Lesson 4 Flashcards
ATHEIST
–the rejection of belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.
-Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists.
MILLITANT ATHEISM
– general name given to the view that all religion of any kind is a bad thing.
-It is a hostile stance to religion, which is seen as something people need to fight against.
-One of the most prominent militant atheists is Richard Dawkins.
Militant atheist - context attitudes towards religion
-There was a ‘disenchantment’ with traditional religion.
-Scientific thinking contributed to this, offering a worldview that rejected religious explanations for natural phenomena.
-‘New-age’ (1970s) spiritualties also offered a more individualised framework for people to explore ideas of meaning and life.
-A number of scandals within traditional churches (widespread child abuse, financial scandals) undermined confidence in institutional religion and leadership of the clergy.
Militant atheist- main beliefs
-Belief in the existence of God, life after death, miracles, etc., is irrational.
-Religious believers are considered stupid.
-Focus on the ‘literal sense’ of religious beliefs.
-Blame religion for wars.
-Blame religion for ‘dumbing down’ human thought.
-See involvement of religious groups in education and health care as propaganda.
-Having a religious upbringing is a form of child abuse.
What do militant atheists believe?
-Militant atheism is the general name given to the view that all religion of any kind is a bad thing.
-‘Militant’ because they are very hostile to religion -they see it as something they have to fight against. This is in contrast to general atheists who simply do not believe in God.
-Militant atheism argues that belief in the existence of God, life after death, miracles are neither logical nor evidence based and therefore irrational
-People who hold irrational beliefs are considered insane or stupid
-Militant atheists focus on the literal sense of religious beliefs seeing any form of religious claim to be the equivalent of believing in fairies or Santa Claus
-blame religion for wars, for inhumane treatment of other people and for dumbing down human thoughts
-see the involvement of religious groups in education and healthcare as forms of propaganda or brainwashing and claim that raising children in a religion is a form of child abuse
Richard Dawkins - Gods delusion
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
“Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.”
Militant Atheist - responses
1 criticism is that they misrepresent mainstream Christianity
-‘God as imaginary’ or ‘biblical literalism’ are not mainstream Christian beliefs.
-Militant Atheists challenge the same minority views as mainstream Christian theology.
2 Ignore instances of conflict caused by atheists.
3 Disregard the way religion has contributed to human flourishing.
4 feel that Militant Atheists views are based on ignorance and personal distaste for aspects of religion.
-Often defining religion in over simplistic terms and misrepresenting minority views.
-technique is a philosophical fallacy known as the ‘straw-man’ argument
-In general, mainstream Christianity is complex and intellectually rigorous, Christian belief is psychologically and morally justified.
Militant Atheist - response 5
-Recommending that everyone should be reasonable and nice does not begin to do justice to the human experience.
-Militant Atheists believe that some religious people can be narrow minded, prejudiced and morally weak.
-Simple belief in the supernatural and superstition are our of date modes of thinking, incompatible with reason and science.
-But for some people this is how they choose to exercise their faith.
-They believe that religion makes people un reasonable and unpleasant.
-Human experience includes hope, a sense of purpose, which religions feed off.
Bishop John Robinson’s
1963 book Honest to God made explicit the view that God as ‘an old man in the sky’ did not work intellectually or theologically in the secular society of the twentieth century.
What was the reaction to the book?
- Within the academic world, many theologians wondered what all the fuss was about.
-These ideas had been long explored by theologians such as Paul Tillich, and the God Robinson argued against had never been taken seriously in any literal sense. - For many within the Churches, it seemed to be undermining the very basis of Christianity, by arguing against the sort of supernatural God upon which they assumed their religion was based.
‘liberation theology’
-being developed in South America,
-this was based on Marxist views about society; focussing on the idea that Christian belief and practice should focus on helping people to gain liberation from oppression caused by poverty and powerlessness.
-Those involved in liberation theology became active in social and political reform.
-The Roman Catholic Church was becoming more relaxed, and the Church of England was concerned with liturgy - new forms of worship, gender and sexuality.
Richard Dawkins
-most prominent militant atheist. He argued religion is both a source of conflict (morally flawed) and a justification for belief with evidence (intellectually flawed).
What do Militant atheists represent?
However, militant atheists misrepresent mainstream Christianity. They assume all Christians are fundamentalist literalists, and at the same time they ignore atrocities and cruelty caused by atheists.
Where did irrational religion come from?
-The view that religion is irrational: there are non-rational elements in religion, but that does not mean it is all irrational.
-From the enlightenment onwards, religious beliefs were explained in terms of human reason.
-This was not entirely successful, because people’s beliefs do not only depend on reason, but also on emotions and experiences.
-Militant atheists suggest that religion itself is irrational.
To be religious is to be irrational
-To be religious is to be irrational.
-Taken literally, many beliefs do seem irrational, because they cannot be justified using reason.
-But if they are not taken literally, they may be considered reasonable because they inspire people to live in a way that shows what Jesus taught.
-Religious beliefs are communicated with human language, which is both limited and flexible.
-They may cause good or ill but it is incorrect to describe them as irrational.
