Atheism and Critique of Religious belief!

Students should show knowledge and understanding of key terms such as:

atheism, agnosticism, materialism, naturalism, scepticism and unbelief.

Critiques may include one or more sociological and psychological stances with reference, for example, to scholars such as Durkheim, Marx and Freud. Students should understand and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the views, coming to an informed opinion.

Provided the material is focused on the demands of the question, students may use the problem of evil in this context and some arguments about the existence of God may also be used in this context.

J.C.A. Gaskin argues that there are 5 types of ‘unbelief’. He avoids using the word atheism, as atheism he argues has negative connotations and has been used as a term of abuse in the past.

How does the use of ‘unbelief’ make a difference?

Throughout the Christian era, atheism has been severely punished and up until comparatively recently, it was not easy to hold or profess atheist beliefs and get away with it.

448 CE,

Giordano Bruno (late 16th century)

Reasons for atheism?

Round robin.....

The five types of unbelief that Gaskin points out are:

1. Materialism; this is the belief that there is no supernatural realm; nothing beyond the physical world that we can see. We will use Bertrand Russell to explore this.

2. Skepticism; this is the belief that any knowledge of the gods or of God is not attainable by humans. We will use A.J. Ayer to explore this.

3. Critical unbelief; this is the belief that theism is incoherent, that it does not make sense as an argument. We will Use Baron d’Holbach to explore this.

4. Social unbelief; this is the belief that religion causes more harm than good. It is expounded very clearly in the present day by Richard Dawkins, who likens religion to a virus. We will use Karl Marx to explore it.

5. Naturalistic explanations for belief; this is the belief that there is a natural explanation for the source of religious belief (i.e. that it doesn’t come from God and is not revealed.) We will use Sigmund Freud to explore this.

Points to Consider

What are the key features of Atheism and Agnosticism?

Why might someone hold such a position?

What are the arguments for and against for each?

Non-existence of God and Critiques of Religious Belief - 1

A _ H _ _ _ _

A G _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’

   They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; Psalm

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