Atheism, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is the denial of the existence of God.[1][2] The atheistic worldview has a variety of effects on individuals and society at large which will be elaborated on shortly. In regards to individuals adopting an atheistic worldview, atheism has a number of causal factors that influence its origination in individuals which will be addressed. In addition, critiques of atheism will be offered and some of the historical events relating to atheism will also be covered.
Types of Atheism
There are different types of atheism, based on different answers to the following questions:
- What God or gods does the atheist deny?
- Why does the atheist deny?
- How does the atheist's denial manifest itself?
Atheism and Which God or gods?
Since atheism is denial of the existence of God or gods, it is important first to identify in which God and/or gods the atheist denies. In ancient times, for example, Christians were accused of being atheists because of their denial of the pagan gods, even though they believed in the Christian God.[3] Socrates was also accused of atheism, although references to God run throughout his recorded statements.[4] Also, Albert Einstein and Baruch Spinoza professed belief in "God," but they defined "God" as the cosmos as a whole, and without personality.
Atheism and Why do Atheists State They Disbelieve?
Atheists claim there are two main reasons for their denial of the existence of God and/or disbelief in God: the conviction that there is positive evidence or argument that God does not exist (Strong atheism which is also sometimes called positive atheism), and their claim that theists bear the burden of proof to show that God exists, that they have failed to do so, and that belief is therefore unwarranted (Weak atheism).
Manifestations of Atheism
There are three ways that atheism manifests itself:
- Militant atheism which continues to suppress and oppress religious believers today especially in Communist countries.
- Theoretical atheism: atheism of the mind -- that is, believing that God does not exist.
- Practical atheism: atheism of the life - that is, living as though God does not exist.[5]
Attempts to Dilute the Definition of Atheism
Charles Bradlaugh, in 1876, proposed that atheism does not assert "there is no God," and by doing so he diluted the traditional definition of atheism. Since 1979, many atheists have followed Bradlaugh's thinking further and said that atheism is merely a lack of belief in any god.[6][7] Most likely the motive for such a shift in meaning was to shift the burden of proof regarding the existence of God, to the other side.[6]
In the article, Is Atheism Presumptuous?, atheist Jeffery Jay Lowder, a founder of Internet Infidels which is one of the principle websites for atheists, agnostics and skeptics on the internet, states that "I agree (with Copan) that anyone who claims, "God does not exist," must shoulder a burden of proof just as much as anyone who claims, "God exists."[6] In short, the attempt to redefine atheism is merely an attempt to make no assertions so no facts need be offered.[6] The attempt to redefine atheism, however, is not in accordance with the standard definitions of atheism that encyclopedias of philosophy employ which is that atheism is a denial of the existence of God or gods.[1][2][6]
Biblical Statements Regarding Atheism
The writers of the Bible considered the existence of God to be self-evident and Moses simply wrote: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1).[8]
Accordingly, the psalmist David wrote the following:
"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." - Psalms 14:1 (KJV)
The psalmist David also stated that "The heavens declare the glory of God..." - Psalms 19:1
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans that the creation testifies the existence of God, when he wrote the following:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse..." - Romans 1:19-20 (NKJV)
Tenuousness of Atheism in Prominent Atheist
Notable professing atheists have had the characteristic of tenuousness (lacking in sound basis, or in clarity) with respect to maintaining thoughts in accordance with atheism. For example, Jean-Paul Sartre was one of the leading proponents of atheism of the 20th Century. Yet Jean-Paul Sartre made this candid confession:
| “ | As for me, I don’t see myself as so much dust that has appeared in the world but as a being that was expected, prefigured, called forth. In short, as a being that could, it seems, come only from a creator; and this idea of a creating hand that created me refers me back to God. Naturally this is not a clear, exact idea that I set in motion every time I think of myself. It contradicts many of my other ideas; but it is there, floating vaguely. And when I think of myself I often think rather in this way, for wont of being able to think otherwise.[9] | ” |
Charles Darwin wrote in his private notebooks that he was a materialist, which is a type of atheist.[10][11]
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states:
| “ | In 1885, the Duke of Argyll recounted a conversation he had had with Charles Darwin the year before Darwin's death:
In the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilization of Orchids, and upon The Earthworms, and various other observations he made of the wonderful contrivances for certain purposes in nature — I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of Mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin's answer. He looked at me very hard and said, “Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but at other times,” and he shook his head vaguely, adding, “it seems to go away. ”(Argyll 1885, 244)[12] |
” |
Claims of the Conditionality and Nonconditionality of Atheism
Henry More wrote the following: "In agony or danger, no nature is atheist. The mind that knows not what to fly to, flies to God."[13] Reverend William T. Cummings is famous for stating that "There are no atheists in foxholes."[14] Chaplain F.W. Lawson of the 302d Machine Gun Battalion, who was wounded twice in wartime, stated "I doubt if there is such a thing as an atheist. At least there isn't in a front line trench."[14] On he other hand, the news organization MSNBC featured a story in which atheist veterans claimed that there are atheists in foxholes.[15]
Atheism and Communism
Karl Marx said "[Religion] is the opium of the people"[16] and "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."[17]
Vladimir Lenin similarly wrote regarding atheism and communism: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."[18]
It has been estimated that in less than the past 100 years, governments under the banner of communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40,472,000 to 259,432,000 human lives.[19][20][21][22][23][24] Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term democide (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.[25]
The theory of evolution played a prominent role in regards to atheistic communism.[26][27] Communists, in particular Stalinists, favored a version of Lamarckism called Lysenkoism developed by Trofim Denisovich Lysenko.[28] Lysenko was made member of the Supreme Soviet and head of the Institute of Genetics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.[29] Later Lysenko became President of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences.[29] Many geneticists were imprisoned and executed for their bourgeois science, and agricultural policies based on Lysenkoism that were adopted under Stalin and Mao caused famines and the death of millions.[28]
The atheism in communist regimes has been and continues to be militant atheism and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36]
In respect to atheism, North Korea is a repressive communist state and is officially atheistic.[37] The North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.[32][33]
China is a communist country that is also officially atheistic.[38] In 1999, the publication Christian Century reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."[34] In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were closed.[35] China continues to practice religious oppression today.[36]
Criticism of Atheism
Commonly Cited Arguments Against Atheism and For Theism
In relation to the debate between theism and atheism, theists often criticize atheism as being contrary to persuasive argument and have a number of arguments against atheism. Arguments for the existence of God include:
- Teleological argument: The universe exhibits overwhelming evidence of deliberate, intelligent, purposeful design, which implies an intelligent designer
- Cosmological argument: Every event in our universe necessarily has a cause. However, it is impossible that there should be an unending chain of causes going back. Therefore, there necessarily must be a cause distinct from the universe as we know it which is capable of causing all things and is itself uncaused. Atheism denies that that First Cause is God.
- Ontological argument: Since existence is inherent to the definition of God, it is impossible to conceive of God without conceiving of Him as existing;
- Historical arguments for the existence of God. For example, arguments stemming from historical accounts such as Christian historical apologetics/Christian legal apologetics and archaeological evidence such as Bible archaeology;
- Experiential arguments for the existence of God: Arguments based on personal experience and human intuition. According to philosopher Alvin Plantinga belief in the existence of God exists is a "properly basic" belief and not based on inference from other beliefs but is rationally justified due to one's circumstances of immediate experience of God.[39]
- Presuppositional Apologetics
- Christian apologists Peter Kreeft & Ronald K. Tacelli have published Twenty Arguments For The Existence Of God[40]
- Bible scientific foreknowledge
Christian Apologetics Specifically Addressing the Issue of Atheism
In regards to atheism and Christianity, while there have been numerous notable books by Christian apologists addressing the various issues in relation to atheism and Christianity (Creation Science, Bible Archaeology, etc.) there also number of books that have addressed the general issue of atheism in relation to Christianity. A notable book of this type is Dr. Norm Geisler's and Frank Turek's book entitled I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.[41][42] In addition, two notable works were produced by Ravi Zacharias entitled A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism and Can Man Live Without God?[43] Also, Josh McDowell and Don Stewart coauthored a work entitled Understanding Secular Religions .[44] Lastly, Alister McGrath wrote a book entitled The Twilight of Atheism.[45]
Atheism and Mass Murder
- See main article: Atheism and Mass Murder
In respect to atheism and mass murder, Christian apologist Gregory Koukl wrote that "the assertion is that religion has caused most of the killing and bloodshed in the world. There are people who make accusations and assertions that are empirically false. This is one of them."[46] Koukl details the number of people killed in various events involving theism and compares them to the much higher tens of millions of people killed under regimes which advocated atheism.[46]
Koukl summarized by stating:
| “ | It is true that it's possible that religion can produce evil, and generally when we look closer at the detail it produces evil because the individual people are actually living in a rejection of the tenets of Christianity and a rejection of the God that they are supposed to be following. So it can produce it, but the historical fact is that outright rejection of God and institutionalizing of atheism actually does produce evil on incredible levels. We're talking about tens of millions of people as a result of the rejection of God.[46] | ” |
Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was asked to account for the great tragedies that occurred under the brutal communist regime he and fellow citizens suffered under.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn stated the following in relation to atheism:
| “ | Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.
Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."[27] |
” |
Atheists in America and Charity
- See main article: Atheism and Uncharitableness
In respect to atheism and uncharitableness, charitable giving by atheists and agnostics in America is significantly less than by theists, according to a study by the Barna Group:
| “ | The typical no-faith American donated just $200 in 2006, which is more than seven times less than the amount contributed by the prototypical active-faith adult ($1500). Even when church-based giving is subtracted from the equation, active-faith adults donated twice as many dollars last year as did atheists and agnostics. In fact, while just 7% of active-faith adults failed to contribute any personal funds in 2006, that compares with 22% among the no-faith adults.[47] | ” |
Arthur C. Brooks wrote in Policy Review regarding data collected in the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS) (data collected by in 2000 by researchers at universities throughout the United States and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research):
| “ | The differences in charity between secular and religious people are dramatic. Religious people are 25 percentage points more likely than secularists to donate money (91 percent to 66 percent) and 23 points more likely to volunteer time (67 percent to 44 percent). And, consistent with the findings of other writers, these data show that practicing a religion is more important than the actual religion itself in predicting charitable behavior. For example, among those who attend worship services regularly, 92 percent of Protestants give charitably, compared with 91 percent of Catholics, 91 percent of Jews, and 89 percent from other religions.[48] | ” |
ABC News reported the following in respect to atheism:
| “ | ...the single biggest predictor of whether someone will be charitable is their religious participation.
Religious people are more likely to give to charity, and when they give, they give more money: four times as much. And Arthur Brooks told me that giving goes beyond their own religious organization: "Actually, the truth is that they're giving to more than their churches," he says. "The religious Americans are more likely to give to every kind of cause and charity, including explicitly non-religious charities."[49] |
” |
Atheism and Immoral Views
- See main article: Atheism and Morality
In regards to atheism and morality, the Barna Group also found that those who hold to the worldviews of atheism or agnosticism in America were more likely, than theists in America, to look upon the following behaviors as morally acceptable: illegal drug use; excessive drinking; sexual relationships outside of marriage; abortion; cohabitating with someone of opposite sex outside of marriage; obscene language; gambling; pornography and obscene sexual behavior; and engaging in homosexuality/bisexuality.[50] Given the many diseases associated with homosexuality, the Bible prohibition against homosexuality is quite arguably one of the many examples where the Bible exhibited knowledge that was ahead of its time.
Dr. William Lane Craig states the following regarding the comments of debater Dr. Kai Nielson who advocates atheism:
| “ | He doesn’t really defend his point there, but he says, "I have a reason why we should be moral." He says, "It’s in our self-interest to be moral." I was really surprised to hear that coming from him. That sort of purely self-interested motivation for morality is, I think, fatal to the atheistic position because for someone who is sufficiently powerful not to be worried about what others do, self-interest can only lead to a sort of self-aggrandizing hedonism. It leads to the kind of life of a Marcos, a Papa Doc Duvalier, a Mbbutu, and so forth. Self-interest will never be able to justify an ethic of compassion. And so I think that was a fatal admission on Dr. Nielsen’s part for the atheistic worldview.[51] | ” |
Dr. Phil Fernandes states the following regarding atheism and moral relativism:
| “ | Nietzsche preached that a group of "supermen" must arise with the courage to create their own values through their "will to power." Nietzsche rejected the "soft" values of Christianity (brotherly love, turning the other cheek, charity, compassion, etc.); he felt they hindered man's creativity and potential....
