Transcript Teaching Atheism - Sacramento State

Prof. Matt McCormick
Department of Philosophy
California State University, Sacramento
[email protected]
www.atheismblog.blogspot.com
There is no God.
Deductive Disproofs
Inductive Disproofs
(God is impossible)
(God is improbable)
Single Property Disproofs
Omnipotence is impossible.
Omniscience is impossible.
Omnibenevolence is impossible.
Multiple Property Disproofs
Omnipresent and Conscious.
Free and Omniscient.
Creator and Outside of Time.
Transcendent and Inside of Time.
Problem of Evil
Divine Hiddenness
Proof from Non-Belief
Scientific Naturalism
Burden of Proof Problem
Argument from Anthropology,
Psychology, Evolution
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Is teaching it indoctrination?
Does the act of talking openly about it
create atheists?
Conversion?
 Historically, organized
religions have
said to even think about it is to lose faith,
sin, or do something wrong.

The vast majority of Americans are believers. By some
polls, over 90%.

Americans also take the Bible very seriously.

•
78% of Americans either believe that the Bible is the “actual word of God, to be taken
literally word for word,” or it is the inspired word of God.
•
83% of Americans identify themselves as Christians, with about half of them claiming to be
evangelical or born again.
People Are More Negative about Atheists More than Any
Other Minority Group.
•
“From a list of groups that also includes Muslims, recent immigrants, and homosexuals,
Americans name atheists as those least likely to share their vision of American society.
They are also more likely to disapprove of their children marrying atheists.”
•
In general, atheists are an exception to the general trend of increasing tolerance
nationwide that has included improved attitudes towards gays, lesbians, blacks, Hispanics,
and other minority groups.
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The test of human rights: when someone
wants to exercise that right to do
something that you find profoundly
offensive.
In academia (and everywhere else)
people need to be able to explore and
express offensive, repugnant,
controversial, or inflammatory ideas.

Reason, autonomy, human freedom first, atheism
second.

It’s more important for people to have liberated
minds than for them to be atheists.

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A liberated mind is one that reflects, analyzes,
critiques, and then slowly and carefully comes to
a conclusion on its own.
The seduction of emotion, youthful rebellion,
contrariness, sudden conversion are not the
paths to reasonable belief.
 Atheists
boast: We live reason. We have
rational, logical minds.
 That
means being prepared to change
your mind, if that’s where the evidence
takes you.
 What
would it take, hypothetically, to get
you to change your mind?
 A fundamentally transformed kind of human existence.
 People
don’t simply, abruptly change their
minds in arguments and debates.
• “Oh, you’re right! . . . Ok, I changed my mind.”
 But
they do go home and think about it, and
little thoughts turn into bigger ones.
Questions turn into answers. Doubts turn into
convictions. Or convictions about God turn
into substantial doubts.
 Presto, chango: An Atheist.

The human race has been highjacked by a seductive idea, a mind
virus, that has the potential to consume, destroy, distract, and
derail.

By every reasonable measure, science has improved the lot of
humanity by orders of magnitude more than any other institution.

The scientific method is the the most important discovery in the
entire history of the human race.

The essence of that method is actively seeking out disconfirming
evidence. Doubt, analysis, critique, skepticism, and defeasibility.

The essence of religion is dogmatism, belief, authority, stagnation,
apologetics, rationalizing and conformity.
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Religious tolerance has come to mean indulging your
neighbors.
Demanding reasons or an explanation of a person’s
religious views is a social faux pas akin to pressing for
details about their messy divorce, or dead wife.
We’ve conflating religious affiliation with ethnic identity.
 Compare: “Oh, I was raised Catholic.” “Oh, I’m Sicilian.”

"Religions have contrived to make it impossible to disagree
with them critically without being rude. They play the hurt
feelings card at every opportunity and you are faced with
the choice of articulating the criticism or buttoning your lip.”
Daniel Dennett
 Formula
for Success: a social institution
that propagates the view that disagreeing
with it is disrespectful, intolerant, sinful,
and evil.
 The
most important thing we can do for
each other is listen closely and disagree
vigorously.

Religion and religious belief bad.

Freethought atheism. . . good.

Fight.
 www.atheismblog.blogspot.com