the world.

Impedes scientific progress

Almost bring the two previous criticism together, Dawkins says that religion runs away from evidence. This in itself is unscientific and irrational whereas as Atheism is rational and believes in the views put forward by science.

Dawkins said that the idea of holy book proving the ultimate truth is ridiculous because if something if wrong with holy book, it is not changed like you would a scientific book. Religion teaches us not to change our minds and allows for a close-minded point of view. It saps the intellect and encourages young people to think like that.

Responses

Despite the challenges put forward by New Atheism, it has been widely challenged by various theologians and apologists. For example, John Lennox, Alister McGrath and John Polkinghorne to name but a few.

Many Christians such as John Polkinhorne believe that there is no such thing as incompatability between science and religion. Science helps to offer the how aspect but reliigon can offer the why. For example, the Big Bang would provide an explanation as to how, and the idea of God wanting to create and thus saying 'Let there be light' resulting in the Bang explains why.

Alister McGrath said that religion does in fact use evidence and Dawkins is wrong to say that faith is believing without considering this. For example, Dawkins fails to consider how historical accounts such as the existence of Jesus is an example of this.

Far from creating a break from reliigon, there has been an increase in Islamic and Christian fundamentalism. This refers to a belief in something no matter what-it is unwavering.

How successful are atheistic arguments against religious belief

YES:

New Atheism avocates for science as the only rational explanation. They believe that such are these advances that God is no longer needed as an explanation. We had moved away from the 'God of the gaps' approach.

New atheism believes that you cannot possibly believe in God because God is not a physical object and so not open to analysis empirically. Scientific theories, on the other hand, have been empirical tested and experienced whereas religion is in fact, the opposite. It runs away from evidence.

New Atheisn opposes religion on the groups of multiple religions that all contradict each other and at the same time, claim divine revelation.

NO:

Science still cannot provide an explanation for what is right. Science cannot extend to the non-empirical notions such as these.

New Atheisms' attacks on the basis of empirical evidence fails to take into account historical accounts, such as the evidence for the existence of Jesus.

In addition to this, Dawkins does not consider that all religion have a belief in peace and non-violence, but only looks at examples of terrorism to deny the need for religion; demonstrating a misrepresentation and misunderstanding of religion. For example, there have been many massacres in the name of athiems such as in Communist Russia and China.

Science can explain how things happen but they still cannot provide an explanation.

If anything these attacks against religion has simply lead to a strengthing of faith.

Albert Einstein saw no confrontation betwen science nad reliigon. In a talk in 1941 he said that science without faith was lame and faith without science was blind. There are many scientists who are religious.

Dawkins talks about reliigon being forced onto children but does not take into account conversion or religious experiences as a reason for believing.