Many other atheists agree with Nietzsche concerning moral relativism. British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) once wrote, "Outside human desires there is no moral standard." A. J. Ayer believed that moral commands did not result from any objective standard above man. Instead, Ayer stated that moral commands merely express one's subjective feelings. When one says that murder is wrong, one is merely saying that he or she feels that murder is wrong. Jean-Paul Sartre, a French existentialist, believed that there is no objective meaning to life. Therefore, according to Sartre, man must create his own values. There are many different ways that moral relativists attempt to determine what action should be taken. Hedonism is probably the most extreme. It declares that whatever brings the most pleasure is right. In other words, if it feels good, do it. If this position is true, then there is no basis from which to judge the actions of Adolph Hitler as being evil.[52] |
” |
Atheism and Miracles
- See main article: Atheism and Miracles
In respect to atheism and miracles, modern scholars are divided on the issue of whether or not David Hume was an atheist.[53] With that caveat in mind, Hume is well known for arguing that it is always more probable that the testimony of a miracle is false than that the miracle occurred.[54] Christian apologists William Lane Craig, Norman Geisler, C.S. Lewis, JP Holding, and others have shown the inadequacy and unreasonableness of Hume's position regarding miracles.[54][55][56][57][58][59][60]
Atheism and Questions of Origins
- See main article: Atheism and Evolution
Creationist scientists state that the first law of thermodynamics and the second law of thermodynamics argue against an eternal universe or a universe created by natural processes and argue for a universe created by God.[61][62][63] A majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism since World War II have had the worldview of atheism.[64][65] Creationist scientists assert that the theory of evolution is an inadequate explanation for the variety of life forms on earth.[66] In addition, the current naturalistic explanations for the origin of life are inadequate.
Atheism and Mental and Physical Health
- See main article: Atheism and Mental and Physical Health
The is considerable amount of scientific evidence that suggest that theism is more conducive to mental and physical health than atheism.[67][68] The prestigious Mayo Clinic reported the following on December 11, 2001:
| “ | In an article also published in this issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Mayo Clinic researchers reviewed published studies, meta-analyses, systematic reviews and subject reviews that examined the association between religious involvement and spirituality and physical health, mental health, health-related quality of life and other health outcomes.
The authors report a majority of the nearly 350 studies of physical health and 850 studies of mental health that have used religious and spiritual variables have found that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes.[69] |
” |
In regards to data that relates to mental health and atheism, in December of 2003, the University of Warwick reported the following:
| “ | Dr. Stephen Joseph, from the University of Warwick, said: "Religious people seem to have a greater purpose in life, which is why they are happier. Looking at the research evidence, it seems that those who celebrate the Christian meaning of Christmas are on the whole likely to be happier.[70] | ” |
Duke University has established the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health.[71] The Duke University Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health is based in the Center for Aging at Duke and gives opportunities for scholarly trans-disciplinary conversation and the development of collaborative research projects.[72] In respect to the atheism and mental and physical health, the center offers many studies which suggest that theism is more beneficial than atheism.[73]
Currently, there is an ongoing debate regarding whether atheism was a causal factor for Friedrich Nietzsche's insanity or whether it was caused strictly by disease.[74][75][76][77] An article published on the Hong Kong Baptist University website offers the following regarding the cause of Friedrich Nietzsche's insanity:
| “ | Trying to explain what caused his insanity can only be a matter of speculation. Some people believe it was the result of a physical illness. Others interpret his suffering as that of a true prophet, almost as if he were accepting the punishment on behalf of those who could not see mankind's tendency towards self-destruction so clearly. Still others regard his final fate as a natural outcome of his philosophical outlook.[78] | ” |
Atheism and Suicide
- See main article: Atheism and suicide
Although there are recent studies relating to atheism being a causal factor for suicide, an early proponent of atheism being a causal factor for suicide was the Reverend Dr. Robert S. MacArthur.[79][80][81] In 1894, the NY Times stated the following in relation to atheism and suicide:
| “ | Dr. Martin urged that a great cause of suicide was atheism. It was, he said, a remarkable fact that where atheism prevailed most, there suicides were most numerous. In Paris, a recent census showed one suicide to every 2,700 of the population. After the publication of Paine's "Age of Reason" suicides increased.[82] | ” |
The same NY Times article quotes the Reverend Dr. MacArthur describing suicide in the following manner:
| “ | It is mean and not manly; it is dastardly and not daring. A man who involves his innocent wife and children in financial disaster and disgrace and takes his life and leaves them to bear the burden he was unwilling to bear, is a coward.[83] | ” |
In 2004, the American Journal of Psychiatry reported the following:
| “ | Religiously unaffiliated subjects had significantly more lifetime suicide attempts and more first-degree relatives who committed suicide than subjects who endorsed a religious affiliation. Unaffiliated subjects were younger, less often married, less often had children, and had less contact with family members. Furthermore, subjects with no religious affiliation perceived fewer reasons for living, particularly fewer moral objections to suicide. In terms of clinical characteristics, religiously unaffiliated subjects had more lifetime impulsivity, aggression, and past substance use disorder. No differences in the level of subjective and objective depression, hopelessness, or stressful life events were found.[84] | ” |
The website Adherents.com reported the following in respect to atheism and suicide:
| “ | Pitzer College sociologist Phil Zuckerman compiled country-by-country survey, polling and census numbers relating to atheism, agnosticism, disbelief in God and people who state they are non-religious or have no religious preference. These data were published in the chapter titled "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns" in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005). In examining various indicators of societal health, Zuckerman concludes about suicide:
"Concerning suicide rates, this is the one indicator of societal health in which religious nations fare much better than secular nations. According to the 2003 World Health Organization's report on international male suicides rates (which compared 100 countries), of the top ten nations with the highest male suicide rates, all but one (Sri Lanka) are strongly irreligious nations with high levels of atheism. It is interesting to note, however, that of the top remaining nine nations leading the world in male suicide rates, all are former Soviet/Communist nations, such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia. Of the bottom ten nations with the lowest male suicide rates, all are highly religious nations with statistically insignificant levels of organic atheism."[85] |
” |
Australian online opinion writer and lecturer in ethics and philosophy at several Melbourne theological colleges, Bill Muehlenberg, in his essay The Unbearable Heaviness of Being (In a World Without God) states the following:
| “ | Announcing, and believing, that God is dead has consequences. And it is we who suffer the most for it. We cannot bear the whole universe on our shoulders. We were not meant to. We must let God be God. Only then can men be men. Only then can we find the way forward to be possible, and the burdens not insurmountable.[86] | ” |
Reasonable Explanations for Atheism
- See main article: Causes of Atheism
There are a number of reasonable explanations for atheism:
- Moral depravity: Moral depravity has been demonstrated in the atheist community through history and through studies.[87][88][89][90] The Bible asserts that "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." (Psalms 14:1 (KJV)). The biblical fool is said to be lacking in sound judgment and the biblical fool is also associated with moral depravity. For example, the biblical book of Proverbs states: "A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and careless. A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, And a man of evil devices is hated. The naive inherit foolishness, But the sensible are crowned with knowledge."(Proverbs 14:16-18 (NASB)). The book of Proverbs also has strong words regarding the depravity of biblical fools: "The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but [it is] abomination to fools to depart from evil." (Proverbs 13:9 (KJV)). Regarding the deceitfulness of fools Proverbs states: "The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, But the foolishness of fools is deceit." (Proverbs 14:8 (KJV)). Noted Bible commentator and clergyman Matthew Henry wrote regarding atheism: "A man that is endued with the powers of reason, by which he is capable of knowing, serving, glorifying, and enjoying his Maker, and yet lives without God in the world, is certainly the most despicable and the most miserable animal under the sun."[91]
- Rebellion: Atheism stems from a deliberate choice to ignore the reality of God's existence[92]
- Superficiality: Noted ex-atheist and psychologist Dr. Paul Vitz has stated that he had superficial reasons for becoming an atheist such as the desire to be accepted by his Stanford professors who were united in disbelief regarding God.[93]
- Error: Some argue that atheism partly stems from a failure to fairly and judiciously consider the facts[94]
- State churches: Rates of atheism are much higher in countries with a state sanctioned religion (such as many European countries), and lower in states without a sanctioned religion (such as the United States). Some argue this is because state churches become bloated, corrupt, and/or out of touch with the religious intuitions of the population, while churches independent of the state are leaner and more adaptable. It is important to distinguish "state-sanctioned churches," where participation is voluntary, from "state-mandated churches" (such as Saudi Arabia) with much lower atheism rates because publicly admitted atheism is punishable by death.[95]
- Poor relationship with father: Some argue that a troubled/non-existent relationship with a father may influence one towards holding the position of atheism.[96] Dr. Paul Vitz wrote a book entitled Faith of the Fatherless in which he points out that after studying the lives of more than a dozen leading atheists he found that a large majority of them had a father who was present but weak, present but abusive, or absent.[93][97] Dr. Vitz also examined the lives of prominent theists who were contemporaneous to their atheist counterparts and from the same culture and in every instance these prominent theists had a good relationship with his father.[93] Dr. Vitz has also stated other common factors he observed in the leading atheists he profiled: they were all intelligent and arrogant.[93]
- Division in religion: According to Francis Bacon, atheism is caused by "divisions in religion, if they be many; for any one main division addeth zeal to both sides, but many divisions introduce atheism."[98]
- Learned times, peace, and prosperity: Francis Bacon argued that atheism was partly caused by "Learned times, specially with peace and prosperity; for troubles and adversities do more bow men’s minds to religion."[98] Jewish columnist Dennis Prager has stated that a causal factor of atheism is the "secular indoctrination of a generation."[99] Prager stated that "From elementary school through graduate school, only one way of looking at the world – the secular – is presented. The typical individual in the Western world receives as secular an indoctrination as the typical European received a religious one in the Middle Ages.[100]
- Negative experiences with theists
- Scientism: Science has in many ways become a new God.[101]
Atheism and the Existence of Evil
- See main article: Atheism and the Problem of Evil
Those who advocate atheism commonly state that the existence of evil is a problem for theism which holds to a good and powerful God.[102] Theodicy is the branch of study in theology and philosophy that defends the goodness of God despite the existence of evil.[103] In traditional Christianity and Judaism the book of Job is used to explain the existence of evil.[104] In recent times Christian apologists often cite Alvin Plantinga's free will defense when it comes to the subject of the existence of evil.[105][106]The work of St. Augustine is also cited in respect to theodicy.[107] Dr. Ron Rhodes of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministry states regarding this issue regarding the existence of evil in relation to atheism:
| “ | ...it is impossible to distinguish evil from good unless one has an infinite reference point which is absolutely good. Otherwise one is like a boat at sea on a cloudy night without a compass (i.e., there would be no way to distinguish north from south without the absolute reference point of the compass needle).
