Challenges to Religious Belief - Atheism

Question 1

What is “Old Atheism”?

Answer 1

The role of reason in knowing the truth, it was an attack on revelation and the power of the church from epiricism and rationalism

Question 2

What is “New atheism?”

Answer 2

Anti-Theism, kickstarted by Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Dennet. Reject God completely and focus on natural selection as an explanation of “Design”

Question 3

Why do the “Four Horsemen of Atheism” believe Agnosticism is a cop-out?

Answer 3

An Empiricist viepoint leads to a “probably not” rather than an “i dont know” view, they want you to get off the fence.

Question 4

What do the Four Horsemen argue about Design?

Answer 4

Neither God nor chaos, but natural selection, asserting that a complex life form is responsible for complexity raises more problems than it solves

Question 5

What does “God of the Gaps” mean?

Answer 5

believers appeal to the divine as “it is the way it is” when faced with a gap in our knowledge, anything they do not understand they just claim God is the reason.

Question 6

What is the Atheist view of religion’s morality?

Answer 6

God is the ultimate punisher and religion intensifies divisions. One can be moral without religion

Question 7

What is the cause of religion according to Dawkins?

Answer 7

A product of two aspects of survival mechanisms.

1. Obeying Elders
2. Tendency to assign intention and purpose to animals and objects

Question 8

What is the Greek “atheos” mean?

Answer 8

denying the Gods or the ungodly

Question 9

How does New Atheism distinguish itself from previous atheist positions?
(Do not need to remember all of these as there is a lot)

Answer 9

1. A passion and conviciton in their writings that is new
2. Criticisms of theism are based more on science than philosophy
3. Darwinian Natural Selection produces a complete explanation for humans and the world
4. Life after death is dismissed, religion is a psychological need to deal with the meaninglessness of the universe
5. Morality is explainable in psychological and sociological terms
6. Popularity in selling books
7. Not individual, but a multi-faceted attack against religion
8. Religion is attacked not only for being false, but for the cause of suffering and evil

Question 10

What is the new atheist view of religious texts?

Answer 10

contradict eachother and advocate behaviour the 21st century would find unacceptable.