Atheism and Agnosticism

Atheism and Agnosticism PDF Author: Peter A. Huff
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
An overview essay and approximately 50 alphabetically arranged reference entries explore the background and significance of atheism and agnosticism in modern society. This is the age of atheism and agnosticism. The number of people living without religious belief and practice is quickly and dramatically rising. Some experts call nonreligion, after Christianity and Islam, the third largest "religion" in the world today. Understanding the origins, history, variations, and impact of atheism and agnosticism is crucial to getting a grasp of the meaning of the present and gaining a glimpse of the future. Exploring some of the most extraordinary people, events, and ideas of all time, this book provides a fair, comprehensive, and engaging survey of all aspects of contemporary atheism and agnosticism. An overview essay discusses the background and social and political contexts of unbelief, while a timeline highlights key events. Some 50 alphabetically arranged reference entries follow, with each providing fundamental, objective information about particular topics along with cross-references and suggestions for further reading. The volume closes with an annotated bibliography of the most important resources on atheism and agnosticism.

Atheism and Agnosticism

Atheism and Agnosticism PDF Author: Peter A. Huff
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Get Book Here

Book Description
An overview essay and approximately 50 alphabetically arranged reference entries explore the background and significance of atheism and agnosticism in modern society. This is the age of atheism and agnosticism. The number of people living without religious belief and practice is quickly and dramatically rising. Some experts call nonreligion, after Christianity and Islam, the third largest "religion" in the world today. Understanding the origins, history, variations, and impact of atheism and agnosticism is crucial to getting a grasp of the meaning of the present and gaining a glimpse of the future. Exploring some of the most extraordinary people, events, and ideas of all time, this book provides a fair, comprehensive, and engaging survey of all aspects of contemporary atheism and agnosticism. An overview essay discusses the background and social and political contexts of unbelief, while a timeline highlights key events. Some 50 alphabetically arranged reference entries follow, with each providing fundamental, objective information about particular topics along with cross-references and suggestions for further reading. The volume closes with an annotated bibliography of the most important resources on atheism and agnosticism.

The Errors of Atheism

The Errors of Atheism PDF Author: J. Angelo Corlett
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441179895
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The Errors of Atheism is a response to the glaring gap that exists in analytical philosophy on the concept of God. While there is the large body of work that either defends or challenges orthodox Christian theistic arguments, there is a lack of analytical philosophical work articulating agnosticism as a critique of both theism and atheism. J. Angelo Corlett shows that the conceptual depths of theism must be explored beyond orthodoxy in order to re-open the debate on the problem of God. His book is an agnostic's statement on the current state of the debate about God's existence and where the discussion must go to make genuine philosophical progress instead of remaining in a dialectical stalemate.

Atheism and Agnosticism

Atheism and Agnosticism PDF Author: Graham Oppy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108638430
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
This Element is an elementary introduction to atheism and agnosticism. It begins with a careful characterisation of atheism and agnosticism, distinguishing them from many other things with which they are often conflated. After a brief discussion of the theoretical framework within which atheism and agnosticism are properly evaluated, it then turns to the sketching of cases for atheism and agnosticism. In both cases, the aim is not conviction, but rather advancement of understanding: the point of the cases is to make it intelligible why some take themselves to have compelling reason to adopt atheism or agnosticism.

Philosophy & Atheism

Philosophy & Atheism PDF Author: Kai Nielsen
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. : Prometheus Books
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description


Against the Gods?

Against the Gods? PDF Author: Stefan Molyneux
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781975654382
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
Between the poles of strong atheism and strict theism lies agnosticism, the argument that gods are very unlikely, but cannot logically be ruled out as utterly impossible. Agnosticism is considered a cautious, tentative and scientific approach to the question of the existence of gods - Stefan Molyneux's seminal book "Against the Gods?" makes a powerful case against agnosticism and for the positive acceptance of the nonexistence of supernatural beings. It is not rational to even entertain the possibility of the existence of irrational entities. We do not accept agnosticism about unicorns, fairies, square circles, pixies or the proposition that two and two make five - why do we create a special exception in the realm of deities? Surely it is because the social cost of rejecting Gods is far higher than the social cost of rejecting goblins. "Against the Gods?" provides essential ammunition to those fighting the virus of faith, and clears the mental fog of the irrational middle ground between atheism and theism.

Atheism

Atheism PDF Author: George H. Smith
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615929959
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
"Does a god exist? This question has undoubtedly been asked, in one form or another, since man has had the ability to communicate. . . Thousands of volumes have been written on the subject of a god, and the vast majority have answered the questions with a resounding 'Yes!' " "You are about to read a minority viewpoint." With this intriguing introduction, George H. Smith sets out to demolish what he considers the most widespread and destructive of all the myths devised by man - the concept of a supreme being. With painstaking scholarship and rigorous arguments, Mr. Smith examines, dissects, and refutes the myriad "proofs" offered by theists - the defenses of sophisticated, professional theologians, as well as the average religious layman. He explores the historical and psychological havoc wrought by religion in general - and concludes that religious belief cannot have any place in the life of modern, rational man. "It is not my purpose to convert people to atheism . . . (but to) demonstrate that the belief in God is irrational to the point of absurdity. If a person wishes to continue believing in a god, that is his prerogative, but he can no longer excuse his belief in the name of reason and moral necessity."

Atheism: A Very Short Introduction

Atheism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Julian Baggini
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192804243
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
Do you think of atheists as immoral pessimists who live their lives without meaning, purpose, or values? Think again! Atheism: A Very Short Introduction sets out to dispel the myths that surround atheism and show how a life without religious belief can be positive, meaningful, and moral.

Agnostic

Agnostic PDF Author: Lesley Hazleton
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1594634130
Category : Agnosticism
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
"A widely admired writer on religion celebrates agnosticism as the most vibrant, engaging--and ultimately the most honest--stance toward the mysteries of existence." -- Amazon.com.

An Agnostic Defends God

An Agnostic Defends God PDF Author: Bryan Frances
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030733319
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
This book contains a unique perspective: that of a scientifically and philosophically educated agnostic who thinks there is impressive—if maddeningly hidden—evidence for the existence of God. Science and philosophy may have revealed the poverty of the familiar sources of evidence, but they generate their own partial defense of theism. Bryan Frances, a philosopher with a graduate degree in physics, judges the standard evidence for God’s existence to be awful. And yet, like many others with similar scientific and philosophical backgrounds, he argues that the usual reasons for atheism, such as the existence of suffering and success of science, are weak. In this book you will learn why so many people with scientific and philosophical credentials are agnostics (rather than atheists) despite judging all the usual evidence for theism to be fatally flawed.

Theism and Explanation

Theism and Explanation PDF Author: Gregory W. Dawes
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135841357
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
In this timely study, Dawes defends the methodological naturalism of the sciences. Though religions offer what appear to be explanations of various facts about the world, the scientist, as scientist, will not take such proposed explanations seriously. Even if no natural explanation were available, she will assume that one exists. Is this merely a sign of atheistic prejudice, as some critics suggest? Or are there good reasons to exclude from science explanations that invoke a supernatural agent? On the one hand, Dawes concedes the bare possibility that talk of divine action could constitute a potential explanation of some state of affairs, while noting that the conditions under which this would be true are unlikely ever to be fulfilled. On the other hand, he argues that a proposed explanation of this kind would rate poorly, when measured against our usual standards of explanatory virtue.