In his first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam, Pope Paul VI wrote that atheism "is the most serious problem of our time." The reason is that an ideological atheism denies God and oppresses the Church, and that it is often identified with economic, social and political regimes, among which atheistic communism is the chief. Dialogue in such circumstances is admittedly very difficult, for any group which is persecuted seeks first and foremost its survival and the survival of values it thinks essential.The Christian, however, cannot despair, for two reasons. First, he must seek out his enemy to do him good, to return benevolence for malevolence, to seek what binds and heals rather than what separates and destroys. The Christian knows that even when he must resist the injustices of his enemy there are bounds of morality beyond which he may not go; he knows he must never discontinue the sometimes discouraging attempt to seek peace and an atmosphere of trust and confidence.
Seit Religion an Bedeutung und Relevanz gewinnt, werden auch neue atheistische Einsprüche laut. Gregor Maria Hoff beschreibt zunächst die öffentliche Wahrnehmung religiöser Phänomene, um dann die atheistischen Einsprüche literarischer, naturwissenschaftlicher und kulturtheoretischer Herkunft darzustellen. Diese interpretiert der Autor als notwendige Herausforderungen eines christlichen Redens von Gott, weil sie die Ambivalenzen und Gefahren religiöser Überzeugungen deutlich herausarbeiten und den Glauben zu einer eigenen Standortbestimmung nötigen.
Why believe that there is a God? / Richard Swinburne -- Moral culpability and choosing to believe in God / David Kyle Johnson -- Theism, atheism, and the ethics of hope / Jonathan Strand -- Nietzsche : master of suspicion or mastered by suspicion? / Jahdiel Perez -- C. S. Lewis on experience, narrative and beliefs about meaning : helping atheists and Christians to understand one another / Stefan James Knibbe -- "Talking about something else" : Richard Dawkins and Rowan Williams on God, religion and atheism / Stephen W. Martin -- Why atheists should be anti-natalists : the argument from evil and the ethics of procreation / Matthew Small -- The ontological proof falls for the love of God / Charles Rodger -- The modal argument against naturalism / Andrew Brigham -- Intellectual honesty in the atheism-theism conversation : two popular but unconvincing arguments against unbelief / Jahdiel Perez -- The optimal argument for the existence of God / Don N. Page -- Why God allows suffering / Richard Swinburne.
The increased visibility of assertive forms of atheism has provoked much public debate. This article argues that new atheism primarily seeks to contest what it considers to be the unjustifiably powerful role of religion through a multifaceted challenge to religious beliefs, practices and institutions. Influential theories of power are drawn upon to unpack the character of new atheist positions. It is proposed that new atheism seeks to challenge four perceived 'dimensions' of religious power, in particular (i) religion's role in public decision-making; (ii) the ability of religious groups to shape policy agendas; (iii) the power of religion to create preferences that run counter to an individual's true interests and, (iv) the role of religion in constituting forms of subjectivity more generally. Focussing particularly on the role of atheism in the UK, the paper also considers the implications such thinking has had on atheist practice and activism. The paper also considers how defenders of religion have reacted to the challenges posed by new atheism. It is argued that religious groups and authors have largely focussed on defending the role of religious faith and the significance of God in people's lives, rather than explicitly defending what new atheists consider to be the unfair institutional privilege accorded to some religious organisations.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the religious tide in Russia has been quick to rise. During the Soviet era, religion – particularly Orthodox Christianity and Islam – was considered to be one of the 'enemies of the people'. Since the late 1990s however, Russian politicians at all levels of the power structure have associated themselves either with the Orthodox, or on some occasions with the Muslim, clergy. The present state of affairs in the relations between religion and the state are well illustrated by the cordial liaison of the late Patriarch Aleksii II with President Vladimir Putin and the equally warm involvement of President Dmitry Medvedev, and his wife Svetlana Medvedeva, with the new Patriarch Kirill, who was elected in January 2009. Some have even argued that 'today' (in 2004) the Church and state are so extensively intertwined that one can no longer consider Russia to be a secular state. Polls seem to support the claim. While in 1990 only 24 per cent of Russians identified themselves as Orthodox, in the sense that they felt themselves to be Russians as well, in 2008 the number was 73 per cent. However, less than 10 per cent, and in Moscow perhaps only 2 per cent do actually live out their religiosity.Why did Russia turn towards religion? Is religion chosen in an attempt to legitimise power, or in order to consolidate political rule after atheist-communist failure? My guess is that the answer to both is affirmative. Moreover, whatever the personal convictions of individual Russians, including politicians, religious, mainly Orthodox Christian, rhetoric and rituals are used to make a definitive break with the communist past and to create, or re-create, a Greater Russia (see Simons 2009). In such an ideological climate, atheism has little chance of thriving, whereas there is a sort of 'social demand' for its critique.I therefore focus on what the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has had to say about atheism and how her statements can be related to a break with the past and the construction of a new Russia. Or, in my opinion, actually deleting the Soviet period from the history of Russia as an error and seeing present-day Russia as a direct continuation of the pre-Soviet imperial state.
