1. What ancient Indian school was materialist and probably atheist? Do you think a materialist worldview necessarily entails atheism?
2. Naturalism emerges from ____, making the latter most fundamental to the origins of atheism.
3. "The first unequivocally professed atheist in the Western Tradition" was who? (But in light of #1, can you think of previous philosophers who were probably atheists?)
4. What % of Americans said in a 2019 survey that they would never vote for an atheist? What would it take to shrink that percentage?
5. What does Baggini say is one of the greatest predictors of how well a country is doing? Can you think of exceptions?
6. What is militant atheism?
7. We have to accept that there are no ____. (But do we?)
8. What sort of "climate" does moderate and mild religion support?
9. What is NOMA? Do you accept it?
When did atheism emerge in the west?
ReplyDeleteWhat replaces myth in Thucydides Histories?
What are the dangers of militant atheism?
Naturalism emerges from the pre-socratic Milesian philosophers Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander (are their names a result of poor transliteration?) and it was one of the first times we saw people attempt to explain 'things' using that which we can see rather than mysticism.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me that ancient humans turned to mysticism rather than naturalism. When I think of ancient ways of life, the first word that comes to mind is often "simplicity." Their lives revolved around very basic things like food, shelter, and competition for resources. Would it not have made more sense for them to make sense of their world using the things their lives revolved around, rather than something that was unrelated completely? Granted, they did form their gods around the animals they interacted with and the functions of nature, but it is none the less interesting to think about.