Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

George H. Smith is the author of the world's most popular book on nonbelief --Atheism: The Case Against God--and Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies.

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ATHEISM

Prometheus Books

Contents

Introduction...................................................ixPart One: Atheism and God......................................11. The Scope of Atheism........................................32. The Concept of God..........................................293. The God of Christianity.....................................47Part Two: Reason, Faith, and Revelation........................934. Reason Versus Faith.........................................955. The Skepticism of Faith.....................................1256. The Varieties of Faith......................................1637. Revelation..................................................193Part Three: The Arguments For God..............................2198. Natural Theology............................................2219. The Cosmological Arguments..................................23510. The Design Arguments.......................................257Part Four: God: The Practical Consequences.....................27311. Ethics, Rationality, and Religion..........................27512. The Sins of Christianity...................................297Notes..........................................................327Selected Reading List..........................................347Index..........................................................351

Chapter One

I The Myths of Atheism

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. (Psalms 14. 1)

This frequently quoted passage captures the essence of how the average religious person views atheism. Atheism is probably the least popular-and least understood-philosophical position in America today. It is often approached with fear and mistrust, as if one were about to investigate a doctrine that advocates a wide assortment of evils-from immorality, pessimism and communism to outright nihilism.

Atheism is commonly considered to be a threat to the individual and society. It is "science divorced from wisdom and the fear of God," writes one philosopher, "which the world has directly to thank for the worst evils of 'modern war'...." In a recent critique of atheism, Vincent P. Miceli claims that "every form of atheism, even the initially well intentioned, constricts, shrinks, enslaves the individual atheist within and against himself and, eventually, as atheism reaches plague proportions among men, goes on to enslave and murder society."

Through similar representations of atheism as an evil, destructive force, religionists throughout history have prescribed various forms of punishment for atheists. Plato, in his construction of the ideal state, made "impiety" a crime punishable by five years imprisonment for the first offense and death upon a second conviction. Jesus, who is offered as the paradigm of love and compassion, threatened that nonbelievers will be thrown "into the furnace of fire" where "men will weep and gnash their teeth," just as "the weeds are gathered and burned with fire...." (Matthew 13.40-42). Thomas Aquinas, the great medieval theologian, taught that "the sin of unbelief is greater than any sin that occurs in the perversion of morals," and he recommended that the heretic "be exterminated from the world by death" after the third offense.

Although the atheist now enjoys a comparative amount of freedom in the United States, the struggle for the legal rights of the atheist has been a difficult, continuous battle. For example, until the early part of this century, many states would not permit an atheist to testify in court, which meant that an atheist could not effectively file civil and criminal charges. The reasoning behind this prohibition was that, since the atheist does not believe in rewards and punishments after death, he will not feel morally obligated to tell the truth in a court of law. In 1871, the Supreme Court of Tennessee published this remarkable statement:

The man who has the hardihood to avow that he does not believe in a God, shows a recklessness of moral character and utter want of moral responsibility, such as very little entities him to be heard or believed in a court of justice in a country designated as Christian.

Here we have the stereotype of the atheist as an insensitive, amoral cynic-a portrayal that remains widespread in our own time. Atheism, it is charged, is nothing but pure negativism: it destroys but does not rebuild. The atheist is pitted against morality itself, and the struggle between belief in a god and godlessness is viewed as a straggle between good and evil. If true, atheism is claimed to have ominous implications on a cosmic scale. A. E. Taylor expresses the fear of many theists when he writes:

... even in our hours of most complete and serenest intellectual detachment we cannot escape facing the question whether God can be eliminated from either the natural or the moral world without converting both into an incoherent nightmare.

This image of a godless world is only one among many. Atheism has become so enshrouded with myths and misconceptions that many supposed critiques of atheism are notable for their complete irrelevancy. Some religious critics prefer to attack the unpopular ideas associated with atheism rather than face the challenge of atheism directly. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find entire books with the expressed intent of demolishing atheism, but which fail to discuss such basic issues as why one should believe in a god at all. These books are content to identify atheism with specific personalities (such as Nietzsche, Marx, Camus and Same) and, by criticizing the views of these individuals, the religionist author fancies himself to have destroyed atheism. In most cases, however, the critic has not even discussed atheism.

Presenting the atheistic point of view is a difficult, frustrating endeavor. The atheist must penetrate the barrier of fear and suspicion that confronts him, and he must convince the listener that atheism represents, not a degeneration, but a step forward. This often requires the atheist to take a defensive position to explain why atheism does not lead to disastrous consequences. The atheist is expected to answer a barrage of questions, of which the following are typical.

Without god, what is left of morality? Without god, what purpose is there in man's life? If we do nor believe in god, how can we be certain of anything? If god does not exist, whom can we turn to in a time of crisis? If there is no afterlife, who will reward virtue and punish injustice? Without god, how can we resist she onslaught of atheistic communism? If god does not exist, what becomes of the worth and dignity of each person? Without god, how can man achieve happiness?

These and similar questions reflect an intimate connection between religion and values in the minds of many people. As a result, the question of god's existence becomes more than a simple philosophical problem-and atheism, since it is interpreted as an attack on these values, assumes a significance far beyond its actual meaning. Defenses of religion are frequently saturated with emotional outbursts, and the atheist finds himself morally condemned, diagnosed as a confused, unhappy man, and threatened...