Is Atheism Rational? Part1
Is Atheism Rational? The problems of meaning and purpose.
Copyright © Howard Robinson 24th April 2010.
Introduction
Since the dawn of time, mankind has debated, researched, pondered, disputed, agonised over and mulled over the subjects of meaning and purpose.
Mankind has found a number of options to answer these questions:
World Religions; Revelations – Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Mormonism; Philosophical Doubts or Uncertainty – Agnosticism and Atheism.
Judaism, Islam, Mormonism and Christianity are different in that they claim to have been initiated by divine revelation, not by man.
For a start let’s look at Atheism, then the other options and take it from there.
Atheism
An Atheist is someone who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods. It is a philosophical choice. It is a set of beliefs. Many Atheists believe that the Scientific Method and rational thought can provide the answers to the questions of existence and purpose. Many Atheists believe in the Theory of Evolution and the theory of The Big Bang. [Emphasis mine].
So we see that Atheism is something that is believed and it is a philosophical choice based on those beliefs.
The alternatives:
Hinduism
Most Hindus worship one or more deities, believe in reincarnation, value the practice of meditation and observe festive holidays like Diwali and Holi.
Hindus believe in the law of Karma: that a good life now results in a better life in the next reincarnation.
For the Hindu the goal of life is to attain freedom from reincarnation,
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37