The infinite reference point for distinguishing good from evil can only be found in the person of God, for God alone can exhaust the definition of "absolutely good." If God does not exist, then there are no moral absolutes by which one has the right to judge something (or someone) as being evil. More specifically, if God does not exist, there is no ultimate basis to judge the crimes of Hitler. Seen in this light, the reality of evil actually requires the existence of God, rather than disproving it.[108] |
” |
Atheism and the Foundation of Modern Science
The birth of modern science occurred in Christianized Europe.[109] Sociologist Rodney Stark investigated the individuals who made the most significant scientific contributions between 1543 and 1680 A.D., the time of the Scientific Revolution. In Stark's list of 52 top scientific contributors,[110] only one (Edmund Halley) was a skeptic and another (Paracelsus) was a pantheist. The other 50 were Christians, 30 of whom could be characterized as being devout Christians.[110] Sir Francis Bacon, sometimes referred to as "the Father of Modern Science", wrote in his essay entitled Of Atheism the following: "I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind."[111]
In False conflict: Christianity is not only compatible with Science--it created it Stark writes in relation to atheism the following:
| “ | Recent historical research has debunked the idea of a "Dark Ages" after the "fall" of Rome. In fact, this was an era of profound and rapid technological progress, by the end of which Europe had surpassed the rest of the world. Moreover, the so-called "Scientific Revolution" of the sixteenth century was a result of developments begun by religious scholars starting in the eleventh century. In my own academic research I have asked why these religious scholastics were interested in science at all. Why did science develop in Europe at this time? Why did it not develop anywhere else? I find answers to those questions in unique features of Christian theology.
Even in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the leading scientific figures were overwhelmingly devout Christians who believed it their duty to comprehend God's handiwork. My studies show that the "Enlightenment" was conceived initially as a propaganda ploy by militant atheists attempting to claim credit for the rise of science. The falsehood that science required the defeat of religion was proclaimed by self-appointed cheerleaders like Voltaire, Diderot, and Gibbon, who themselves played no part in the scientific enterprise......[112] |
” |
Dr. Charles Thaxton states in relation to atheism the following:
| “ | P. E. Hodgson in reviewing Stanley Jaki's Science and Creation said: "Although we seldom recognize it, scientific research requires certain basic beliefs about the order and rationality of matter, and its accessibility to the human mind . . . they came to us in their full force through the Judeo-Christian belief in an omnipotent God, creator and sustainer of all things. In such a world view it becomes sensible to try and understand the world, and this is the fundamental reason science developed as it did in the Middle Ages in Christian Europe, culminating in the brilliant achievements of the seventeenth century."[113] | ” |
Atheism and Debate
- See main article: Atheism and Debate
Below are some examples which demonstrate unreasonableness in atheist debaters.
Doug Jesseph
In October of 1997, atheist Jeffery Jay Lowder, a founder of Internet Infidels, stated that he believed that in regards to atheism "the most impressive debater to date" was Doug Jesseph.[114] Yet Doug Jesseph claimed in a debate with William Lane Craig in 1996 that the origin of life had a detailed atheistic explanation(s).[115] In 1996, John Horgan wrote the following regarding what the highly respected origin of life researcher Stanley Miller believed to the case regarding naturalistic explanations of the origin of life: "Miller seemed unimpressed with any of the current proposals on the origin of life, referring to them as “nonsense” or “paper chemistry.”"[116] In addition, in 1996, John Horgan wrote the following in Scientific American: "The origin of life is a science writer's dream. It abounds with exotic scientists and exotic theories, which are never entirely abandoned or accepted, but merely go in and out of fashion."[117]
Gordon Stein
In 1985, Christian apologist Dr. Greg Bahnsen and prominent proponent of atheism Gordon Stein had a debate at the University of California, Irvine regarding the positions of atheism and theism. John Frame wrote regarding the debate in which Dr. Bahnsen used the transcendental argument for the existence of God that "In the end, Stein walked and talked like a broken man."[118] The Greg Bahnsen-Gordon Stein debate was recorded and transcribed and was dubbed "The Great Debate".[119][120]
Greg Bahnsen and Michael Martin
Dr. Greg Bahnsen became known as the "man atheists fear most".[121] This is because Harvard-educated Dr. Michael Martin was scheduled to debate Bahnsen but pulled out of the debate at the "eleventh hour". A press release at the time said that Dr. Martin offered ruses on why he pulled out and didn't want the scheduled debate recorded but the real reason was that "...Michael Martin is afraid that he will be publicly humiliated just as his friend and fellow atheist, Dr. Gordon Stein, was..."
Martin later released his transcendental argument for the non-existence of God (TANG) in 1996 which was rebutted by Christian apologists.[122]
Creation Scientists tend to win creation-evolution debates
As noted earlier, a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the naturalistic evolutionary position since World War II have been holders of the world view of atheism.[123][124] Creation scientists tend to win the Creation-Evolution debates and many debates have been held since the 1970's (particularly in the United States). Generally speaking, leading evolutionists generally no longer debate creation scientists.[125] In an article entitled Are Kansas Evolutionists Afraid of a Fair Debate? the Discovery Institute states the following:
| “ | Defenders of Darwin's theory of evolution typically proclaim that evidence for their theory is simply overwhelming. If they really believe that, you would think they would jump at a chance to publicly explain some of that overwhelming evidence to the public. Apparently not.[126] | ” |
Notable Atheists Who Rejected Their Faith
In respect to ex-atheists, there have been some notable incidences of atheists rejecting their faith and converting to Christianity, or at least to the acknowledgment of the possibility of God.
- Lee Strobel converted from atheism to Christianity and then became a Christian apologist.[127] Before investigating the claims of Christianity Strobel had obtained a undergraduate degree in journalism and also obtained a law degree from Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School. Strobel was an award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune also won Illinois’ top honors for investigative reporting (which he shared with a team he led) and public service journalism from United Press International.[127] After a nearly a two year investigation of the evidence for Christianity Strobel became a Christian.[128]
- C.S. Lewis abandoned his atheism and became a Christian. Lewis was very much influenced by the writings of George MacDonald and G. K. Chesterton.[129] In Surprised by Joy, Lewis says: "In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous."[130]
- British philosopher Anthony Flew abandoned atheism and became an deist after as a result of the intelligent design issue. According to the news organization MSNBC, Flew became a deist because he believed a super-intelligence was the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature.[131] In 2006, Flew and 12 prominent academics urged that intelligent design be taught in British government schools.[132]
The work of ex-atheist and psychologist Dr. Paul Vitz is often cited in respect to atheism. As alluded to earlier, Dr. Vitz wrote the work Faith of the Fatherless.
Atheism and its Decline as a Theoretical Position
According to Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg "Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline worldwide."[133] Oxford scholar Alister McGrath agrees and has stated that atheism's "future seems increasingly to lie in the private beliefs of individuals rather than in the great public domain it once regarded as its habitat."[133]
Views on Atheists
In regards to various views on atheists, research in the American Sociological Review finds that among several groups listed, those who hold the position of atheism are the group that Americans relate least to in terms of their vision of American society and are the group most likely to be mentioned as one that Americans would not want to have marry into their family.[134]
| Position: | This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society: |
I would disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group: |
|---|---|---|
| Atheist | 39.6% | 47.6% |
| Muslim | 26.3% | 33.5% |
| Homosexual | 22.6% | NA |
| Conservative Christian | 13.5% | 6.9% |
| Recent Immigrant | 12.5% | Not Asked |
| Hispanic | 7.6% | 18.5% |
| Jew | 7.4% | 11.8% |
| Asian American | 7.0% | 18.5% |
| African American | 4.6% | 27.2% |
| White American | 2.2% | 2.3% |
Brights Movement
The Brights Movement was started in 2003 by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell, to assist in the advocacy of a naturalistic worldview.[135][136] The movement had a media campaign and was announced in Wired magazine (by Richard Dawkins), Free Inquiry (by Richard Dawkins), and the New York Times op-ed page (by Daniel Dennett).[135] However, according to a 2004 Skeptical Enquirer article, the "Brights label reinforced a longstanding stereotype."[135] The article stated the following: "Atheists already have a terrible rap for being coldhearted rationalists who attend Mensa gatherings and dismiss religious believers as simple-minded fools."[135] In October of 2003, in a article by the Guardian Dawkins associated being a "bright" with being an intellectual.[137]
Chris Mooney states in his Skeptical Enquirer article:
| “ | ..a recent attack on the Brights movement in The Wall Street Journal by the conservative thinker Dinesh D'Souza confirms my worst fears (D'Souza 2003). The article blithely ignores a key caveat that the Brights defenders have explicitly laid out-namely, that the label isn't meant to suggest that religious doubters are smarter than everyone else. But I actually think this misrepresentation ought to be blamed more on Dennett, Dawkins, and the original founders than on D'Souza--for reasons I will explain.
In his original New York Times op-ed announcing the Brights label, Dennett wrote, "Don't confuse the noun with the adjective: 'I'm a Bright' is not a boast but a proud avowal of an inquisitive world view." That's certainly nice in principle. But who did Dennett think he was kidding? How could anyone hear the label Bright and think anything but that atheists were claiming to be smarter than everyone else? As ABC commentator John Allen Paulos remarked of the Brights campaign, "I don't think a degree in public relations is needed to expect that many people will construe the term as smug, ridiculous, and arrogant" (Paulos 2003).[138] |
” |
New Atheism
Dissent Magazine stated the following about the "New Atheism":
| “ | A number of prominent authors and scientists have published books in the past year that advocate a "New Atheism." The books, which include Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell, Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion, and Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great, have sparked considerable public controversy across the political spectrum.[139] | ” |
Dr. Alfred Mohler Jr. describes some of the key attributes of the "New Atheism":
| “ | Now, WIRED magazine comes out with a cover story on atheism for its November 2006 issue. In "The New Atheism," WIRED contributing editor Gary Wolf explains that this newly assertive form of atheism declares a very simple message: "No heaven. No hell. Just science."...
Wolf accomplishes a great deal in his article, thoughtfully introducing the work of militant atheists such as Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett. At the same time, he probes more deeply into the actual meaning of the New Atheism as a movement and a message. At the beginning of his article, he gets right to the point: "The New Atheists will not let us off the hook simply because we are not doctrinaire believers. They condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God. Religion is not only wrong; it's evil. Now that the battle has been joined, there's no excuse for shirking."[140] |
” |
Impact of the New Atheism
The "New Atheism" has not had much of an impact in terms of gaining new adherents to atheism. In a March 10, 2008 USA Today article Stephen Prothero stated the following regarding the impact of the "New Atheism":
| “ | Numbers lie, but they also tell tales untrustworthy and otherwise. So the key question stirring around the much discussed U.S Religious Landscape Survey released in late February by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life is what tale does it state about the state of the union.
For some, the story of this survey, based on interviews in multiple languages with more than 35,000 adults, is the strength of American Religion. Not too long ago, I wrote that American atheism was going the way of the freak show. As books by Christopher Hitchens and other "new atheists" climbed the best seller lists, I caught a lot of flak for that prophecy. But atheist make up only 1.6% of respondents to this survey....[141] |
” |
A prime reason for the ineffectiveness of the "New Atheism" is the shallowness of its material. For example, even atheist philosopher Michael Ruse stated that that Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion made him "embarrassed to be an atheist".[142]
The "New Atheism" largely has a unfavorable view outside the United States as well. The liberal leaning British publication the Guardian stated the following regarding the "New Atheism":
| “ | Anti-faith proselytizing is a growth industry. But its increasingly hysterical flag-bearers are heading for a spectacular failure...
These increasingly hysterical books may boost the pension, they may be morale boosters for a particular kind of American atheism that feels victimized - the latest candidate in a flourishing American tradition - but one suspects that they are going to do very little to challenge the appeal of a phenomenon they loathe too much to understand.[143] |
” |
Atheism and the Bible
- See main article: Atheism and the Bible
Biblical skeptics have been disputing the reliability of the Bible for centuries. Christian apologist JP Holding rightly states that Bible exegesis and Bible exposition is a multi-disciplinary pursuit, and often critics of the Bible have not done a fraction of the due diligence required to make an allegation regarding the Bible. Holding states the following:
| “ | Having now been engaged in apologetics for eight years actively and more years than that on the side, I have long since come to a conclusion that I have shared with others, but will now present in a systematic form here for the first time. My conclusion is a warning that is appropriate for any new readers (hence I link this article from my front page) and will be familiar to veteran ones.
