Some people have suggested that atheism is a religion. The reasons typically given for this view often vary, but tend to boil down to either the behavior or the opinions of atheists. Atheists are dogmatic in their disbelief, according to certain people, they have faith in materialism, they rally behind a messianic figure like Darwin, and they even have their own brand of apostasy concerning atheists who abandon atheism.
You might already recognize the absurdity of one or two of these claims...
The Big Questions, as their name implies, are questions about who we are, about the universe we live in, about our place in the universe, and more along these lines. Theistic religions, especially those that proselytize, have constructed cases for their beliefs that tend to pay a great deal of attention to these Big Questions. Sometimes widespread and culturally dominant religions even succeed in defining the terms of the questions, so as to give themselves greater assurance of their influence on the lives of their adherents and the societies in which they thrive. So far, we have considered w...
How long has atheism been around? In this seventh episode of the show, I talk with Tim Whitmarsh, the A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge, about atheism in ancient history. Professor Whitmarsh works on all areas of Greek literature and culture, specializing particularly in the world of Greeks under the Roman Empire. Professor Whitmarsh has published several books, including Greek Literature and the Roman Empire, Narrative and Identity in the Ancient Greek Novel, and his most recent, Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World.
Armchair Atheism is the of...
