Do they even exist? Do you know of any that convinced you?
Please don't mention Richard Dawkins. I mean REAL philosophers. I've read Nietzsche. He's right about nearly everything regarding human religions but doesn't really really get into the God argument. I have also read Freud and Hume and many enlightenment era philosophers. None of them really, really get into the GOD argument, just religion arguments. I need more. Please help.
2007-03-06 06:43:30 · 10 answers · asked by Zeek 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Note: Please don't attack me with vitriole, I'm, just looking for authors. Thank you.
2007-03-06 06:44:12 · update #1
All great suggestions. Thanks guys.
For the record, I'm currently agnostic and therefore looking at both sides.
2007-03-06 09:37:37 · update #2
Well...no offense bro but that's probably because they just dont have a leg to stand on.
Antony Flew was quite possibly the most brillant and certainly one of best known proponents of Atheism for a few decades there yet under the crushing weight of the recent scientific evidence (specified complexity etc) he just gave it up. From what i hear, Dawkins is a young chicken compared with Flew.
Anyway check out this website for several free interview with Flew and others on this topic.
http://www.leestrobel.com/
Also, if you want a book that starts "from scratch" as it were and argues logically starting from the possibility of
'abject nothingness' through dualism to monotheism and virtually every other concept but stays pretty concise and HIGHLY entertaining , i would suggest (please don’t choke on the title) "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. Yes that's the same guy from Chronicles of Narnia.
I dont know you, so you may be genuinely seeking out these things or you may just be a priori rabidly anti-christianity but i hope not, and I hope you are open to arguments from both sides and that these resources help.
after all someone ALWAYS sounds right...till you hear the other side of the story ;)!
Blessings,
Stephan Joseph
2007-03-06 07:29:56 · answer #1 · answered by Stephan J 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hume and Nietzsche are the obvious ones, but if they don't do it for you, check out Ludwig Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity -- but that might also be too much about religion for your taste. It was very influential, however.
Sounds like you want authors who argue positively against the existence of God, right? Well, here are some contemporary works of philosophy arguing the atheist position:
The Non-existence of God by Nicholas Everett
The Improbability of God by Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier
Atheism: A Philosophical Justification by Michael Martin
The Cambridge Companion to Atheism edited by Michael Martin (a collection of essays)
God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist by Victor Stenger
It looks like Martin is the guy to look for -- he seems to have made his career defending atheism philosophically.
Also check out the article in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy linked below; it will lead you to many other sources.
I'm not an atheist myself, but these are the sources I'd begin checking if I were seriously researching atheism.
2007-03-06 08:23:54 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I follow Taoism. The founder of Taoism is considered to be Lao Tzu. I find him to be the most gifted of all other philosophers I've ever read, and I've read a lot. Taoist do not have a concept of god. We are not anthropomorphic in any way. There is only Tao.
2007-03-06 07:31:12 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty are great existentialist atheist authors. If you want philosophy without gods look to Buddhism, or Taoism.
PS: Theeavada Buddhism is what you want to read, Mahayana has lots o' gods in it.
2007-03-06 07:57:07 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Robert Nozick, "Philisophical Explanations"
Roger Penrose, "The Road to Reality"
2007-03-06 06:53:19 · answer #5 · answered by cosmo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Philosophers are smart men. Go against the societies grain and one is fortunate to be drinking hemlock tea.
lesson learned.
The reason to reason is for the sake of reason.
âºââº
2007-03-06 07:03:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
atheists don't see the need for philosophy.
we have accepted the fact that there is no afterlife or greater power that created us.
philosophy would be a waste of our short lives.
2007-03-06 07:29:49 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are plenty! First, try Bertrand Russell (read his essay "Why I Am Not a Christian"), then Nietschze, then Jean-Paul Sartre....
2007-03-06 07:04:12 · answer #8 · answered by bot_parody 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
most philosophers ask themselves about the existance of God.... do you think that they ar enot atheists?
2007-03-06 06:51:00 · answer #9 · answered by Vlado 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
www.edge.org, check it out!
2007-03-06 09:25:16 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