THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO
ATHEISM

In The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, eighteen of the world’s leading scholars present original essays on various aspects of atheism: its history, both ancient and modern, defense, and implications. The topic is examined in terms of its implications for a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, religion, feminism, postmodernism, sociology, and psychology. In its defense, both classical and contemporary theistic arguments are criticized, and the argument from evil and impossibility arguments, along with a nonreligious basis for morality, are defended. These essays give a broad understanding of atheism and a lucid introduction to this controversial topic.

Michael Martin is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Boston University. He is the author of more than 150 articles and reviews as well as several books, including Atheism, Morality and Meaning; The Impossibility of God (with Ricki Monnier) and Atheism: A Philosophical Justification.

CAMBRIDGE COMPANIONS TO PHILOSOPHY

VOLUMES IN THE SERIES OF CAMBRIDGE COMPANIONS:

ABELARD  Edited by JEFFREY E. BROWER and KEVIN GUILFOY
ADORNO  Edited by TOM HUNN
AQUINAS  Edited by NORMAN KRETZMANN and ELEONORE STUMP
HANNAH ARENDT  Edited by DANA VILLA
ARISTOTLE  Edited by JONATHAN BARNES
AUGUSTINE  Edited by ELEONORE STUMP and NORMAN KRETZMANN
BACON  Edited by MARKKU PELTONEN
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR  Edited by CLAUDIA CARD
DARWIN  Edited by JONATHAN HODGE and GREGORY RADICK
DESCARTES  Edited by JOHN COTTINGHAM
DUNS SCOTUS  Edited by THOMAS WILLIAMS
EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY  Edited by A. A. LONG
FEMINISM IN PHILOSOPHY  Edited by MIRANDA FRICKER and JENNIFER HORNSBY
FOUCAULT Second Edition  Edited by GARY GUTTING
FREUD  Edited by JEROME NEU
GADAMER  Edited by ROBERT J. DOSTAL
GALILEO  Edited by PETER MACHAMER
GERMAN IDEALISM  Edited by KARL AMERIKS
GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY  Edited by DAVID SEDLEY
HABERMAS  Edited by STEPHEN K. WHITE
HEGEL  Edited by FREDERICK BEISER
HEIDEGGER  Edited by CHARLES GUIGNON
HOBBES  Edited by TOM SORELL
HUME  Edited by DAVID FATE NORTON
HUSSERL  Edited by BARRY SMITH and DAVID WOODRUFF SMITH
WILLIAM JAMES  Edited by RUTH ANNA PUTNAM
KANT  Edited by PAUL GUYER
KIERKEGAARD  Edited by ALASTAIR HANNAY and GORDON MARINO
LEIBNIZ  Edited by NICHOLAS JOLLEY

The Cambridge Companion to

ATHEISM

Edited by Michael Martin
Boston University

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 2007

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First published 2007

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

The Cambridge companion to atheism / edited by Michael Martin.
p. cm. – (Cambridge companions to philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-521-84270-0 (hardback) – ISBN 0-521-60367-6 (pbk.)
1. Atheism. I. Martin, Michael, 1932 Feb. 3– II. Title. III. Series.
BL2747.3.C36    2007
211^′.8–dc22    2006005949

ISBN-13 978-0-521-84270-9 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-84270-0 hardback

ISBN-13 978-0-521-60367-6 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-60367-6 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for
the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or
third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
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CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTORS

More extensive biographical material about the contributors can usually be obtained from the Web page of their respective academic departments or, if available, from the contributor’s own personal Web page or on the Secular Web.

BENJAMIN BEIT-HALLAHMI is Professor of Psychology, University of Haifa, and author of Prologomena to the Psychology of Religion (1989) and The Psychology of Religious Behaviour (1997).

JAN N. BREMMER is Professor of the General History of Religion and the Comparative Science of Religion, the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and the author of Greek Religion (1999) and The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife (2002).