I'll sum it up to begin: Whenever you run across any person who criticizes the Bible, claims findings of contradiction or error -- they do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. They have to earn it from you. Here's why. It doesn't take very long to realize that a thorough understanding of the Bible -- and this would actually apply to any complex work from any culture -- requires specialized knowledge, and a broad range of specialized knowledge in a variety of fields.... Not even most scholars in the field can master every aspect -- what then of the non-specialist critic who puts together a website in his spare time titled 1001 Irrefutable Bible Contradictions? Do these persons deserves our attention? Should they be recognized as authorities? No, they deserve calculated contempt for their efforts. (By this, I do not mean emotional or behavioral contempt, but a calculated disregard for their work from an academic perspective.) They have not even come close to deserving our attention, and should feed only itching ears with similar tastes.[144] |
” |
Christian theologian and apologist Bernard Ramm wrote the following regarding Biblical skeptics, in his often cited work Protestant Christian Evidences:
| “ | A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put.
No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet? The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions, and studied by millions.[145] |
” |
Christian apologists have responded to the various biblical errancy and claims of contradictions by atheists with an array of well known websites. Some popular ones include: Tektonics - Apologetics Encyclopedia, A Christian Think Tank, Apologetics Press :: Alleged Discrepancies, Inerrancy.org, and many more.
In addition, many Christian scientists and apologists such as the Christian scientists and apologists at Creation Ministries International and CreationWiki assert that the Bible, although not written as a science text book, shows an understanding of science beyond what was believed to exist during the time the various bible books were composed.[146][147]
Internet Infidels and other Atheist Websites
As mentioned previously Internet Infidels (also known as the Secular Web) is one of the principal websites for those who advocate atheism, agnosticism and skepticism on the internet. Christian apologist JP Holding has stated regarding the website Internet Infidels the following: "The Secular Web has a few intelligent people, but overall has long been a haven for every skeptical know-it-all to pronounce judgments upon matters outside of their expertise."[148] Although JP Holding has written rebuttals of the more well known members of the skeptical community such as David Hume[149], Friedrich Nietzsche[150] and G.A. Wells[151][152], Holding has also written rebuttals of lesser well known members of the secular community who publish and/or are featured on Internet Infidels such as:
- Earl Doherty [153]
- Richard Carrier [154]
- Dan Barker [155]
- Stephen Carr [156]
- Jeffery Jay Lowder [157]
- Acharya S [158]
- Kyle Gerkin [159]
- Farrell Till [160]
Targeting of Young People by Atheists on the Internet
In 2007, WorldNetDaily feature a column by Chuck Norris which stated the following regarding atheism and the Internet:
| “ | Atheists are making a concerted effort to win the youth of America and the world. Hundreds of websites and blogs on the Internet seek to convince and convert adolescents, endeavoring to remove any residue of theism from their minds and hearts by packaging atheism as the choice of a new generation. While you think your kids are innocently surfing the Web, secular progressives are intentionally preying on their innocence and naivete.
What's preposterous is that atheists are now advertising and soliciting on websites particularly created for teens. The London Telegraph noted that, "Groups including Atheists for Human Rights and Atheist Alliance International – 'Call 1-866-HERETIC' - are setting up summer camps and an Internet recruiting campaign." YouTube, the most popular video site on the Net for young people, is one of their primary avenues for passing off their secularist propaganda.[161] |
” |
Atheism in Academia
In 2001 atheist and philosopher Quentin Smith stated the following in respect to atheism:
| “ | Naturalists [atheists] passively watched as realist versions of theism … began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps one-quarter or one-third of philosophy professors are theists, with most being orthodox Christians…. God is not 'dead' in academia; he returned to life in the 1960's and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments."[162] | ” |
Denials That Atheists Exist
It has been asserted by various theist that atheists do not exist. In relation to a biblical statement on atheism Sir Francis Bacon stated in his essay Of Atheism the following regarding atheism:
| “ | The Scripture saith, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; it is not said, The fool hath thought in his heart; so as he rather saith it, by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it....It appeareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip, than in the heart of man.[111] | ” |
In addition, Christian philosophers and apologists Dr. Cornelius Van Til and Dr. Greg Bahnsen argued there are no atheists and that atheists are actively suppressing their belief and knowledge of God and enigmatically engage in self-deception.[163] The English poet Edward Young wrote in his famous work Night Thoughts that "By night, an atheist half-believes a God."[164]
The Christian Cyclopedia states regarding atheism the following:
| “ | It is not possible for a man to be an atheist, in the commonly accepted sense, in his innermost conviction. No amount of reasoning will erase from the human heart the God-given conviction that there is a Supreme Being; those who theoretically deny God's existence replace Him with something else.[165] | ” |
Atheist population as a percentage of various countries' populations
- See main article: Atheist Population
In respect to the atheist population as a percentage of various countries' populations, specific research on atheists conducted in 2006 suggests that the true proportion of atheists is 4% in the United States, 17% in Great Britain and 32% in France. A survey published in the 2005 Encyclopedia Britannica stated that 2.3% of the world's population consists of individuals who profess "atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion, including the militantly antireligious."[166] In regards to the 2.3% figure just mentioned, the 2005 survey cited by Encyclopedia Britannica survey did not include Buddhist in regards to the 2.3% figure and Buddhism can be theistic or atheistic.[167][168]
Other Well Known Proponents of Atheism
- Carvaka school: an atheistic and materialistic offshoot of Hinduism in the 6th century B.C.
- Samkhya school: an atheistic school of classical Indian philosophy, originating in the 6th century B.C.
- Diagoras: Greek philosopher who denied the existence of the Greek pantheon
- Lucretius: Greek philosopher espousing materialism, and stated that man should not believe in the gods because their ideas about the gods and their fear of death made men unhappy
- Friedrich Nietzsche: Prominent 19th century atheist philosopher
- Mao Zedong: Chinese Communist leader
- Benito Mussolini
- Paul Kurtz: founder of the Council of Secular Humanism
- Bertrand Russell
- Ayn Rand
- Isaac Asimov
- John Dewey
- Douglas Adams
- Ernest Hemingway
Atheism Quotes
- See main article: Atheism Quotes
Below are some atheism quotes from notable scientists, theologians, scholars, public figures, atheists and others.
Both contemporary and ancient atheism quotes are provided.
Atheism quotes relating to science
- "Opposition to godliness is Atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors." - Sir Isaac Newton[170]
- "Some atheists are quite explicit that their atheism comes first. One of the most famous is Richard Lewontin, a professor of genetics, who said it wasn't science that compelled him to accept a materialistic explanation of the universe. It was an a priori materialism." - John Lennox[171]
- "Worldwide, the march of religion can probably only be reversed by a renewed, self-aware secularism. Today, it appears exhausted and lacking in confidence... Secularism's greatest triumphs owe less to science than to popular social movements like nationalism, socialism and 1960s anarchist-liberalism. Ironically, secularism's demographic deficit means that it will probably only succeed in the twenty-first century if it can create a secular form of 'religious' enthusiasm."[172] - Professor Eric Kaufmann, Birbeck College, University of London, UK
- A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. - Sir Francis Bacon [173]
- God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. - Sir Francis Bacon [173]
- "The Scripture saith, The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; it is not said, The fool hath thought in his heart; so as he rather saith it, by rote to himself, as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly believe it, or be persuaded of it....It appeareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip, than in the heart of man." - Sir Francis Bacon, his essay Of Atheism[174]
- "I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being." - Albert Einstein[175]
- "There are no reliable connections - whether in logic or history - between atheism, science and liberal values." - Atheist John Gray[176]
- "An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence." - Carl Sagan[177]
- "The Seventh Judicial Circuit of the Court of Appeals of the United States held that atheism is a religion. Therefore, it cannot be promoted by a public school. Currently, public schools are often unwittingly promoting atheism through a dogmatic and uncritical teaching of materialistic theories of origins."[178] - John Calvert, Intelligent Design leader
- "As far as science goes, science is dependent on the uniformity of nature, or no scientific prediction could be made. Problem is, no atheistic worldview can account for the uniformity of nature, the very foundation of science." - Christian apologist Sye Ten Bruggencate [179]
- “It’s important to understand that an atheist is someone who believes the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything. Some fundamental atheists will deny this by trying to redefine ‘nothing’ as being ‘something,’ because such a thought makes them look like a fool, which is precisely what the Bible says that they are (see Psalm 14:1) - Ray Comfort[180]
Science journal and science magazine quotes about atheism
See also: Denials that atheists exist and Atheists and cognitive dissonance
“Atheism is psychologically impossible because of the way humans think... They point to studies showing, for example, that even people who claim to be committed atheists tacitly hold religious beliefs, such as the existence of an immortal soul.” - Graham Lawton in the New Scientist science magazine [181]
“A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith.” - Pascal Boyer, in the British science journal Nature [181]
Counter atheism quotes
- "Atheism, I began to realize, rested on a less-than-satisfactory evidential basis. The arguments that had once seemed bold, decisive, and conclusive increasingly turned out to be circular, tentative, and uncertain." - Ex-atheist Alister McGrath[182]
The Christian apologist Tom Gilson, after citing cases where atheists hold to views without sufficient evidence, quotes the prominent atheist Thomas Nagel who declared; "I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that."[183]
- "I myself believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level." - William F. Buckley, God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom"[184]
- "Maybe the atheist cannot find God for the same reason a thief cannot find a policeman." - Laurence J. Peter[185]
- "I am so, so tired of hearing about atheist scandals and scumbaggery." - Atheist PZ Myers [186] See also: Atheism and morality
- "It’s amazing how being a petty scumbag only enhances your reputation in the atheist community." -the atheist PZ Myers[187]
- "I think the faithful have been propagating a narrative of the angry atheist for so long, and I think that there’s some legitimacy to that... I think it’s really important to have civil, respectful dialogue with people, and we just haven’t been doing that...".[188] - American philosopher and atheism advocate Peter Boghossian declared about atheists
- "Imperious, choleric, irascible, extreme in everything, with a dissolute imagination the like of which has never been seen, atheistic to the point of fanaticism, there you have me in a nutshell, and kill me again or take me as I am, for I shall not change.” - Marquis de Sade[189]
- "[Y]ou are perhaps too intelligent to believe in God. I am not like you." - Napoleon Bonaparte [190]
- "Among the repulsions of atheism for me has been its drastic un-interestingness as an intellectual position. Where was the ingenuity, the ambiguity, the humanity...of saying that the universe just happened to happen and that when we're dead we're dead?" - John Updike [191] See also: Atheism and inspiration
- "In a power hungry, power worshipping society, men label themselves atheist." - Ernest Hemingway
- "If God does not exist, then everything is permissible." - Ivan Karamazov in the novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky[192]
- "Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas,...[f]or it is the assertion of a universal negative...." - G.K. Chesterton[193]
- "The god of modern thought exceedingly resembles the deities described in this psalm. Pantheism is wondrously akin to Polytheism, and yet differs very little from Atheism. The god manufactured by our great thinkers is a mere abstraction: he has no eternal purposes, he does not interpose on the behalf of his people, he cares but very little as to how much man sins, for he has given to the initiated "a larger hope" by which the most incorrigible are to be restored. He is what the last set of critics chooses to make him, he has said what they choose to say, and lie will do what they please to prescribe. Let this creed and its devotees alone, and they will work out their own refutation, for as now their god is fashioned like themselves, they will by degrees fashion themselves like their god; and when the principles of justice, law, and order shall have all been effectually sapped we may possibly witness in some form of socialism, similar to that which is so sadly spreading in Germany, a repetition of the evils which have in former ages befallen nations which have refused the living God, and set up gods of their own." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, p. 267.[194]
- "The absence of a debate with the foremost apologist for Christian theism is a glaring omission on your CV and is of course apt to be interpreted as cowardice on your part." - Dr. Daniel Came, a member of the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University writing to new atheist Richard Dawkins concerning his refusal to debate Dr. William Lane Craig[195]
- "But lack of evidence, if indeed evidence is lacking, is no grounds for atheism. No one thinks there is good evidence for the proposition that there are an even number of stars; but also, no one thinks the right conclusion to draw is that there are an uneven number of stars. The right conclusion would instead be agnosticism." - Alvin Plantinga[196]
- "The real attitude of sin in the heart towards God is that of being without God; it is pride, the worship of myself, that is the great atheistic fact in human life." – Oswald Chambers[197]
