NEW ATHEISM

Question 1

What is an atheist?

Answer 1

Someone who doesn’t believe in any gods

Question 2

What is a positive atheist?

Answer 2

Someone who positively asserts the non existence of God

Question 3

What is a negative atheist ?

Answer 3

Someone who is not a theist

Question 4

Who wrote about positive and negative atheists?

Answer 4

Flew

Question 5

What does materials mean?

Answer 5

Someone who believes the physical world constitutes all reality

Question 6

Who are atheists often as well?

Answer 6

Materialist - physical world

Question 7

Where does the view that the physical world is all that exists originate from?

Answer 7

Pre Socratic philosophers such as Thales

Question 8

What is an agnostic?

Answer 8

Someone who doesn’t know whether or not there is a God = impossible to know

Question 9

Who introduced the term agnostic?

Answer 9

Thomas Huxley who was a friend of Darwin

Question 10

What did Russell argue?

Answer 10

Difference between agnostic and atheist is that both atheists and religious believers think we can know the answer to whether there is a God

Question 11

What is new atheism?

Answer 11

Philosophical movement = says god destroys individual freedom and sees religion as a threat to survival of human race

Question 12

What is new atheism also referred to as?

Answer 12

Militant atheism

Question 13

Who are the main thinkers of new atheism?

Answer 13

Richard Dawkins
Daniel dennet
Sam Harris
Christopher Hitchens

Question 14

Who are some of the new atheist thinkers?

Answer 14

Ricky Gervais
Stephen Fry
Philip Pullman

Question 15

What countries does it primarily stay in?

Answer 15

America and Britain

Question 16

What type of religion does it mainly attack

Answer 16

Protestant Christianity, although Sam Harris is a Jewish and Dawkins devotes considerable attention to attacking Islam

Question 17

What is one of the main reasons for new atheism?

Answer 17

Increasing in religiously, motivated terrorist attacks

Question 18

What does Sam Harris argue?

Answer 18

He concentrates on the dangers, posed by religious, extremist groups, whose belief in martyrdom, and the afterlife, makes them, particularly dangerous

Question 19

Why did Sam Harris join the new atheism?

Answer 19

As a response to the New York terrorist attacks aka 9/11

Question 20

What does Sam Harris make a case for?

Answer 20

The idea of tolerance for different religious beliefs and opinions has gone too far, and should stop - some beliefs should not be tolerated

Question 21

What does Harris compare religion to?

Answer 21

A mental illness, where people believe in god who can hear their prayers just as those mental disorders have hallucinations or paranoia. This is similar to Freud

Question 22

What is Sam Harris issue with religion?

Answer 22

It has no empirical foundation to support it and has been the cause of conflict terrorism and torture throughout history, because the people you hold the believes are completely blind, the ideas that they could be wrong

Question 23

What does Harris suggest about religion?

Answer 23

Faith is aligned with ignorance and subsequently hatred, whereas reason then honestly lead to a loving society

Question 24

How does Dawkins argue against religion?

Answer 24

He promotes ideas of Darwinism, Richard evolution and uses genetic’s to argue. Human altruism is the result of how do you reproduce rather than anything to do with God

Question 25

What book does Dawkins argue in?

Answer 25

The selfish, Gene

Question 26

What is Dawkins main argument?

Answer 26

In light of modern science dollars to evolution is no longer rational to cling on to belief in God

Question 27

What was Dawkins most direct attack on?

Answer 27

Organised, religion and personal religious

Question 28

What does dawkins believe about God?

Answer 28

There is no God basing his atheism of a lot of evidence in effectiveness of prayer and the failure of arguments for gods existence

Question 29

What else does Dawkins argue about religion?

Answer 29

It is damaging, it is the root of war and terrorism

Question 30

What does Daniel Dennett argue?

Answer 30

Religion should be analysed according to scientific principles and they should be studied as a human phenomenon, using tools of evolutionary biology to look at that idea can grow and take hold

Question 31

How does Dennet suggest Modern religion grew?

Answer 31

Out of focus beliefs and he traces what he understands to be the history of religion through his book, breaking the spell a.k.a. breaking religion

Question 32

What does dennet claim religion affect?

Answer 32

Politics, economics and complex and is therefore a matter of concern for everyone

Question 33

What does Christopher Hitchens argue?

Answer 33

Religion, especially organised religion is damaging to society through his book. God is not greater.

Question 34

Where does Hitchens argue religion comes from?

Answer 34

Human tendency to want to have faith in something beyond ourselves because of fears about the morality

Question 35

In Hitchens view, religion is what

Answer 35

Intolerant, encouraging bigotry, and often racist, encourages, ignorance, oppressors, women, and cost of the scientific inquiry