DAVID O. BRINK is Professor of Philosophy, University of California at San Diego, and the author of Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics (1989) and Perfectionism and the Common Good: Themes in the Philosophy of T. H. Green (2003).

JOHN D. CAPUTO is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Humanities, Syracuse University, and author of On Religion (2001) and The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event (2006).

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG is Research Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, and author of The Kalam Cosmological Argument (1979) and God, Time, and Eternity (2001).

DANIEL C. DENNETT is Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, University Professor, Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University, and author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (1995) and Freedom Evolves (2003).

EVAN FALES is Associate Professor of Philosophy, the University of Iowa, and author of Causation and Universals (1990) and A Defense of the Given: Studies in Epistemology and Cognitive Theory (1996).

RICHARD M. GALE is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh, and author of On the Nature and Existence of God (1991) and The Divided Self of William James (1999).

STEVEN G. GEY is David and Deborah Fonvielle and Donald and Janet Hinkle Professor, College of Law, Florida State University, and author of Cases and Material on Religion and the State (2001).

PATRICK GRIM is Professor of Philosophy, SUNY at Stony Brook, and author of The Incomplete Universe (1991) and The Philosophical Computer (with Gary Mar and Paul St. Denis, 1998) and editor of The Philosopher’s Annual.

STEWART E. GUTHRIE is Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Fordham University, and author of A Japanese New Religion: Rissho Kosei-Kai in a Mountain Hamlet (1988) and Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion (1993).

GAVIN HYMAN is Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Lancaster, and author of The Predicament of Postmodern Theology: Radical Orthodoxy or Nihilist Textualism? (2001) and editor of New Directions in Philosophical Theology: Essays in Honour of Don Cupitt (2004).

MICHAEL MARTIN is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Boston University, and author of Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (1990) and The Case against Christianity (1991).

CHRISTINE OVERALL is a Professor of Philosophy, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and author of Thinking Like a Woman: Personal Life and Political Ideas (2001) and Aging, Death, and Human Longevity: A Philosophical Inquiry (2003).

KEITH PARSONS is Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Houston, Clear Lake, and author of God and the Burden of Proof (1990) and Drawing Out Leviathan (2001).

QUENTIN SMITH is Professor of Philosophy, Western Michigan University, and coauthor of Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology (with William Lane Craig, 1993) and Ethical and Religious Thought in Analytic Philosophy of Language (1997).

ANDREA M. WEISBERGER was Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Jacksonville University and author of Suffering Belief: Evil and the Anglo-American Defense of Theism (1999) and various articles in professional journals on philosophy, religion, and the sciences.

PHIL ZUCKERMAN is Associate Professor of Sociology, Pitzer College, and author of Strife in the Sanctuary: Religious Schism in a Jewish Community (1999) and Invitation to the Sociology of Religion (2003).

PREFACE

It has been a distinct honor to edit The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. To help bring to fruition a volume of original essays published by one of world’s great university presses on one of the world’s most controversial topics was an unforgettable and thrilling experience. I am grateful to Andy Beck, my editor at Cambridge University Press, who offered me the job as editor and who was patient and willing to answer my questions. I am deeply beholden to the seventeen other contributors to this volume whose essays provide novel insights to various aspects of atheism. It was a pleasure to work with them.

   My wife, Jane Roland Martin, provided warm encouragement and wise advice. In addition, many nonbelieving friends and colleagues provided their support and help. In particular, I would like to thank my friend and fellow collaborator on other books on atheism, Dr. Ricki Monnier, whose encyclopedic knowledge on things atheistic was an enormous help and inspiration. I am also grateful to Dr. Tyler Wunder for his comments on chapter 6 and Dr. Wiebke Denecke for her comments on chapter 13.