- “Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning...” ― C.S. Lewis [198]
- "The freethinkers have yet to produce any objections that have not long been refuted most thoroughly. But since they are not motivated by the love of truth, and since they have an entirely different point of view, we should not be surprised that the best refutations count for nothing and that the weakest and most ridiculous reasoning, which has so often been shown to be baseless, is continuously repeated. If these people maintained the slightest rigor, the slightest taste for the truth, it would be quite easy to steer them away from their errors; but their tendency towards stubbornness makes this completely impossible." - Leonhard Euler[199]
- "The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.” - "Investigating atheism: Marxism". University of Cambridge (2008)[200]
- "'[N]o one can be an unbeliever nowadays. The Christian Apologists have left one nothing to disbelieve.'" - Hector Hugh Munro (better known by the pen name Saki)[201]
- "Even the most ferocious projects of coercive secularization have thus far failed to produce the new godless man dreamed of by Enlightenment thinkers since the eighteenth century". - Peter L. Berger[202]
- The new atheist Richard Dawkins declared: "Christianity may actually be our best defence against aberrant forms of religion that threaten the world".[203]
- "Atheism is a bleak worthless ideology. It robs the brain of reason, the conscience of moral guidance, the mind of tranquility and the soul of hope." - Nana Yiadom, March 11, 2011[204]
- "Atheism, the Result of Ignorance and Pride; of strong Senses, and feeble Reason; of Good Eating and Ill Living! Atheism, the Plague of Society, the Corrupter of Manners, and the Underminer of Property!" - Jeremy Collier[205]
- "The irony of intolerant atheists is remarkable. They proudly declare their open-mindedness, and in the same breath they work feverishly to extinguish by force any mention of God, any support to theism, in civic life. Are you puzzled by this? Don't be. Censorship is in atheism's marrow... Moreover, atheism cannot withstand reasoned examination. The assertion that everything came from nothing, without reason and without moral law, isn't defensible in rational discourse, so silent assent is necessary to hold sway over culture." - Michael Egnor [206]
- "I must say, my tolerance for atheism has really dwindled to nothing at this point." - Tucker Carlson[207]
- "I will make a prediction, right here and now.... The number of people identifying as atheists will stagnate or even shrink, because organized atheism is happily in the process of destroying itself with regressive social attitudes, scandals, and their bizarre focus on irrelevant metaphysical differences that don’t help people...Unless we change. I don’t know that we can.[208] - Atheist PZ Myers, On September 27, 2014 in a blog post entitled The Atheist Disillusionment
- "If we're going to expand our base...we need to appeal to more than just that geek and nerd subset of the population. We need to have a wider base. ...I seriously believe that we're on the cusp of a crisis. We're not there yet but it's looming in front of us. Will we adapt and thrive and change the world? Or will we remain an avocation for a prosperous and largely irrelevant subset of the population? Will we become something more than a scattered society of internet nerds? That's what we have to do.[209] - the atheist PZ Myers in 2013
- "A crisis looms, in Myers's view, because he looks around himself and sees a not very promising basis for a mass movement. He's right. There is indeed a quality of geeky isolation from reality, common sense, and the fullness of life that I see as a motif in atheist and Darwin activism alike."[209] - Evolution News and Views on atheist nerds
- "God is dead not because He doesn’t exist, but because we live, play, procreate, govern, and die as though He doesn’t." - Chuck Colson[210]
- "It was the evidence from science and history that prompted me to abandon my atheism and become a Christian." - Ex-atheist Lee Strobel
- "An irreligious man, a speculative or practical atheist, is as a sovereign who voluntarily takes off his crown and declares himself unworthy to reign. - John Stuart Blackie[211]
- “If mainstream freethought and humanism continue to reflect the narrow cultural interests of white elites who have disposable income to go to conferences then the secular movement is destined to remain marginal and insular.” - Atheist Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson[212]
- The truth of God's existence is the benchmark from which all landmarks are located. The truth of God's existence is the foundation on which all truth rests. God existed before evil existed, and God will exist after evil is confined in outer darkness.... To deny the existence of God is an act of insanity so severe that God says that person is a fool (Psalm 14:1; 53:1). - Dr. Joseph Thomas Kennedy[213]
- "Claiming that God does not exist, or that He is dead, is the expression, not of truth, but of hope, for nothing would please the unregenerate heart more than to be rid of God." - Dr. Joseph Thomas Kennedy[213]
- "The rate of secularisation has flattened to zero in most of Protestant Europe and France." - agnostic British academic Eric Kaufmann, April 6, 2010[214]
- "Most societies or communities that have espoused atheistic beliefs have not survived more than a century...What I found was the complete lack of a single case of a secular population, community or movement that would just manage to retain replacement level." - Michael Blume, a researcher at the University of Jena in Germany on the fertility rate of atheistic societies [215] See also: Atheism and sexuality
- "Readers familiar with Reddit’s atheism community, r/atheism, may not be surprised to learn that I think it exemplifies many negative aspects of modern atheism — hatred, prejudice, and belief by cultural conformation rather than rational inquiry." [216] - Vlad Chituc at Nonprophet Status blog.
- "I find that contemporary atheists take great umbrage at the biblical claim that God holds people to be morally culpable for their unbelief. They want to maintain their unbelief in God without accepting the responsibility for it. ...unbelief is a choice. It is a choice to resist the force of the evidence and the drawing of God’s Holy Spirit. The unbeliever is like someone dying of a fatal disease who refuses to believe the medical evidence concerning the efficacy of a proffered cure and who rejects the testimony of his doctor to it and who, as a result, suffers the consequence of his own stubbornness. He has no one to blame but himself." - William Lane Craig[217]
- "And who can deny that Stalin and Mao, not to mention Pol Pot and a host of others, all committed atrocities in the name of a Communist ideology that was explicitly atheistic? Who can dispute that they did their bloody deeds by claiming to be establishing a “new man” and a religion-free utopia? These were mass murders performed with atheism as a central part of their ideological inspiration, they were not mass murders done by people who simply happened to be atheist." - Dinesh D’Souza[218]
- "The atheists are for the most part impudent and misguided scholars who reason badly who, not being able to understand the Creation, the origin of evil, and other difficulties, have recourse to the hypothesis the eternity of things and of inevitability." - Voltaire[219]
- "A man that is endued with the powers of reason, by which he is capable of knowing, serving, glorifying, and enjoying his Maker, and yet lives without God in the world, is certainly the most despicable and the most miserable animal under the sun." - Matthew Henry [220]
- "No man will say, There is no God till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest that there should be none to call him to account." - Matthew Henry [221]
- "Atheists put on false courage and alacrity in the midst of their darkness and apprehensions, like children who, when they fear to go in the dark, will sing for fear." - Alexander Pope[222]
- "An atheist’s most embarrassing moment is when he feels profoundly thankful for something, but can’t think of anybody to thank for it" - Mary Anne Vincent [223]
- If there were no God there would be no atheists. - G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) [224]
- "Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist there is no God." - Heywood Broun[225]
- “He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him.” - George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London[226]
- "God exist whether or not men may choose to believe in Him. The reason why many people do not believe in God is not so much that it is intellectually impossible to believe in God, but because belief in God forces that thoughtful person to face the fact that he is accountable to such a God." - Robert A. Laidlaw[227]
- "'It's an interesting view of atheism, as a sort of crutch for those who can't bear the reality of God.'" - Tom Stoppard[228]
- "I gave in, and admitted that God was God." - ex-atheist C.S. Lewis, On relinquishing atheism at age 31 in 1929[229]
- "I was at this time of living, like so many Atheists or Anti-theists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world." - C.S. Lewis[230]
- "In his book Modern Times, the historian Paul Johnson referred to Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini as the three devils of the twentieth century. Interestingly, Nietzschean dogma influenced each of them." - Ravi Zacharias[231]
- "The atheist risk everything for the present and the future, on the basis of a belief that we are uncaused by any intelligent being. We just happen to be here. That one is willing to live and die in that belief is a very high price to pay for conjecture." - Ravi Zacharias[232]
- In his essay rebutting a work of atheist Jeffery Jay Lowder Christian apologist JP Holding wrote the following: "...I find that there is no such thing as "reasonable nonbelief." The litany of excuses, wild speculations, and other absurdities ground out by skeptics and critics doesn't deserve the adjective "reasonable"."[233]
- "An Atheist is a man who believes himself an accident." — Francis Thompson[234]
- "[S]upposing all the great points of atheism, as the casual or eternal formation of the world, the materiality of a thinking substance, the mortality of the soul, the fortuitous organization of the body, the motions and gravitation of matter, with the like particulars, were laid together and formed into a kind of creed, according to the opinions of the most celebrated atheists; I say, supposing such a creed as this were formed and imposed upon any one people in the world, whether it would not require an infinitely greater measure of faith, than any set of articles [of faith] which they so violently oppose?" - Joseph Addison, The Spectator, October 2, 1711.[235]
- "It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves. We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan." - Calvin Coolidge, speech, Jul. 25, 1924 [236]
- "Now, nothing can be brought from potentiality to actual existence except through something actually existing...." [237] - St. Thomas Aquinas
- "He complained in no way of the evil reputation under which he lived, indeed, all over the world, and he assured me that he himself was of all living beings the most interested in the destruction of Superstition, and he avowed to me that he had been afraid, relatively as to his proper power, once only, and that was on the day when he had heard a preacher, more subtle than the rest of the human herd, cry in his pulpit: "My dear brethren, do not ever forget, when you hear the progress of lights praised, that the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist!" - Charles Baudelaire's short story, "The Generous Gambler" written in 1864 [238]
- "Christianity founds hospitals, and atheists are cured in them, never knowing they owe their cure to Christ." - William Temple[239]
- "Atheism is a disease of the mind caused by eating underdone philosophy" - Austin O'Malley[240]
- "These days, barely a week passes without the emergence of yet more evidence that atheists are the most irritating people on Earth." - the atheist Brendan O'Neill, The Telegraph, "How Atheists Became the Most Colossally Smug and Annoying People on the Planet", August 14, 2013 [241] See also: Atheists and unreasonableness
- "As a black atheist, I encounter just as much racism amongst other atheists as anywhere else." - Ijeoma Oluo, The Guardian, October 24, 2015[242] See also: Western atheism and race
- "We are all doubters about most of the types of atheism that atheists have ever held. Theists just doubt one form of atheism than every atheists which is super easy to do given that illogical atheological arguments lack proof and evidence and that theism is impeccably logical and has multiple compelling lines of evidence in support of it." - User: Conservative
- "One of the things that made me suffer no regret when I was called away from the cramped intellectual jail of atheism into a wider and more wonderful world, was my growing conviction that my fellow atheists were shallow, men without insight into real human nature." - ex-atheist and science fiction writer John C. Wright[243]
- "Atheism is in decline worldwide, with the number of atheists falling from 4.5% of the world’s population in 1970 to 2.0% in 2010 and projected to drop to 1.8% by 2020, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass." - Michael W. Chapman, CNS News, July 24, 2013[244]
Thomas Raffles (1788-1863) declared:
| “ | We left the [Alps] glacier, and ascending again to the hospice of Montanvert [the glacier], I sat down upon a block of granite, to take a parting view of the scene. How poor is language as the expression of one's feelings, at such moments. The heart is full with thoughts and emotions, that the tongue cannot utter or the pen record. My mind passed from these sublimest scenes of the material to the immaterial world—I seemed, at once, to feel all the littleness and all the greatness of my nature. How insignificant a creature I appeared amid these gigantic forms—yet I exulted in a conscious being that should survive and surmount them all—that could, even now, commune with Him who bade these billows stiffen, and these summits rise—and say, as the eye embraced the mighty whole, 'My Father made them all'.(* Yet, amid these scenes—surrounded by the sublimest demonstrations of the eternal power and Godhead of the Almighty, a wretch [probably Percy Bysshe Shelley] has had the hardihood to avow and record his atheism, having written over against his name in the album [kept for visitors] at Montanvert, "an atheist." It seems as if emotions of shame touched him at the time, for he has written it in Greek. It caught the eye of a divine who succeeded him, and he very properly wrote underneath it, in the same language, 'If an atheist, a fool(**)—if not, a liar.' (** Psalm xiv 1.))[245] | ” |
Robert Glynn wrote:
| “ | :But who are they, who bound in ten-fold chains,
"When first they left Religion's onward way."[246] |
” |
To see rare effects and no cause; an excellent government and no prince; a motion without an immoveable; a circle without a centre; a time without eternity; a second, without a first...these things are so against philosophy and natural reason, that he must needs be a beast in his understanding that does not assent to them...the thing framed, says that nothing framed it...and that which is made is, [while] that which made it is not. [T]his folly is...infinite."