"The conversation around atheism is still dominated by the strident and combative voices of figures like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and the now-deceased Christopher Hitchens. In bestselling books, prominent columns, and widely viewed lectures, these commentators have claimed that religion is irrational, unscientific, morally corrosive, and something that must be actively opposed. Those who have tried to defend religion against these criticisms have tended to reproduce the idea that religion and atheism are competing theories about belief in divine beings. But defining atheism narrowly in terms of belief makes it into an abstraction that misrepresents atheism as it actually exists. There are other ways to imagine atheism, and The Varieties of Atheism performs that imaginative work. This collection offers an expansive account of atheism's diversity, exploring what it has meant in the past and what it can mean in the future. The essays highlight the contingency and ambivalence of basic categories like "atheism" and "religion," which are marked by the history of post-Enlightenment debates over Judaism and Christianity. The essays in this collection trace key themes and figures in these debates in conversation with early modern philosophy, medieval theology, and contemporary theory. By clarifying the complex lines of affinity and tension between particular atheists and particular religious traditions, The Varieties of Atheism opens new avenues for the study of secularity"--
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the religious tide in Russia has been quick to rise. During the Soviet era, religion – particularly Orthodox Christianity and Islam – was considered to be one of the 'enemies of the people'. Since the late 1990s however, Russian politicians at all levels of the power structure have associated themselves either with the Orthodox, or on some occasions with the Muslim, clergy. The present state of affairs in the relations between religion and the state are well illustrated by the cordial liaison of the late Patriarch Aleksii II with President Vladimir Putin and the equally warm involvement of President Dmitry Medvedev, and his wife Svetlana Medvedeva, with the new Patriarch Kirill, who was elected in January 2009. Some have even argued that 'today' (in 2004) the Church and state are so extensively intertwined that one can no longer consider Russia to be a secular state. Polls seem to support the claim. While in 1990 only 24 per cent of Russians identified themselves as Orthodox, in the sense that they felt themselves to be Russians as well, in 2008 the number was 73 per cent. However, less than 10 per cent, and in Moscow perhaps only 2 per cent do actually live out their religiosity.Why did Russia turn towards religion? Is religion chosen in an attempt to legitimise power, or in order to consolidate political rule after atheist-communist failure? My guess is that the answer to both is affirmative. Moreover, whatever the personal convictions of individual Russians, including politicians, religious, mainly Orthodox Christian, rhetoric and rituals are used to make a definitive break with the communist past and to create, or re-create, a Greater Russia (see Simons 2009). In such an ideological climate, atheism has little chance of thriving, whereas there is a sort of 'social demand' for its critique.I therefore focus on what the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has had to say about atheism and how her statements can be related to a break with the past and the construction of a new Russia. Or, in my opinion, actually deleting the Soviet period from the history of Russia as an error and seeing present-day Russia as a direct continuation of the pre-Soviet imperial state.
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication Page -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1: WHY GOD MATTERS -- Should You Care If God Exists? -- Is God as Ridiculous as an Invisible Pink Unicorn? -- How Do You Define God? -- What about an Evil God? -- A Debate about Mere (Classical) Theism -- Should You Hope That God Exists? -- CHAPTER 2: GOD, FAITH, AND TESTIMONY -- Good and Bad Faith -- Defining Faith -- Faith in the Messiness of Life -- Faith in Your Sherpa -- The Principle of Total Evidence -- Faith in the Extraordinary -- CHAPTER 3: THE PROBLEM OF MASSIVE THEOLOGICAL DISAGREEMENT -- What Is Evidence? -- Does Religion Lead to Violence? -- Disagreement about Landlords, Parents, and God -- The Argument from Massive Theological Disagreement (MTD) -- Debating Premise One -- Evaluating Premise Two -- Relationship with God and Knowledge of God -- Could God Give Incompatible Revelations? -- Doctrine and Salvation -- CHAPTER 4: GOD AND MORAL OBLIGATION -- Setting Up the Moral Questions -- Introducing Ethics and Desire -- Debating Desirism -- Unqualified Moral Judgments -- Moral Perception -- The Problem of Changing Moral Perception -- The Faculty of Moral Perception and Desires -- Moral Obligation and Moral Calling -- Could God Command Something Morally Heinous? -- Moral Knowledge and Skepticism -- CHAPTER 5: THE PROBLEM OF THE HOSTILITY OF THE UNIVERSE -- A Most Unusual Birthday Gift -- Theism, Anthropocentrism, and a Battle of Analogies -- Why Would God Create a Hostile Universe? -- Does Atheism Predict a Universe Less Hospitable to Life? -- But Why Did God Create at All? -- CHAPTER 6: GOD, MATHEMATICS, AND REASON -- On the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics -- Numerical Patterns as Architectural Motifs -- Debating the Architectural Motif Argument -- Why Explanations Need Not Have Their Own Explanation.
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The increased visibility of assertive forms of atheism has provoked much public debate. This article argues that new atheism primarily seeks to contest what it considers to be the unjustifiably powerful role of religion through a multifaceted challenge to religious beliefs, practices and institutions. Influential theories of power are drawn upon to unpack the character of new atheist positions. It is proposed that new atheism seeks to challenge four perceived 'dimensions' of religious power, in particular (i) religion's role in public decision-making; (ii) the ability of religious groups to shape policy agendas; (iii) the power of religion to create preferences that run counter to an individual's true interests and, (iv) the role of religion in constituting forms of subjectivity more generally. Focussing particularly on the role of atheism in the UK, the paper also considers the implications such thinking has had on atheist practice and activism. The paper also considers how defenders of religion have reacted to the challenges posed by new atheism. It is argued that religious groups and authors have largely focussed on defending the role of religious faith and the significance of God in people's lives, rather than explicitly defending what new atheists consider to be the unfair institutional privilege accorded to some religious organisations.
Christianity, Islam, and atheism argues that Islam is a religion of conquest and subjugation and that in spite of 9/11 and thousands of other terrorist attacks thoughout the world, many in the West still do not know or admit this because it conflicts with their multiculturalism and their belief in the equivalence of all cultures and religions
