Science and religion both make claims about the fundamental workings of the universe. Although these claims are not a priori incompatible (we could imagine being brought to religious belief through scientific investigation), I will argue that in practice they diverge. If we believe that the methods of science can be used to discriminate between fundamental pictures of reality, we are led to a strictly materialist conception of the universe. While the details of modern cosmology are not a necessary part of this argument, they provide interesting clues as to how an ultimate picture may be constructed.
Sean CarrollTags: science reality atheism atheist cosmology materialism science-and-religion
[Letter to his wife, Natalia Sedova]
In addition to the happiness of being a fighter for the cause of socialism, fate gave me the happiness of being her husband. During the almost forty years of our life together she remained an inexhaustible source of love, magnanimity, and tenderness. She underwent great sufferings, especially in the last period of our lives. But I find some comfort in the fact that she also knew days of happiness.
For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist; for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake, but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionist, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth.
Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
Tags: life happiness love true-love beauty death youth atheism hope suffering oppression atheist violence materialism wife communism marxism enjoyment red-army soviet magnanimity materialist tenderness revolutionist dialectical-materialism irreconcilable-atheism irreconcilable-atheist proletarian
The orthodox tend to think that people who, like the postmodernists and me, believe neither in God nor in some suitable substitute, must feel that everything is permitted, that everybody can do what they like.
Richard RortyTags: morality people ethics atheism prejudice think atheist discrimination orthodox religious-right morality-without-religion postmodernists richard-rorty
My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law.
Richard RortyTags: future love civilization atheism hope idealism atheist law perfection secular utopia descendants secularist global-civilization sense-of-holy
[Jürgen Habermas' obituary to friend and philosopher, Richard Rorty]
One small autobiographical piece by Rorty bears the title 'Wild Orchids and Trotsky.' In it, Rorty describes how as a youth he ambled around the blooming hillside in north-west New Jersey, and breathed in the stunning odour of the orchids. Around the same time he discovered a fascinating book at the home of his leftist parents, defending Leon Trotsky against Stalin. This was the origin of the vision that the young Rorty took with him to college: philosophy is there to reconcile the celestial beauty of orchids with Trotsky's dream of justice on earth. Nothing is sacred to Rorty the ironist. Asked at the end of his life about the 'holy', the strict atheist answered with words reminiscent of the young Hegel: 'My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law.
Tags: inspirational love justice philosophy death atheism hope autobiography atheist law earth holy sacred hegel obituary joseph-stalin stalin orchids leon-trotsky descendants richard-rorty global-civilization ironist richard-rorty-obituary strict-atheist trotsky
If everything must have a cause, of course, this also applies to God; if God can exist in isolation, then why not the universe?
Etienne VermeerschTags: existence philosophy atheism universe atheist naturalism materialism infinite first-cause antitheism atheist-argument origin-of-the-universe origin-of-universe argument-against-theism first-cause-argument-debunked special-pleading special-pleading-fallacy
[On famous Nobel Laureate Niels Bohr]
[Niels] Bohr's sort of humor, use of parables and stories, tolerance, dependence on family, feelings of indebtedness, obligation, and guilt, and his sense of responsibility for science, community, and, ultimately, humankind in general, are common traits of the Jewish intellectual. So too is a well-fortified atheism. Bohr ended with no religious belief and a dislike of all religions that claimed to base their teachings on revelations.
Tags: humor science family stories atheism atheist responsibility teaching tolerance revelation community intellectual jewish humankind jew parables niels-bohr dislike-of-religion obligation-guilt
My method is atheism. I find the atheistic outlook provides a favourable background for cosmopolitan practices. Acceptance of atheism at once pulls down caste and religious barriers between man and man. There is no longer a Hindu, a Muslim or a Christian. All are human beings. Further, the atheistic outlook puts man on his legs. There is neither divine will nor fate to control his actions. The release of free will awakens Harijans [lowest caste] and the depressed classes from the stupor of inferiority into which they were pressed all these ages when they were made to believe that they were fated to be untouchables. So I find the atheistic outlook helpful for my work [helping people]. After all it is man that created god to make society moral and to silence restless inquisitiveness about the how and why of natural phenomena. Of course god was useful though a falsehood. But like all falsehoods, belief in god also gave rise to many evils in course of time and today it is not only useless but harmful to human progress. So I take to the propagation of atheism as an aid to my work. The results justify my choice.
Goparaju Ramachandra RaoTags: progress equality questions free-will morality humanity belief nature fate atheism atheist control naturalism materialism islam muslim hinduism cosmopolitan inferiority hindu useless aid harmful divine-will atheistic natural-phenomena atheistic-outlook caste-system man-created-god religious-barriers social-reformer untouchables
When a mere girl, my mother offered me a dollar if I would read the Bible through; . . . . despairing of reconciling many of its absurd statements with even my childish philosophy, . . . I became a sceptic, doubter, and unbeliever, long ere the 'Good Book' was ended.
Elmina Drake SlenkerTags: philosophy youth atheism atheist girl absurdity young bible-study bible-absurdities doubter sceptic unbeliever
How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. What remorse your credulity caused me! A thousand times I was on the point of breaking out publicly and opening your eyes, but a fear stronger than myself held me back, and forced me to keep silence until my death.
Jean MeslierTags: fear lies death atheism atheist superstition credulity first-atheist pious-lies
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