REL STD 5A Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Carneades, Pyrrho, Medieval University
30 Nov 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
It"s part of the story of religion in the west". Atheism : greek word for god = theos. Theism = god belief atheism = not god belief . Probably older, maybe the original state of humanity: the disbelief in god. Evidence (written): expresses doubt about god (500 bce) Ancient greeks & romans 400 bce to 300 bce. Offer natural (not supernatural) explanation for all phenomena of the universe: night sky: stars are not gods, but flaming rocks. They don"t need a god to explain anything. To keep people in line, social control. Offer critiques of theisms of their day: problem of suffering and evil how can there be a good god, anthropomorphism putting god in a human form. Skeptical of all claims of knowledge, including religion: belief is not knowledge. Public atheism declines with the success of christianity. Re-emergence of atheism in the west, century by century:
