Cambridge Companion to Atheism: Book Review by Will Podmore

[Synnical]

http://www.secularism.org.uk/99813.html

Cambridge Companion to Atheism: Book Review by Will Podmore

This is a very thought-provoking collection of essays, edited by Michael Martin, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Boston University. Eighteen leading scholars, mostly from the USA, discuss aspects of atheism and its implications for philosophy, religion, law, anthropology, sociology, psychology, biology and physics.

Sociologist Phil Zuckerman estimates that there are about 500–750 million atheists, agnostics and unbelievers, which is 58 times the number of Mormons, 41 times the number of Jews, 35 times the number of Sikhs, and twice the number of Buddhists. Atheists, agnostics and unbelievers are the fourth largest group, after Christians (2 billion), Muslims (1.2 billion) and Hindus (900 million).

Daniel Dennett examines the relationship between atheism and evolution. He shows how matter has evolved to produce mind, rather than matter being produced by an originating mind.

Philosopher David Brink discusses the need for a secular ethics based on objective standards. He notes that in ethical subjectivism, ethics depends on the beliefs of an appraiser, but God is an appraiser too. So religion brings subjectivity into ethics. Also, if ethics depends on God’s will, then it is relative to God’s will, so religion brings relativism into ethics.

Again, if God commands an action because it is good, then God and his commands are unnecessary. If an action is good because God commands it, then ethics are unnecessary and obedience to God is the only virtue. So religion, which supposedly sets ethics on an objective basis, with independent values and standards, in fact reduces ethics to subjective opinions, with no independent values or standards.

Also religion compromises morality. When eternal bliss is the reward for goodness, then selfish considerations cannot but intrude, inevitably corrupting goodness. Belief in God becomes an insurance policy.

Philosopher Andrea Weisberger writes, “The existence of evil is the most fundamental threat to the traditional Western concept of an all-good, all-powerful God.” If we are morally obliged to reduce evil, then God must also be obliged. If he is all-powerful, why doesn’t he prevent unnecessary suffering? Those who argue that God uses evil for some greater good are saying that God immorally uses people and their suffering as means to ends.

Philosopher Patrick Grim shows that God’s traditional attributes — omnipotence, omniscience and moral perfection — are all intrinsically impossible, self-contradictory idealist fantasies.

This book is available from the NSS shop at or by post from NSS Books, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL (£17.99 plus £2 p&p).

01 August 2008

Couldn't find the book at the NSS site, but found it at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-Atheism-Companions-Philosophy/dp/0521603676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217896716&sr=1-1

And better yet, one copy available at Powell's:

http://www.powells.com/s?kw=Cambridge+Companion+to+Atheism&x=0&y=0

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[Jim__]

1. I like the Cambridge Companion series.

This sounds like an interesting book. Thanks for posting this.