Thomas More wrote in his work Utopia:
| “ | The only exception was a positive and strict law against anyone who should sink so far below the dignity of human nature as to think that the soul perishes with the body, or that the universe is ruled by blind chance, not divine providence.
Thus, they (citizens of Utopia) believe that after this life vices will be punished and virtue rewarded. Anyone who denies this proposition they consider less than a man, since he has degraded the sublimity of his own soul to the base level of a beasts wretched body. Still less will they count him as one of their citizens, since he would openly despise all the laws and customs of society, if not prevented by fear. Who can doubt that a man who has nothing to fear but the law, and no hope of life beyond the grave, will do anything he can to evade his country's laws by craft or to break them by violence, in order to gratify his own personal greed? Therefore a man who holds such views is offered no honors, entrusted with no offices, and given no public responsibility; he is universally regarded as a low and sordid fellow. Yet they do not punish him, because they are persuaded that no man can choose to believe by a mere act of the will. They do not compel him by threats to dissemble his views, nor do they tolerate in the matter any deceit or lying, which they detest as next door to deliberate malice. The man may not argue with common people in behalf of his opinion; but in the presence of priests and other important persons, they not only permit but encourage it. For they are confident that in the end his madness will yield to reason." [247] |
” |
- "[T]hose are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of God. Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all; besides also, those that by their atheism undermine and destroy all religion, can have no pretence of religion whereupon to challenge the privilege of a toleration. As for other practical opinions, though not absolutely free from all error, yet if they do not tend to establish domination over others, or civil impunity to the church in which they are taught, there can be no reason why they should not be tolerated." - John Locke[248]
- "Can any thing in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster? To see rare effects and no cause; an excellent government and no prince; a motion without an immoveable; a circle without a centre; a time without eternity; a second, without a first...these things are so against philosophy and natural reason, that he must needs be a beast in his understanding that does not assent to them...the thing framed, says that nothing framed it...and that which is made is, [while] that which made it is not. [T]his folly is...infinite." - Jeremy Taylor[249]
- "All that Lenin learned about business from the tales of his comrades who occasionally sat in business offices was that it required a lot of scribbling, recording, and ciphering. Thus, he declares that accounting and control are the chief things necessary for the organizing and correct functioning of society. . . . Here we have the philosophy of the filing clerk in its full glory." - Ludwig von Mises[250]
In a 2014 New Republic article entitled "The Closed Mind of Richard Dawkins: His atheism is its own kind of narrow religion", the atheist philosopher John Gray wrote:
| “ | One might wager a decent sum of money that it has never occurred to Dawkins that to many people he appears as a comic figure. His default mode is one of rational indignation—a stance of withering patrician disdain for the untutored mind of a kind one might expect in a schoolmaster in a minor public school sometime in the 1930s. He seems to have no suspicion that any of those he despises could find his stilted pose of indignant rationality merely laughable. “I am not a good observer,” he writes modestly. He is referring to his observations of animals and plants, but his weakness applies more obviously in the case of humans. Transfixed in wonderment at the workings of his own mind, Dawkins misses much that is of importance in human beings—himself and others.[251] | ” |
- "The Golden Age of Secularism has passed." - atheist Jacques Berlinerblau[169]
Atheist Jacques Berlinerblau wrote:
| “ | American atheist movements, though fancying themselves a lion, are more like the gimpy little zebra crossing the river full of crocs. In terms of both political gains and popular appeal, nonbelievers in the United States have little to show. They are encircled by cunning, swarming [religious] Revivalist adversaries who know how to play the atheist card. The gimpy zebra remark was a little goofing on this over-the-top chest-thumping that emerges from Movement Atheists. They wildly overestimate their numbers. They tend to overestimate the efficacy of their activism. They underestimate how disciplined and organized their adversaries in the religious right are, too. They fail to recognize that mocking religious people in public is entirely inimical to the goals they wish to achieve." - atheist [252] | ” |
- "Today secular faith is ebbing, and it is the apostles of unbelief who are left stranded on the beach." - atheist philosopher John Gray, The Guardian, March 14, 2008 [253]
- "As an Atheist for 40 years, I noticed that there is not just a wide variety of Atheist positions, but there exists an actual battle between certain Atheist factions." - An ex-atheist[254]
- "Elevatorgate..has resulted in three weeks of infighting in the secular community. Some might observe that we indulge in these squabbles fairly frequently." - Jacques Rousseau [255]
- "Did anyone on Dawkins AMA ask how he feels about singlehandedly destroying the atheist movement with the Dear Muslima yet?" - Atheist activist and blogger Jen McCreight post at Twitter on November 26, 2013[256]
- "I have never cared about the ‘evidence’ one way or the other, I know God exists, I just refuse to bow down to anyone." - atheist blogger.[257]
- "It's that time of year again. 'T'is the season to be jolly—or, if you're an atheist activist, to throw a wet blanket over the holidays." - Robert Small[258]
Douglas Wilson declared:
| “ | If there is no God, then all that exists is time and chance acting on matter. If this is true then the difference between your thoughts and mine correspond to the difference between shaking up a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. You simply fizz atheistically and I fizz theistically. This means that you do not hold to atheism because it is true , but rather because of a series of chemical reactions... Morality, tragedy, and sorrow are equally evanescent. They are all empty sensations created by the chemical reactions of the brain, in turn created by too much pizza the night before. If there is no God, then all abstractions are chemical epiphenomena, like swamp gas over fetid water. This means that we have no reason for assigning truth and falsity to the chemical fizz we call reasoning or right and wrong to the irrational reaction we call morality. If no God, mankind is a set of bi-pedal carbon units of mostly water. And nothing else." - Douglas Wilson [230] | ” |
- "The theory that thought is merely a movement in the brain is, in my opinion, nonsense; for if so, that theory itself would be merely a movement, an event among atoms, which may have speed and direction but of which it would be meaningless to use the words 'true' or 'false'." - C.S. Lewis [230]
- "If I’m elected president, I will…Tattoo an American flag with the words, “In God we trust,” on the forehead of every atheist." - Chuck Norris[259]
Atheism and morality quotes
21st century global desecularization quotes
See also: Global atheism and Desecularization and Atheism and marriage and Atheist marriages
On December 23, 2012, Professor Eric Kaufmann, who teaches at Birbeck College, University of London, wrote:
| “ | I argue that 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious.
On the other hand, the secular West and East Asia has very low fertility and a rapidly aging population... In the coming decades, the developed world's demand for workers to pay its pensions and work in its service sector will soar alongside the booming supply of young people in the third world. Ergo, we can expect significant immigration to the secular West which will import religious revival on the back of ethnic change. In addition, those with religious beliefs tend to have higher birth rates than the secular population, with fundamentalists having far larger families. The epicentre of these trends will be in immigration gateway cities like New York (a third white), Amsterdam (half Dutch), Los Angeles (28% white), and London, 45% white British. [261] |
” |
- Eric Kaufmann told a secular audience in Australia: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us."[262]
- "And, with birthrates in the world's theistic communities outpacing those in secular ones, it appears that atheism is destined to become a victim of its own doctrine of natural selection." - Regis Nicoll [263]
- "...the 17th century was the beginning of an age of secularization which has lasted four centuries until now; the 21st century is exactly the opposite, it's the beginning of an age of desecularization. Religion is seizing power; they're not yielding power." - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks [264]
Quotes about the atheist movement
Quotes of the New Atheist Richard Dawkins
- See also: Atheism and leadership
Since his Elevatorgate scandal, various embarrassing posts to Twitter and other embarrassing public statements, atheists are divided on whether the new atheist Richard Dawkins is an asset or a liability to the atheist movement.[265]
Collection of Richard Dawkins quotes:
Feminist quotes about Richard Dawkins
Quote about atheistic China where Christianity is rapidly growing
See also: Growth of Christianity in China and Asian atheism
Below is a quote relating to China which currently has the world's largest atheist population:
A November 1, 2014 article in The Economist entitled "Cracks in the Atheist Edifice":
| “ | Officials are untroubled by the clash between the city’s famously freewheeling capitalism and the Communist Party’s ideology, yet still see religion and its symbols as affronts to the party’s atheism...
Yang Fenggang of Purdue University, in Indiana, says the Christian church in China has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1980. He reckons that on current trends there will be 250m Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Mr. Yang says this speed of growth is similar to that seen in fourth-century Rome just before the conversion of Constantine, which paved the way for Christianity to become the religion of his empire.[266] |
” |
Quote about European atheism/secularism
See also: European desecularization in the 21st century
Jürgen Habermas is a prominent German sociologist and philosopher. Habermas describes himself as a "a methodical atheist".[267]
In a 2006 essay, Habermas wrote: “secular citizens in Europe must learn to live, the sooner the better, in a post-secular society and in so doing they will be following the example of religious citizens, who have already come to terms with the ethical expectations of democratic citizenship. So far secular citizens have not been expected to make a similar effort.”[268]
Quotes about American atheism
See also: American atheism
YouTube atheist Thunderfoot said about the atheist movement after Reason Rally 2016 had a very low turnout:
| “ | I'm not sure there is anything in this movement worth saving. Hitchens is dead. Dawkins simply doesn't have the energy for this sort of thing anymore. Harris went his own way. And Dennett just kind of blended into the background. So what do you think when the largest gathering of the nonreligious in history pulls in... I don't know. Maybe 2,000 people. Is there anything worth saving?[269] | ” |
The American atheist activist Eddie Tabash said at the 2010 Michigan Atheists State Convention:
| “ | In every generation there has been a promising beginning of a true vanguard movement that will finally achieve widespread public acceptance for nonbelief. Yet, in each generation there has been an ultimately disappointing failure to actually register the naturalistic alternative to supernatural claims in the public consciousness...
Now given the confounding extent to which religion is entrenched in our society, it could take a minimum of 100 years of sustained, intense effort to even begin to cut into the current monolithic stranglehold that religion has on American mass culture, [270] |
” |
The atheist Georgetown professor Jacques Berlinerblau declared:
| “ | American atheist movements, though fancying themselves a lion, are more like the gimpy little zebra crossing the river full of crocs. In terms of both political gains and popular appeal, nonbelievers in the United States have little to show. They are encircled by cunning, swarming [religious] Revivalist adversaries who know how to play the atheist card. The gimpy zebra remark was a little goofing on this over-the-top chest-thumping that emerges from Movement Atheists. They wildly overestimate their numbers. They tend to overestimate the efficacy of their activism. They underestimate how disciplined and organized their adversaries in the religious right are, too. They fail to recognize that mocking religious people in public is entirely inimical to the goals they wish to achieve."[271] | ” |
Quote on the collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union
See: Collapse of atheism in the former Soviet Union
In 2003, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard published a paper by Assaf Moghadam entitled A Global Resurgence of Religion? which declared:
| “ | As the indications leave little doubt, Russia is showing clear signs of a religious resurgence. In fact, all seven criteria by which change in religious behavior and values are measured here confirmed that Russia is experiencing what could be called a religious revival. Since 1970, the nonreligious/atheist population has been on steady decline, from 52% in 1970 to 33% in 2000. Further, the percentage of this population is projected to decrease even further, possibly reaching the 20% mark in 2025. Between 1990 and 1997, belief in God has risen from 35% to a whopping 60%, while belief in the importance of God has climbed to 43% in 1997, up from 25% in 1990. More people have been raised religious in Russia in 1997 (20%) than at the beginning of the decade (18%), and 8.39% more Russians believed religion to be important toward the end of the 1990s, when compared to 1990. “Comfort in Religion” has also sharply increased within this time period, from less than 27% to over 46%. Finally, more and more Russians attend church services more regularly in 1997 than they did in 1990.
