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Tuesday
Dec262006
World Religions - Atheism
Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 3:29AM
Atheism is the state of disbelief or non-belief in the existence of a deity or deities. It is commonly defined as the positive denial of theism (i.e., the assertion that deities do not exist), or the deliberate rejection of theism (i.e., the refusal to believe in the existence of deities). However, others—including most atheistic philosophers and groups—define atheism as the simple absence of belief in deities.
There
are over 1 billion people who do not believe in God or gods. It is the third largest "religion" after Christianity and Islam. Paul-Henri Thiry, baron d'Holbach was one of the first Europeans to support Atheism. In 1761 he wrote Christianity Unveiled, in which he attacked Christianity and religion as counter to the moral advancement of humanity. His most famous work: The System of Nature (Le Système de la nature) was written in 1770 in which he declared:
What
is so remarkable is that this work was published 65 years before Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species" in 1869, in which Darwin made the case for Evolution and Natural Selection as the process by which humans (and all other living things) came to exist and not Creation. Denying the existence of a deity, d'Holbach saw in the universe nothing save matter in motion. He also declared: The foundation of morality is happiness: "It would be useless and almost unjust to insist upon a man's being virtuous if he cannot be so without being unhappy. So long as vice renders him happy, he should love vice."
Today
there are many proponents of Atheism. Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris blame religion for notorious events in history and many of the world's current problems. In this video clip Sam Harris discusses the conflict between religion and science. He also attempts to dispel some of the Misconceptions about Atheism. In his best selling book The God Delusion Richard Dawkins is very critical about religion. In this BBC Interview he explains his position and answers viewers questions.
Religion & Ethics - Atheism Positive Atheism The Atheism Web Atheism on Yahoo
There
are over 1 billion people who do not believe in God or gods. It is the third largest "religion" after Christianity and Islam. Paul-Henri Thiry, baron d'Holbach was one of the first Europeans to support Atheism. In 1761 he wrote Christianity Unveiled, in which he attacked Christianity and religion as counter to the moral advancement of humanity. His most famous work: The System of Nature (Le Système de la nature) was written in 1770 in which he declared:"man is a production formed in the course of time, and peculiar to the particular globe he inhabits," and that every living thing changes according to time and place".
What
is so remarkable is that this work was published 65 years before Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species" in 1869, in which Darwin made the case for Evolution and Natural Selection as the process by which humans (and all other living things) came to exist and not Creation. Denying the existence of a deity, d'Holbach saw in the universe nothing save matter in motion. He also declared: The foundation of morality is happiness: "It would be useless and almost unjust to insist upon a man's being virtuous if he cannot be so without being unhappy. So long as vice renders him happy, he should love vice."Today
there are many proponents of Atheism. Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris blame religion for notorious events in history and many of the world's current problems. In this video clip Sam Harris discusses the conflict between religion and science. He also attempts to dispel some of the Misconceptions about Atheism. In his best selling book The God Delusion Richard Dawkins is very critical about religion. In this BBC Interview he explains his position and answers viewers questions.Here are some more sources of information on Atheism.
Religion & Ethics - Atheism Positive Atheism The Atheism Web Atheism on Yahoo
