In this article, I continue my survey of concepts commonly associated with atheism by considering anti-theism. For the previous installment on atheism and secularism, click here. For the last fifteen years or so, the public face of atheism has been synonymous with the new atheism of people like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late […]
antitheism
I could never worship a God who…
Has anybody ever said to you, “I could never worship a God who [fill in the blank].” Does that make sense? In this video, I take a look at that all-too-common declaration.
On Atheists Who Want Atheism to be True
The following article is adapted from a section of my book Is the Atheist My Neighbor? If you appreciate this article, please spread the word! The existence of God is a topic that tends to elicit strong passions. People have their beliefs about whether God exists or not, but they also have their hopes. Many people […]
The Atheist and the Antitheist: The Lecture
Here is my 2016 FaithLife Lecture on the Atheist as Neighbor delivered at Concordia University in Edmonton, Canada. I previously posted the paper which is titled “The Atheist and the Antitheist: A Critical Analysis of the Rebellion Thesis.” But for those who prefer watching to reading (plus there is some Q&A following)…
On Kinda Hoping God Doesn’t Exist
In my book Is the Atheist My Neighbor? I argue that atheists who hope God does not exist (where “God” is understood to be the maximally great being of classical theism) adopt an irrational position. So when Jeff Kesterson invited me to respond to his article “Be (Sorta) Excited that God Doesn’t Exist!”, I took […]
A simple explanation for how atheists can hate God
In my review for 50 Great Myths about Atheism I noted that the authors (Russell and Schüklenk) insist that the claim that “Atheists Hate or are Angry with God” is a “myth”. Not only do they reject the claim that all atheists hate or are angry with God (a point with which I’d agree). They […]
Thomas Nagel, Iconoclast and Antitheist, on Intelligent Design
Thomas Nagel is one of the most respected philosophers in the world. Like many great philosophers, he has demonstrated throughout his career a penchant for independent thought. While lesser minds have been swayed by various intellectual fashions and orthodoxies, Nagel has cut his own path. This is evident in Nagel’s 1974 paper “What is it […]
God and Wonderdad: A final discussion of antitheism
I thought I’d be done with antitheism by now but some people insist on holding on to bad ideas. So I’m going to close off this discussion with an illustration which gets to the irrational, emotional heart of antitheism. Ollie is a ten year old orphan living in an orphanage in London. He was found as a […]
Frank’s rather (un)righteous protest against God
No doubt most of us are familiar with the famous story. The setting was an Oxford dinner many years ago. In the after glow of a fine meal and the blushed cheeks from three or more glasses of port Bertrand Russell was asked “Dr. Russell, if it turns out that you’re wrong and after you […]
The end of antitheism once and for all
I think we’ve made some progress on the “antitheism” front. I’ll put it like this. (1) I am glad x exists (where “I” is any human being able to grasp (1) and x is the best human being “I” has ever known or known of). (2) If God exists then God is infinitely better than x . […]
On those who loathe God
Frank writes: I an NOT an apatheist. I would be very concerned about god’s existence, as I would loath him for his abominable cruelty.” That’s right. In addition to atheists and apatheists we have antitheists. An antitheist is an individual who believes that God does not exist but also would reject God if God did […]
