KHEC Curriculum Framework 2.4

Moments in Atheism is the name of the University of Chicago course developed by two professor, Shadi Bartsch (Classics) and Sean Carroll (Physics).  Here, in part, is how they described the course: “Atheism is as old as religion. As religion and its place in society have evolved throughout history, so have the standing and philosophical justification for non-belief. This course will examine the intellectual and cultural history of atheism in Western thought from antiquity to the present. We will be concerned with the evolution of arguments for a non-religious.”

We have included the following list of readings which you will find useful:

-- Thomas Aquinas, A Summa of the Summa: The Essential Philosophical Passages of the Summa Theologica, ed. Peter Kreeft (Ignatius Press)

-- Albert Camus, The Plague (Vintage)

-- Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy (Hackett)

-- Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity (Prometheus)

-- Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (W.W. Norton)

-- David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Penguin Classics)
-- Immanuel Kant, Basic Writings (Modern Library)

-- Gottfried Leibniz, The Monadology (Pittsburgh)
-- Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (Focus)

-- Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (Vintage)

-- Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, Solidarity (Cambridge)

-- Bertrand Russell, Why I am Not a Christian (Touchstone)).

-- Voltaire, Candide (Penguin)Penguin).

The resource also includes “A Rough Guide to –isms”, a list is intended as a guide to what most people might mean when they use these terms.

Theism. Belief in the existence of a supernatural being (God or gods), not bound by the laws of nature. Sometimes used in a more restrictive sense to denote belief in a God who is active in the world, in contrast with deism or pantheism.

Atheism. Belief that supernatural beings do not exist. Sometimes divided into positive atheism (“belief that God does not exist”) and negative atheism (“absence of belief that God does exist.

Agnosticism. Belief that one cannot (or merely does not) know whether God exists.

Naturalism. Belief that the natural world can be fully understood in terms of material objects and mechanistic laws. Sometimes distinguished from materialism by allowing for the possibility of a supernatural world, but one which is strictly independent of the natural one; sometimes not.

Materialism. (Also physicalism or mechanism.) Belief in only the natural world, operating according to physical laws.

Idealism. Belief that the primary reality is outside the natural world, or that only mentalentities are real. Opposed to materialism.

Deism. Belief that God exists and created the world but does not interfere with the world, which operates strictly according to natural laws. Deists are thus simultaneously theists and naturalists (as distinguished from materialists).

Pantheism. Belief that God and nature are identical.

Empiricism. Belief that experience is the source of knowledge. Opposite of rationalism.

Rationalism. Belief that knowledge is attained through pure reason or innate ideas. Opposite of empiricism.

Fideism. Belief that faith (not reason) is the grounding for religion.

Skepticism. Belief that certainty in knowledge is unattainable. (In an extreme form, belief that any knowledge is unattainable.)

Humanism. Belief that humans are the source of value and meaning.

 

To view the entire web site, see:

http://preposterousuniverse.com/teaching/moments04/