CH 3

19問 • 1年前

問題一覧

‘The ____ is a human product. ______ is a human construct.’ FRANCESCA STAVRAKOPOULOU,

Bible, Religion

The ‘religious experience’ of ‘hearing god’s voice’ could be what many other people describe as their ______. There is no evidence that this voice comes from anywhere outside of us. We should look for a natural explanation.

conscience

are written by human beings. Their stories can often support us to think about human nature, but there is no reason to believe everything in them is true (many of their claims have turned out to be false). And why should we trust one ______< over the others?

Holy books

is not a reliable enough reason to believe. Believing or wanting something to be true does not make it true. We should always look for evidence.

Faith

The fact that we can’t answer all our questions does not mean that we won’t be able to answer them in the future. There were many things we did not used to be able to explain but we now can, thanks to _______. There may be questions science will never answer, but that is not a reason to turn to religious explanations.

science

‘We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.’

Richard Dawkins

The most simple reason why somebody might not believe in a god is that he or she doesn’t see any _______ to believe. They don’t feel the need to believe in a god to explain the world around them. Nor do they believe a god is necessary for human beings to lead good, happy, and meaningful lives.

persuasive reason or evidence

What many atheists do think there is good evidence for is an enormous amount of ________ in the world. For many, this provides a good reason to doubt the existence of an _____ (all-powerful), _______ (all-knowing), and ________ (all-good) god. If such a god knows suffering exists, can prevent it, and is good, then why would he or she let it happen? Religious believers have attempted to answer this question, but many atheists believe that the simplest answer is to conclude that there is no god

pain and suffering, omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent

Sometimes people are critical of atheists. They argue that atheists cannot prove there is no god. They say not believing is a faith position, just like believing is. Many atheists, however, would argue that, if there is no persuasive evidence that something exists, then the rational position is to not believe. The absence of conclusive proof either way should not force one to remain neutral. There are many other things we can’t prove don’t exist but we think it is perfectly rational not to believe in them. Many atheists believe that the responsibility should rest on the _____ to provide good evidence that something exists, not on the _____ to prove that it doesn’t. This is because it is impossible to prove that something does not exist.

believer, non-believer

The philosopher _____ proposed a thought experiment to illustrate the burden of proof. Imagine you were told there was a teapot floating in space and orbiting the sun on the same path as the Earth. Imagine you were then told that this teapot was always located on exactly the opposite side of the sun from the Earth so that we would never be able to detect it with our telescopes or in any other way. It would be impossible to prove that the teapot did not exist, but many people believe it would be perfectly reasonable to doubt it and to be sceptical of any claims it existed without good evidence

Bertrand Russell

Some people say that there is still a space left for a god to explain that which science has not yet answered. Many atheists would say that this kind of a god is a _______, a placeholder for what we do not yet know, and we should continue to look for natural explanations.

god of the gaps’,

There may be questions that science can’t answer. However, we have other tools such as _______, ________, ________, ________ to address such questions – atheists believe we do not need to turn to religion.

philosophy, literature, the arts, and human experience

Human beings appear to have a natural desire to seek __________ and _______(even when there might be none). It gives some people a sense of comfort to feel they will live on after they die and that their lives are part of a bigger plan. Many atheists believe that we can find meaning and comfort without religious beliefs.

meaning and purpose

The scientist Richard Dawkins speaks of our seeing the world through ________. Because we design things for a purpose ourselves we feel that we and the world around us must also have been designed for some purpose. However, science has revealed that we are the result of evolution by natural selection – a natural process without purpose.

purpose coloured spectacles

Skeptic and science writer Michael Shermer uses the terms ‘________’ and ‘_______’ to explain why we evolved the feeling that there might be a purpose to events when there is none. If our ancestors heard a rustling in the bushes, it was safest to imagine it was a tiger rather than the wind. If you guessed it was a tiger and you were wrong, no problem. If you guessed it was the wind and you were wrong, you were lunch!

patternicity, agenticity

We may have natural instincts to believe in gods but there are also very powerful social reasons – the influence of one’s parents, peers, and society. _______, in many countries, plays a powerful role in the running of the state, particularly in education.

Organised religion

In some counties, being an atheist is punishable by _______ , or even _______.Society is, however, changing. Today people are less likely to follow the beliefs of their parents. Many atheists believe that if we can remove any privileged role for religion in society then we can be more confident that our beliefs stem from our own free thought.

imprisonment, death

‘The ______ say that the gods have flat noses and are black, while the ______ say that the gods have blue eyes and red hair… And if cattle or horses or lions had hands or could draw or sculpt like men can, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, cattle draw their gods like cattle, and both would depict the bodies of the gods in their own likeness.’ XENOPHANES

Ethiopians, Thracians

The philosopher _______ said god is a human creation. The idea of god is really just ourselves, our own thoughts and values projected onto the idea of something external to ourselves. What people think of as god is in fact our own human nature.

Ludwig Feuerbach

CH 1

OBILLO, MIKAELA T. · 78問 · 1年前

CH 1