![]() Deism is a natural religion where belief in God is based on application of reason and evidence observed in the designs and laws found in nature. ĭeism is a form of theism in which God created the universe and established rationally comprehensible moral and natural laws but does not intervene in human affairs through special revelation. Definitions and concepts Ītheism is the absence of belief that any gods exist, the position that there are no gods, the proposition that God does not exist, or the rejection of belief in the existence of gods. For example, a quote often attributed to Chesterton holds that "e who does not believe in God will believe in anything". Various poets, novelists and lay theologians, among them G. Critics of atheism often associate the actions of 20th-century state atheism with broader atheism in their critiques. The 1937 papal encyclical Divini Redemptoris denounced the atheism of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, which was later influential in the establishment of state atheism across Eastern Europe and elsewhere, including Mao Zedong's China, Kim's North Korea and Pol Pot's Cambodia. In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke railed against "atheistical fanaticism". The advocacy of atheism by some of the more violent exponents of the French Revolution, the subsequent militancy of Marxist–Leninist atheism and prominence of atheism in totalitarian states formed in the 20th century is often cited in critical assessments of the implications of atheism. In the 1990s, Pope John Paul II criticised a spreading "practical atheism" as clouding the "religious and moral sense of the human heart" and leading to societies which struggle to maintain harmony. Pope Pius XI wrote that Communist atheism was aimed at "upsetting the social order and at undermining the very foundations of Christian civilization". Edmund Burke, an 18th-century Irish philosopher and statesman praised by both his conservative and liberal peers for his "comprehensive intellect", saw religion as the basis of civil society and wrote that "man is by his constitution a religious animal that atheism is against, not only our reason, but our instincts and that it cannot prevail long". The father of classical liberalism, John Locke, believed that the denial of God's existence would undermine the social order and lead to chaos. The Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, a deist, saw godlessness as weakening "the sacred bonds of society", writing: "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him". Other criticisms focus on perceived effects on morality and social cohesion. American geneticist Francis Collins also cites Lewis as persuasive in convincing him that theism is the more rational world view than atheism. Lewis the best formulation of Merton's thesis that science sits more comfortably with theistic notions on the basis that men became scientific in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th century "ecause they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver." In other words, it was belief in God that was the "motor that drove modern science". ![]() ![]() Oxford Professor of Mathematics John Lennox holds that atheism is an inferior world view to that of theism and attributes to C.S. Analytic philosopher Alvin Plantinga, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, argues that a failure of theistic arguments might conceivably be good grounds for agnosticism, but not for atheism and points to the observation of a fine-tuned universe as more likely to be explained by theism than atheism. Miller criticise atheism for being an unscientific position. Criticisms include positions based on the history of science, philosophical and logical criticisms, findings in both the natural and social sciences, theistic apologetic arguments, arguments pertaining to ethics and morality, the effects of atheism on the individual, or the assumptions that underpin atheism.Ĭarl Sagan said he sees no compelling evidence against the existence of God. Criticism of atheism is criticism of the concepts, validity, or impact of atheism, including associated political and social implications. ![]()
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