GLOSSARY

For further definitions of the terms found in the volume, see Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), and Bill Cooke (ed.), Dictionary of Atheism, Skepticism, and Humanism (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2005).

a posteriori argument:—an argument based on experience. See also teleological argument
a priori argument:—an argument not based on experience. See also impossibility argument; ontological argument
Anselmian conception of God:—the view attributed to St. Anselm that God is a being such that no greater being can be conceived
anthropomorphism:—the ascription of human traits to God
apostasy:—disaffection, defection, alienation, disengagement, or disaffiliation from a religious group
argument from design. See teleological argument
argument from evil:—an argument that purports to show that the existence of evil is either incompatible with the existence of God or makes God’s existence improbable. See also problem of evil
argument from indexicals:—a type of impossibility argument that maintains that, although allegedly all-knowing, God cannot have certain knowledge expressed in indexicals. See also indexical
argument from miracles:—an argument that purports to show that the existence of God is the most plausible explanation of miracles. See also miracle
argument from religious experience:—an argument that purports to show that the existence of God or other supernatural beings provides the best explaination of religious experience. See also mystical experience; religious experience
autonomy of ethics:—the view that ethics is not based on theology. Cf. divine command theory. See also ethical naturalism
Big Bang cosmology:—a theory that holds that the universe originated approximately 15 billion years ago from the violent explosion of a very small agglomeration of matter of extremely high density and temperature. See also Kalam cosmological argument for atheism; Kalam cosmological argument for God
cancellation agnosticism:—the view that the arguments for and against belief in God are equally strong and cancel each other out. Cf. skeptical agnosticism
clairvoyance:—the power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses. See also paranormal phenomena
cosmological argument:—an argument that seeks to give a causal explanation of why some universe exists
deism:—the view that God created the world and then had no further interaction with it; also, a view of God based on reason and not revelation. Cf. pantheism; theism
devas:—the finite and impermanent gods described by some Eastern religions
divine command theory:—the theory that ethical propositions are based on what God commands. Cf. autonomy of ethics; ethical naturalism. See also voluntarism
eliminative materialism:—the view that despite appearances, there are no mental entities or processes. Cf. reductive materialism
empiricism:—the theory that all knowledge is based on experience. Cf. rationalism
epicureanism:—a leading Hellenistic philosophical school that advocated an atomistic metaphysics and a hedonistic ethics
epistemological naturalism:—the thesis that the supernatural lies beyond the scope of what we can know, hence theology is rejected as a source of knowledge
epistemology:—the theory of knowledge
ethical naturalism:—the theory that the ethical properties of situations depend on the nature of those situations. Cf. divine command theory. See also autonomy of ethics
Euthyphro problem:—a dilemma posed in the Platonic dialogue The Euthyphro and used as a critique of religiously based ethics. See also autonomy of ethics; divine command theory; voluntarism
fine-tuning argument:—a teleological argument based on the alleged improbability that the fundamental physical constants in the universe are compatible with life. See also teleological argument
free-will defense:—the response to the argument from evil that evil is the result of free will and cannot be blamed on God. See also argument from evil; theodicy
impossibility argument:—an a priori argument against the existence of God that purports to show that the concept of God is inconsistent. See also argument from indexicals; paradox of the stone
indexical:—a type of expression whose meaning varies with the context; e.g., “I,” “here,” “now.” See also argument from indexicals
intelligent design theory:—a theory that does not reject Darwin’s theory completely but maintains that evolution needs to be explained in terms of the working out of some intelligent design
Kalam cosmological argument for atheism:—an argument that purports to show that according to the latest scientific cosmology, the origin of the universe is incompatible with the existence of God. Cf. Kalam cosmological argument for god
Kalam cosmological argument for God:—an argument that maintains that the most plausible explanation for the universe coming into being is that God brought it into existence. Cf. Leibniz cosmological argument
knowledge by acquaintance:—knowledge based on direct experience. Cf. propositional knowledge