In the three Eastern European countries that were included in the WVS survey on belief in God, a drastic rise could be witnessed of respondents who answered this question in the affirmative. In Hungary, the percentage of believers in God jumped from 44% to 58% from 1981 to 1990, even prior to the collapse of the former Soviet Union. In Belarus, the number of people who believe in God nearly doubled over the course of the 1990s, from 36% to 68%, while in Latvia this figure almost quadrupled, from 18% to 67% in the same time period. Similar trends held true when it came to the importance of God, where there was a sharp rise in all three countries.[272] |
” |
Ancient atheism quotes
"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." - The psalmist David, Psalms 14:1 (KJV)
The psalmist David also stated that "The heavens declare the glory of God..." - Psalms 19:1
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans that the creation testifies the existence of God, when he wrote the following:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse..." - Romans 1:19-20 (NKJV)
- It is a fine observation of Plato in his Laws—that atheism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an error of the understanding. - William Fleming.[273] [see below]
- "[T]he habit of arguing in support of atheism, whether it be done from conviction or in pretence, is a wicked and an impious practice." - Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.), Roman orator, philosopher, and statesman[274]
Plato wrote in Laws, book X:
| “ | And to those who disobey, let the law about impiety be as follows:-If a man is guilty of any impiety in word or deed, any one who happens to present shall give information to the magistrates, in aid of the law; and let the magistrates who. first receive the information bring him before the appointed court according to the law; and if a magistrate, after receiving information, refuses to act, he shall be tried for impiety at the instance of any one who is willing to vindicate the laws; and if any one be cast, the court shall estimate the punishment of each act of impiety; and let all such criminals be imprisoned. There shall be three prisons in the state: the first of them is to be the common prison in the neighborhood of the agora for the safe-keeping of the generality of offenders; another is to be in the neighborhood of the nocturnal council, and is to be called the "House of Reformation"; another, to be situated in some wild and desolate region in the centre of the country, shall be called by some name expressive of retribution.
Now, men fall into impiety from three causes, which have been already mentioned, and from each of these causes arise two sorts of impiety, in all six, which are worth distinguishing, and should not all have the same punishment. For he who does not believe in Gods, and yet has a righteous nature, hates the wicked and dislikes and refuses to do injustice, and avoids unrighteous men, and loves the righteous. But they who besides believing that the world is devoid of Gods are intemperate, and have at the same time good memories and quick wits, are worse; although both of them are unbelievers, much less injury is done by the one than by the other. The one may talk loosely about the Gods and about sacrifices and oaths, and perhaps by laughing at other men he may make them like himself, if he be not punished. But the other who holds the same opinions and is called a clever man, is full of stratagem and deceit-men of this class deal in prophecy and jugglery of all kinds, and out of their ranks sometimes come tyrants and demagogues and generals and hierophants of private mysteries and the Sophists, as they are termed, with their ingenious devices. There are many kinds of unbelievers, but two only for whom legislation is required; one the hypocritical sort, whose crime is deserving of death many times over, while the other needs only bonds and admonition. In like manner also the notion that the Gods take no thought of men produces two other sorts of crimes, and the notion that they may be propitiated produces two more. Assuming these divisions, let those who have been made what they are only from want of understanding, and not from malice or an evil nature, be placed by the judge in the House of Reformation, and ordered to suffer imprisonment during a period of not less than five years. And in the meantime let them have no intercourse with the other citizens, except with members of the nocturnal council, and with them let them converse with a view to the improvement of their soul's health. And when the time of their imprisonment has expired, if any of them be of sound mind let him be restored to sane company, but if not, and if he be condemned a second time, let him be punished with death. As to that class of monstrous natures who not only believe that there are no Gods, or that they are negligent, or to be propitiated, but in contempt of mankind conjure the souls of the living and say that they can conjure the dead and promise to charm the Gods with sacrifices and prayers, and will utterly overthrow individuals and whole houses and states for the sake of money-let him who is guilty of any of these things be condemned by the court to be bound according to law in the prison which is in the centre of the land, and let no freeman ever approach him, but let him receive the rations of food appointed by the guardians of the law from the hands of the public slaves; and when he is dead let him be cast beyond the borders unburied, and if any freeman assist in burying him, let him pay the penalty of impiety to any one who is willing to bring a suit against him. But if he leaves behind him children who are fit to be citizens, let the guardians of orphans take care of them, just as they would of any other orphans, from the day on which their father is convicted.[275] |
” |
Atheism and death quotes
Humorous quotes about atheism
See also: Humorous quotes about atheism and evolution
- "I once wanted to become an atheist but I gave up . . . they have no holidays." - Henny Youngman[276]
- "I quit atheism. I fly too much...". - Comedian Andrew Schulz on atheists and airplanes[277] See also: There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes
- "How to trap an atheist: Serve him a fine meal, then ask him if he believes there is a cook." — Source Unknown
Kurt Vonnegut quote concerning the saying "There are no atheists in foxholes"
See also: There Are No Atheists In Foxholes and There are no atheists on a sinking ship and There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes
Kurt Vonnegut was a popular American novelist and short story writer. He was also an atheist/agnostic.[278]
Concerning the saying "There are no atheists in foxholes", Vonnegut said, “People say there are no atheists in foxholes. A lot of people think this is a good argument against atheism. Personally, I think it's a much better argument against foxholes.”[279]
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1998
- ↑ Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians, 2d century A.D.[1]
- ↑ Plato, Apol., 26,c.
- ↑ Dr. Martin Luther King in his sermon A letter to American Christians spoke of "practical atheism".[2]
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/athart3.htm
- ↑ Positive Atheism's Big List of Charles Bradlaugh Quotations
- ↑ http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/AnswersBook/existence1.asp
- ↑ Is Christianity Alone Fully True and is Jesus Christ Really the Only Way To God? -- Part 4
- ↑ Darwin’s real message: have you missed it?
- ↑ American Scientist May 1977:323
- ↑ Notes to Teleological Arguments for God's Existence
- ↑ http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/english/at/atheist.html
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedls - ↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14322117/
- ↑ http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott_Moore/texts/Marx_Opium.html
- ↑ http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm
- ↑ http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm
- ↑ The Black Book of Communism
- ↑ The Black Book of Communism
- ↑ http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM
- ↑ Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm
- ↑ Memory and Ideology
- ↑ The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression
- ↑ http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM
- ↑ http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3054/
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 http://www.bookrags.com/research/lysenkoism-wog/
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 http://www.bartelby.com/65/ly/Lysenko.html
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- ↑ http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 http://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/
- ↑ http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IE12Dg01.html
- ↑ http://www.wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1253071
- ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/truth/3truth01.html
- ↑ http://apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/theistic_apologetics/kreeft-arguments.html
- ↑ http://www.rzim.org/slice/slicetran.php?sliceid=1029
- ↑ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38125
- ↑ http://satisfiedinjesus.org/resources/reviews/pdf/Zacharias%20-%20The%20Real%20Face%20of%20Atheism.pdf
- ↑ http://www.greatcom.org/resources/secular_religions/ch01/default.htm
- ↑ http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/religion/mcgratha.htm
- ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 Koukl, Gregory, The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity?, 1994
- ↑ Atheists and Agnostics Take Aim at Christians The Barna Update, 2007.
- ↑ Brooks, Arthur C., faith and charitable giving Policy Review, Oct-Dec 2003, p.2.
- ↑ Stossel, John and Kendall, Kristina Who Gives and Who Doesn't? ABC News, November 28, 2006
- ↑ http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=152
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- ↑ http://www.biblicaldefense.org/Writings/refuting_moral_relativism.htm
- ↑ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/#10
- ↑ 54.0 54.1 http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/creation-providence.html
- ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/miracles.html
- ↑ http://www.ses.edu/journal/articles/2.1Hoffman.pdf
- ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth19.html
- ↑ http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/pages/resources/publications/knowingDoing/2004/Miracles.pdf
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/gk/hume01.html
- ↑ http://www.comereason.org/phil_qstn/phi060.asp
- ↑ http://godevidences.net/space/lawsofscience.php
- ↑ http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2329
- ↑ http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences14.html
- ↑ Dr. Don Batten, A Who’s Who of evolutionists Creation 20(1):32 December 1997.
- ↑ Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D.,F.M., Refuting Evolution, Chapter 1, Facts and Bias
- ↑ http://www.icr.org/home/resources/resources_tracts_scientificcaseagainstevolution/
- ↑ http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2001-rst/921.html
- ↑ http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2003/A/20037338.html
- ↑ http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2001-rst/921.html
- ↑ http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2003/A/20037338.html
- ↑ http://www.dukespiritualityandhealth.org/
- ↑ http://www.dukespiritualityandhealth.org/about/
- ↑ http://www.dukespiritualityandhealth.org/publications/latest.html
- ↑ http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/hutchison/070307
- ↑ http://www.ukapologetics.net/truthaboutnietzsche.html
- ↑ http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/top/top19
- ↑ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17087793?dopt=Abstract
- ↑ http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/top/top19
- ↑ http://www.adherents.com/misc/religion_suicide.html
- ↑ http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/12/2303
- ↑ NY Times, September 17, 1894, ATHEISM A CAUSE OF SUICIDE.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
- ↑ NY Times, September 17, 1894, ATHEISM A CAUSE OF SUICIDE.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
- ↑ NY Times, September 17, 1894, ATHEISM A CAUSE OF SUICIDE.; Dr. MacArthur Preaches on the Sin and Cowardice of Self-Destruction
- ↑ http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/12/2303
- ↑ http://www.adherents.com/misc/religion_suicide.html
- ↑ http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/05/26/the-unbearable-heaviness-of-being-in-a-world-without-god/
- ↑ http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5527
- ↑ http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=272
- ↑ http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2
- ↑ http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=152
- ↑ http://www.ccel.org/ccel/henry/mhc1.ii.html
- ↑ "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse..." —Romans 1:19-20 (NKJV)
- ↑ 93.0 93.1 93.2 93.3 Vitz, Paul, The Psychology of Atheism, September 24, 1997 (lecture notes taken by an audience member).
- ↑ "A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere--'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." -- C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy.
- ↑ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118434936941966055.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
- ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth12.html
- ↑ Anders, Kerby, Atheists and Their Fathers (Probe Ministries)
- ↑ 98.0 98.1 http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/ofatheism.html
- ↑ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=43734
- ↑ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=4373
- ↑ Why Atheism?
- ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/evil.html
- ↑ http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861719540/theodicy.html
- ↑ http://apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/doctrinal_apologetics/bowman-job.html
- ↑ http://www.xenos.org/essays/evilpo.htm
- ↑ http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott_Moore/handouts/free_will_defense.html
- ↑ http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5124
- ↑ http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Atheism.html
- ↑ http://www.ldolphin.org/bumbulis/#anchor5343749
- ↑ 110.0 110.1 Williams, Alex,The biblical origins of science, Journal of Creation 18(2):49–52, August 2004.
