10/5 Religion | Antitheism, Atheism Etc.pdf
Conclusion
1. The theological position on the existence or otherwise of God(s) has seen the emergence of a number of ‘isms’: eight at the current count
2. The Occidental Zoroaster School provides the major revealed religion menu seen in Judaism and therefore also in Christianity and Islam
3. Hitchens’s Razor holds that ‘What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence’ as a leading Antitheism apologia
4. China, an atheist state in principle, accepts the Oriental school of community participation folk religions for their social stabilisation benefit
AR Research and Opinion
Discussion
Antitheism holds that the belief that God(s) exist is positively harmful, Atheism holds that God(s) do not exist, Ignosticism holds that the term God is logically incoherent, Agnosticism holds that the existence of God(s) is unknowable, Deism holds that observation establishes the existence of a creator God as a matter of natural reason without revelation and Theism holds that either God exists monotheism or that Gods exist polytheism and accepts any revelation where it is present, without its rejection as in Deism. Zoroaster launched the Zoroaster School of revealed religion with his Zoroastrianism greatly influencing the theology of Judaism and by extension Christianity and Islam with the School set menu: a single God Ahura Mazda, archangels Amesha Spenta, a devil Angra Mainyu and human life as a free will obstacle course with a sin and virtue accounting as reviewed on death in judgement for heaven or hell. His revelation was received from the Archangel Vohu Manah as God’s messenger ie the Christian Archangel Gabriel. This involves an immanent God indirectly manifested inside the material or mundane world as opposed to a transcendent God outside it. Immanence and transcendence themselves are subject to a variety of interpretations. The rise of the scientific method around those such as Bacon in the 17th century led to a questioning of revealed religion. Herbert introduced Deism as a scheme of natural religion making the first comparative religion analysis based on five articles as metrics and Paley published Natural Theology as a Christian apologist giving a teleological deist argument for the existence of God from an observation of nature. However, the progress of the hard sciences in the 19th century only led to further scepticism and Huxley’s Agnosticism, itself then leading to Atheism and recently to the recondite position of logical positivism: Ignosticism. Finally there has been the work of Dawkins and Hitchens that religion is a delusion and even harmful: Antitheism. This is all within the Occidental world of thought and separate from the Oriental world of an empirical religion such as Buddhism and the community participation folk religions, where the CCP of the state atheist PRC can even accept the social stability benefits available, if suitably isolated from all matters political.
AR Research and Opinion
Chronology
c 1,250 BC |
Zoroaster receives revelations as to an immanent deity, Theism, able to effect his will by six archangels one of whom gave rise to an evil offspring the devil Angra Mainyu |
1624 |
Herbert publishes De Veritate launching classical Deism a scheme of natural religion with five conclusive articles with any deviation indicating vested interests of the clergy |
1663 |
Herbert’s De Religione Gentilium a posthumous publication: a comparative religion analysis of extant religious doctrine against his five articles, while faulty a first attempt |
1776 |
US Declaration of Independence has its self evident truths reflecting the largely Deist inclinations of the Founding Fathers leading to a US civil religion enveloping all beliefs |
1802 |
Paley publishes Natural Theology making a teleological argument for the existence of a deity beginning with the watchmaker or creator analogy for nature as it is observed |
1869 |
Huxley coins the term Agnostic as regards the existence of God that any knowledge or belief must have scientific ascertainable grounds which are however not available |
1963 |
Wine formulates a liturgy omitting the term God in his Humanistic Judaism of a specific history, culture and ethics and coins the term Ignosticism opposed to Atheism 1964 |
1986 |
Dawkins publishes The Blind Watchmaker re Paley’s book demonstrating that natural selection can lead to the evolution of sophisticated organs eg the mammalian eye |
2006 |
Dawkins publishes The God Delusion ‘One person’s delusion is insanity many people’s delusion is religion’ (Persig 1991) and morality does not depend on religious belief |
2007 |
The Antitheist Hitchens publishes God is not Great with a razor ‘What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence’ holding religion to be harmful |
AR Research and Opinion
Glossary
Antitheism |
Active opposition to Theism and distinct to Atheism |
Weak anthropic principle of humans necessarily privileged to be observers causes the ‘inexplicable’ fine tunings |
Atheism |
Not believing in God(s) and specifically Theism |
Simple arguments are from the presence of evil and misfortune more recondite arguments shade into Ignosticism |
Bacon |
Francis 1561 – 1626 The father of empiricism |
A man of many parts now known for his scientific method of knowledge based on pure observation and induction |
Deism |
The Primordial Architect as posited by Newton |
Planetary motion showed a creator setting the universe in motion, but is not immanent in it ie is transcendent to it |
Ignosticism |
Doubt about the term God(s) as being incoherent |
From logical positivism an empirical proof of God(s)’s existence is not possible the term is meaningless or incoherent |
Logical Positivism |
Logischer Empirismus/Logischer Positivismus |
Schlick's Vienna School proposes a highly challenging Verificationism versus Popper’s simple Falsificationism |
Mammalian eye |
Mistakenly taken as intelligent design in action |
The retina has a happenstance evolutionary path with intelligent design notably absent as opposed to the Octopus |
Persig |
Robert M 1928 – 2017 A philosopher of qualities |
Quotation from Persig’s Lila: An Inquiry into Morals better known for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance |
Razor |
In philosophy a rule to make logical short cuts |
Classically Occam’s Razor here Hitchens’s Razor an apologist for Antitheism thus in active opposition to Theism |
Theism |
The God(s) as posited by prophetic revelations |
An immanent God is necessary from the contingency argument but his essence other than perfection is unknown |
AR Research and Opinion