Leibniz cosmological argument:—an argument attributed to Leibniz that the whole series of contingent beings that make up the universe requires an external cause that is not contingent but necessary and that this cause is God
logical positivism:—a philosophical movement in Anglo-American philosophy in the 1930s and ’40s advocating the rejection of metaphysics because it is unverifiable and hence meaningless. Both belief in God and disbelief in God are thought to be meaningless. See also metaphysics; negative atheism
metaphysics:—the philosophical investigation of the nature, composition, and structure of ultimate reality
miracle:—an event that is not explainable by laws of nature known or unknown. See also argument from miracles
modus ponens:—the argument form: If A, then B; A therefore B
modus tollens:—the argument form: If A, then B; not-B therefore not-A
mystical experience:—religious experience that transcends ordinary sense perception and purports to be a direct experience of ultimate reality
naturalism:—the view that everything that exists is composed of natural entities and processes that can in principle be studied by science
naturalized epistemology:—an approach that views human beings as natural entities and uses the methods of science to study epistemological processes; sometimes considered a branch of cognitive science
negative atheism:—absence of belief in any god or gods. More narrowly conceived, it is the absence of belief in the theistic God. Cf. positive atheism. See also logical positivism
neo-Darwinian theory:—a synthesis of Darwin’s theory and genetic theory
Occam’s razor:—a methodological principle advocating simplicity in theory construction
omnibenevolence:—the property attributed to God of being all good
omnipotence:—the property attributed to God of being all powerful
omniscience:—the property attributed to God of being all knowing
ontological argument:—an a priori argument that maintains that God’s existence is true by definition
ontology. See metaphysics
out-of-body experiences:—the experience of floating free of one’s body; used by believers as evidence of an immaterial soul
pantheism: the view that God is identical with nature. Cf. deism; theism
paradox of the stone:—if God can make a stone that he cannot lift, he is not all-powerful; but if he cannot make such a stone, he is also not all-powerful. See also impossibility argument
paranormal phenomena:—phenomena such an ESP, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis that at the present time are unexplainable in terms of science
physicalism:—the claim that minds are not distinct from matter and hence cannot exist apart from it. See also reductive materialism; supervenience theory
polytheism:—the view that there are many gods
positive atheism:—disbelief in any God or gods. More narrowly conceived, it is disbelief in the theistic God. Cf. negative atheism
postmodernism:—a complex set of reactions to modern philosophy and its assumption that typically opposes foundationalism, fixed binary categories that describe rigorously separable regions, and essentialism and affirms a radical and irreducible pluralism
problem of evil:—the problem of why there appears to be gratuitous evil although God is all-powerful and all-good. See also argument from evil
procedural knowledge:—knowing how to do something. Cf. knowledge by acquaintance; propositional knowledge
propositional knowledge:—factual knowledge that something is, was, or will be the case. Cf. knowledge by acquaintance; procedural knowledge
psychokinesis:—the ability to affect physical objects without physical contact by using powers of the mind
rationalism:—the theory that reason is the primary source of knowledge. Cf. empiricism
reductive materialism:—the theory that mental states and processes are identical with brain states and processes. Cf. eliminative materialism; supervenience theory
religious experience:—a wide variety of experiences, such as hearing voices and having visions, of supernatural beings such as God, angels, and Satan
skeptical agnosticism:—the rejection of both belief and disbelief in God because there are no good arguments for or against such belief. Cf. cancellation agnosticism
Sophists:—a group of itinerant teachers of rhetoric and philosophy in ancient Greece
supervenience theory:—the theory that when a certain physical state obtains, so does a certain mental state. Cf. eliminative materialism; reductive materialism
teleological argument:—an argument for the existence of God based on the apparent design and order in the universe. Also called the argument from design. See also fine-tuning argument. Cf. cosmological argument
theism:—belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, personal God who created the universe, takes an active interest in the world, and has given a special revelation to humans. Cf. deism
theodicy:—a theory attempting to explain the problem of evil and answer the argument from evil. See also argument from evil; free-will defense
verificationism:—the theory that the meaning of a statement consists in its method(s) of verification; usually associated with logical positivism
voluntarism:—the view that something’s being good depends on God’s will. See also Euthyphro problem