Natural Atheism 1578849209, 9781578849208
"I was born an Atheist. All humans are born Atheists. No baby born into the world arrives with specific religious b
336 64 3MB
English Pages 352 [356] Year 2004
Table of contents :
Cover
Back Cover
Title
Contents
Introduction: A Natural Atheist
What is Atheism?
A Note on Usage
Part I: The Foundations
1. Twelve Steps to Atheism
Step One: The Burden of Proof
Step Two: The Cosmological Argument
Step Three: The Ontological Argument
Step Four: The Teleological Argument
Step Five: The Argument from Scripture or Authority
Step Six: The Argument from Miracles
Step Seven: The Argument from Personal Experience
Step Eight: The Argument from Morality
Step Nine: The Argument from Benefit
Step Ten: The Incoherence or Contradiction of Religious Language
Step Eleven: The Problem of Evil
Step Twelve: The Sociological or Statistical Argument
Conclusion: Claiming Your Natural Atheism
2. Thinking About Thinking - A Short Course on Reason
The Process of Reasoning
Premises and Truth
Logic and Validity
Fallacies
Evidential fallacies
Logical fallacies
Conclusion
3. Proofs and Principles - Unreason, Religion, and Relativism
The Other Burden
True, False, and Neither
Look for the Principle
On Cultural Relativism
Conclusion
4. Anthropology and Freethought - The Loss of Certainty
What is Anthropology?
The Encounter with the Other
Culture as Virtual Reality
Culture, the Human Mind, and Nature
Implications for Religion and Freethought
Part II: The Concepts
5. Knowing Is Not Believing
To Know Is to Believe?
The Language of Belief
Knowledge and Certainty
Conclusion: The Venality of Conflating Knowledge and Belief
6. Positive Atheism, Negative Atheism, and Agnosticism
Atheism: Positive and Negative
Different Atheisms?
Possible and Impossible Beliefs
Only One Atheism
Atheism and Agnosticism
What is Agnosticism?
Agnosticism and the Possibility of Religious Knowledge
Agnosticism and Belief
Conclusion: To Believe or Not to Believe
7. On Science and Religion
Models of Science-and-Religion Interaction
Defining Science
Same, Separate, or Conflicting Worlds?
Conclusion: Science Has No Friends, Only Interests
8. Toleration and Truth
Toleration - An All-Too-Brief History
Toleration in England and America
Why Toleration?
But What of Truth?
Conclusion: Atheism Intolerable?
Part III: The Applications
9. Separation of State and Churches - The Best Protection of Everyone's Freedoms
Separation An All-Too-Brief History
Churches and State in Early America
Principles and Professions: What the Founding Fathers Really Said
Religion and the Courts
Why Separation Is a Good Thing for Everyone
Conclusion: An Atheist Agenda?
10. Spreading the Unfaith - Atheism As Good News
Should You Join an Atheist Group? Is There Any Such Thing?
Should Atheists Promote Atheism? Is Such a Thing Possible?
Good News #1 - We Are Here and We Are Not Going Away
Good News #2 - We Are Not the Ogres or Demons That We Are Often Portrayed To Be
Good News #3 - Atheists Are Good People Too
Good News #4 - Atheists Have Rights Too
Good News #5 - Atheism Is a Positive and Freeing Position
Good News #6 - You Can and Must Think For Yourself
Conclusion: Speak or Be Silenced
11. Fundamentalism and the Fight for the Future
Religion in Reaction: The Phenomenon of Fundamentalism
So Many Fundamentalisms
What Fundamentalists Want
The Relativity of Fundamentalism
Conclusion: The War We Did Not Choose
12. Living in the Disenchanted World - Toward an Atheism of the Future
On an Atheist Mythos
On Atheist Morality
On Atheist 'Spirituality
On the Incompleteness of Atheism
Bibliography