- ↑ 111.0 111.1 Bacon, Francis, Of Atheism
- ↑ http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3274629/False-conflict-Christianity-is-not.html
- ↑ http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth17.html
- ↑ http://www.infidels.org/infidels/newsletter/1997/october.html
- ↑ http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/doug_jesseph/jesseph-craig/jesseph1.html
- ↑ http://www.trueorigin.org/abio.asp
- ↑ http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/orignl01.html#orgnflfmjrprblmschcknndgg
- ↑ http://www.frame-poythress.org/frame_articles/Bahnsen.htm
- ↑ http://prosapologian.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/great-debates/
- ↑ http://www.bellevuechristian.org/faculty/dribera/htdocs/PDFs/Apol_Bahnsen_Stein_Debate_Transcript.pdf
- ↑ http://mywebpages.comcast.net/webpages54/ap/biobahn.html
- ↑ http://www.reformed.org/apologetics/index.html?mainframe=/apologetics/martin_TAG.html
- ↑ Don Batten, A Who’s Who of evolutionists Creation 20(1):32, December 1997.
- ↑ Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution, Chapter 1, Facts and Bias
- ↑ http://www.icr.org/article/811/
- ↑ http://www.evolutionnews.org/2005/02/are_kansas_evolutionists_afraid_of_a_fai.html
- ↑ 127.0 127.1 Discovery Institute - Article Database - Lee Strobel
- ↑ Lee Strobel Bio
- ↑ Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. - book review
- ↑ Lewis, Surprised by Joy op cit.
- ↑ There is a God, leading atheist concludes: Philosopher says scientific evidence changed his mind
- ↑ Former famous atheist Antony Flew asked for intelligent design to be taught in British schools.
- ↑ 133.0 133.1 http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/breaking2453432.91875.html
- ↑ Edgell, Gerteis & Hartmann 2006
- ↑ 135.0 135.1 135.2 135.3 Not too 'bright'L: Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett are smart guys, but their campaign to rename religious unbelievers Brights could use some rethinking (Page 1)
- ↑ Bright (n.)--What is the definition?
- ↑ The future looks bright - The Guardian
- ↑ Not too 'bright'L: Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett are smart guys, but their campaign to rename religious unbelievers Brights could use some rethinking (Page 2)
- ↑ http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=928
- ↑ http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2006-11-21
- ↑ American Faith: A Work In Progress by Stephen Prothero, USA Today, March 10, 2008, page 11A
- ↑ http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/47052/?page=3
- ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2074076,00.html
- ↑ Calculated Contempt: Why Bible Critics Do Not Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt
- ↑ The Bible - Quotes from Famous Men
- ↑ Bible Scientific Foreknowledge
- ↑ http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/1718/
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/gk/gerkin02.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-H.html
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- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/uz/wellsga01.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-D.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-C.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-B.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-C.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-L.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-A.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-G.html
- ↑ http://www.tektonics.org/TK-T.html
- ↑ http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55789
- ↑ http://www.rzim.org/slice/slicetran.php?sliceid=880
- ↑ http://www.cmfnow.com/articles/PA191.htm
- ↑ http://www.bartleby.com/100/224.html
- ↑ http://www.lcms.org/ca/www/cyclopedia/02/display.asp?t1=A&t2=t
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- ↑ http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9432620
- ↑ 169.0 169.1 Berlinerblau, Jacques (February 4, 2011). "Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast". The Chronicle of Higher Education/Brainstorm blog. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Newton, Isaac. A Short Scheme of the True Religion. Unpublished writing quoted in Brewster, David (1855). Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (Edinburgh, UK: Thomas Constable), vol. 2, p. 347. Retrieved from GoogleBooks archive on February 19, 2015.
- ↑ "John Lennox - Same evidence, different conclusions" (May 23, 2010). YouTube video, 2:31, posted by ScottyVor. Retrieved on February 19, 2015. "Some atheists are quite explicit that their atheism comes first. One of the most famous is Richard Lewontin, a profesor of genetics, who said it wasn't science that compelled him to accept a materialistic explanation of the universe. It was an a priori materialism. You start with that materialism, and he said that materialism is absolute." See John Lennox.
- ↑ Kaufmann, Eric (Autumn 2007). "Shall the religious inherit the earth?" The Jewish Quarterly. Retrieved from Sneps.net on October 24, 2014.
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- ↑ Wakin, Edward (May 1981). "God and Carl Sagan: Is the cosmos big enough for both of them?". U.S. Catholic (Chicago: Claretian Fathers): pp. 19–24.
- ↑ Question (August 6, 2011). "The effects of the Question Evolution! Campaign will be devastating to evolutionary belief and atheism". Shockawenow blog. Retrieved from March 14, 2012 archive at Internet Archive on February 21, 2015.
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- ↑ 15 Christian Quotes About Atheism Or Atheists
- ↑ 'Atheism and Evidence: Self-Defense Against Belief? by Tom Gilson
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- ↑ Peter, Laurence J. (1977). Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Times (New York: William Morrow), p. 44. Commenting on the Francis Thompson quote: "An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident."
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- ↑ The Appostates by Kate Knibbs, The Ringer
- ↑ Marquis de Sade quotes
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- ↑ The Treasury of David: Containing an Original Exposition of the Book of Psalms, by C. H. Spurgeon, 1882
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- ↑ Chambers, Oswald (1953). God's Workmanship (London: Oswald Chambers Publications Association and Marshall, Morgan & Scott).
- ↑ Lewis, C. S. (1952). Mere Christianity (London: Geoffrey Bles), book 2, chapter 1. Located by Goodreads, "Quotes about atheism".
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- ↑ Investigating atheism: Marxism. University of Cambridge (2008). Retrieved on July 17, 2014. “The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.” See University of Cambridge.
- ↑ Saki (1913). The Unbearable Bassington (London: John Lane), 6th ed., ch. 13.
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- ↑ Professional Atheist Dawkins Says Christianity ‘Bulwark Against Something Worse’, by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D, Breitbart News Network, Jan 12, 2016
- Richard Dawkins says Christianity is world's best defence against radical Islam, Christianity Today, January 2016
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- ↑ More, Thomas (1518). Utopia, ch. "Of the religions of the Utopians". See Thomas More.
- ↑ Locke, John (1689). "A letter concerning toleration". Two Treatises of Government: And a Letter Concerning Toleration, Ian Shapiro, ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003). Retrieved from GoogleBooks on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Taylor, Jeremy (1653). "Sermon Group VIII: Apples of Sodom; or, the Fruits of Sin, part II (Sermon XX)". Twenty-five Sermons for the Winter Half-Year, Preached at Golden Grove. Reprinted in The Works of Jeremy Taylor, D. D., ed. Rev. T. S. Hughes, B. D. (London: A. J. Valpy, 1831), vol. II, p. 30. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ von Mises, Ludwig (1978). The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute), ch. 1, sect. 7, pp. 24-5. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Gray, John (October 2, 2014). "The closed mind of Richard Dawkins". Review of An Appetite for Wonder: The Makings of a Scientist by Richard Dawkins. New Republic website. Retrieved on May 28, 2015.
- ↑ Winston, Kimberly (September 14, 2012). "Professor Jacques Berlinerblau tells atheists: Stop whining!" Christian Century [website]. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Gray, John (March 14, 2008). "The atheist delusion". The Guardian website. Retrieved on May 29, 2015. See John Gray.
- ↑ An atheist new world order? Is the Rational Response Squad making an attempt?
- ↑ Rousseau, Jacques (July 13, 2011). "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can rip my soul". Daily Maverick [South Africa]. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
- ↑ McCreight, Jennifer (November 26, 2013). "[Jennifer McCreight on Twitter about the Elevatorgate scandal]" Twitter [public message service]. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Catchpoole, David (September 13, 2012). "Thank you, ‘blogosphere battlers’—you’re making a difference". Creation.com [Creation Ministries International]. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Small, Robert (December 23, 2012). "Self-righteous atheists are misguided killjoys". American Thinker website. Retrieved on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ If I am elected president by Chuck Norris
- ↑
- Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
- Eric Kaufmann: Shall The Religious Inherit The Earth?
- Eric Kaufmann's Atheist Demographic series
- ↑ 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious, Tuesday, April 30, 2013
- ↑ Shall the religious inherit the earth - Festival of Dangerous Ideas - Eric Kaufmann
- ↑ Nicoll, Regis (May 11, 2006). "Atheism's bleak future" [original title: "Atheism on the rocks"]. Centurian, no. 51. Retrieved from Intercessors for America website on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: Secularism Can't Solve Today's Religious Violence; Answers Rooted in 'Sibling Rivalry' of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Christian Post, By Napp Nazworth , Christian Post, June 23, 2015
- ↑
- Richard Dawkins: Atheism’s asset or liability? by Kimberly Winston, Washington Post, source: Religion News Service, August 7, 2014
- The Closed Mind of Richard Dawkins, New Republic by John Gray
- Jennifer McCreight on the Twitter about the Elevatorgate scandal
- Down's Syndrome girl passes six GCSEs as dad calls Richard Dawkins 'an ignorant idiot', Mirror by By Grace Macaskill, Aug 23, 2014 15:41
- The 12-Stage 'Evolution' Of A Richard Dawkins Twitter Scandal by Paul Vale, The Huffington Post UK, Posted: 22/08/2014 02:06 BST
- ↑ Wenzhou (November 1, 2014). "Cracks in the atheist edifice". The Economist website. Retrieved on May 28, 2015.
- ↑ The Church Is Under Siege. But Habermas, the Atheist, Is Coming to its Defense
- ↑ Jurgen Habermas on the Vision of a Post-Secular Europe, Modern Diplomacy
- ↑ Even atheists bash 'Reason Rally'
- ↑ Atheists Speak Up - Eddie Tabash
- ↑ Professor Jacques Berlinerblau tells atheists: Stop whining!, Christian Century, Sep 14, 2012 by Kimberly Winston
- ↑ Moghadam, Assaf (August 2003). A Global Resurgence of Religion?, p. 26. Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Retrieved from ResearchGate network on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ 273.0 273.1 Fleming, William (1858 or bef.). The Vocabulary of Philosophy, Mental, Moral and Metaphysical (London and Glasgow: Richard Griffin), 2nd ed., p. 54. Retrieved from Googlebooks archive on May 26, 2015.
- ↑ Cicero (45 BC). De Natura Deorum [On the Nature of the Gods], book 2, sect. 67, translated by H. Rackham. Cicero in Twenty-Eight Volumes; XIX: De Natura Deorum, Academica (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933), p. 285. Retrieved from GoogleBooks archive.
- ↑ Plato (c. 360 BC). Laws, Book X, translated by Benjamin Jowett. Retrieved from The Internet Classics Archive [website]/Plato on May 29, 2015.
- ↑ Youngman, Henny (1980 or bef.). Earliest attestation. Retrieved from GoogleBooks.
- ↑ There are NO successful atheists - Andrew Schulz - Stand Up Comedy
- ↑ Kurt Vonnegut, “Christ-Loving Atheist” by Dan Wakefield, Salo University
- ↑ Kurt Vonnegut quote
</noinclude>
See Also
Online Videos Regarding Atheism
External links
General Articles on Atheism:
- Atheism, Agnosticism, and Skepticism Synopsis of Understanding Secular Religions by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart
- Answering Atheists / Agnostics / Other Critics Lion of Judah Christian Apologetics
Unreasonableness of Atheism:
- The Absurdity of Atheism by Fred Klett
- Unbelievable Unbelief by Gregory Koukl
- Why the Burden of Proof is on the Atheist by Professor Ralph McInerny
- Atheism is Pretentious and Cowardly by Dr. Theo Hobson, Guardian June 6, 2007
- Theism, Atheism, and Rationality by Alvin Plantinga
Atheism and Science:
- The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism by Phillip E. Johnson
- The Origin of Life and the Death of Materialism by Stephen Meyer
Decline of Atheism:
- The Twilight of Atheism by Alister McGrath, Christianity Today, March 2005
- The rise and fall of atheism by Fred Hutchison
- Twilight of the godless by Alister McGrath (Oxford Professor)
Various Issues in Regards to Atheism:
- Atheists and the Resurrection - Framing the Argument by G. Brady Lenardos
- Atheism and the Scientific Community
- Responses to Atheist Philosopher, Michael Martin Reformed theologians
- Outrageous Reasoning, A Closer Look at a Common Skeptical Tactic by JP Holding
- Is Yahweh a Moral Monster? The New Atheists and Old Testament Ethics by Paul Copan
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