50 Great Myths About Atheism by Russell Blackford & Udo Schuklenk

Author:Russell Blackford & Udo Schuklenk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2013-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

But religious faith goes beyond any of this in making claims that are radically different. Claims about whether our souls will survive death, for example, go beyond our experience of the world—not just our experience as individuals, but our collective experience as we build an overall web of reliable knowledge (D'Souza, 2007, pp. 192–193). D'Souza nonetheless believes that faith-based claims can be reasonable, even vindicated. He is entitled to that view, but atheists are not wrong when we distinguish faith-based claims, for which ordinary evidence does not exist, from ordinary human knowledge, based on reason and evidence.

Throughout this book, we have much to say that is critical of D'Souza, but he is correct about one thing: religious believers should not claim to know about gods, immortality, Heaven and Hell, or an afterlife (D'Souza, 2007, pp. 194–197). He suggests that we should take an attitude to these things that combines doubt with trusting in what cannot be known. Well, that's one approach. We atheists take what we submit is a more reasonable one: we distrust beliefs that are not held on the basis of rational consideration, and on ordinary evidence such as used by scientists and historians—and by all of us in our everyday lives. If extraordinary claims cannot be supported through reason and evidence, it is wisest not to give them credence.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.