more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 19658
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism
]
Full Idea
Once the absolute has become unthinkable, even atheism, which also targets God's inexistence in the manner of an absolute, is reduced to a mere belief, and hence to a religion, albeit of the nihilist kind.
Gist of Idea
Now that the absolute is unthinkable, even atheism is just another religious belief (though nihilist)
Source
Quentin Meillassoux (After Finitude; the necessity of contingency [2006], 2)
Book Ref
Meillassoux: 'After Finitude: the necessity of contingency', ed/tr. Brassier,R [Bloomsbury 2008], p.46
A Reaction
An interesting claim. Rather hard to agree or disagree, though the idea that atheism must qualify as a religion seems odd. If it is unqualified it does have the grand quality of a religion, but if it is fallibilist it just seems like an attitude.
The
35 ideas
with the same theme
[denial of the existence of any gods]:
14829
|
Homer so enjoys the company of the gods that he must have been deeply irreligious
[Homer, by Nietzsche]
|
407
|
Mortals believe gods are born, and have voices and clothes just like mortals
[Xenophanes]
|
408
|
Ethiopian gods have black hair, and Thracian gods have red hair
[Xenophanes]
|
5956
|
Anaxagoras was charged with impiety for calling the sun a lump of stone
[Anaxagoras, by Plutarch]
|
7488
|
Anaxagoras was the first recorded atheist
[Anaxagoras, by Watson]
|
1551
|
He said he didn't know whether there are gods - but this is the same as atheism
[Diogenes of Oen. on Protagoras]
|
542
|
Fear of the gods was invented to discourage secret sin
[Critias]
|
338
|
Socrates is accused of denying the gods, saying sun is stone and moon is earth
[Socrates, by Plato]
|
1543
|
He denied the existence of the gods, saying they are just exaltations of things useful for life
[Prodicus]
|
535
|
The gods are just personified human benefits
[Prodicus]
|
278
|
If astronomical movements are seen as necessary instead of by divine will, this leads to atheism
[Plato]
|
149
|
There isn't a single reason for positing the existence of immortal beings
[Plato]
|
2632
|
Speusippus said things were governed by some animal force rather than the gods
[Speussipus, by Cicero]
|
3029
|
Stilpo said if Athena is a daughter of Zeus, then a statue is only the child of a sculptor, and so is not a god
[Stilpo, by Diog. Laertius]
|
2639
|
Some say Epicurus only pretended to believe in the gods, so as not to offend Athenians
[Epicurus, by Cicero]
|
5731
|
Why does Jupiter never hurl lightning from a blue sky?
[Lucretius]
|
2641
|
Why believe in gods if you have never seen them?
[Cicero]
|
5957
|
Absurd superstitions make people atheist, not disharmony in nature
[Plutarch]
|
22728
|
Gods were invented as watchers of people's secret actions
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
22737
|
An incorporeal God could do nothing, and a bodily god would perish, so there is no God
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
3660
|
Atheism arises from empiricism, because God is intangible
[Descartes]
|
16712
|
Atheism is an atrocious and intolerable crime in any country
[Descartes]
|
7836
|
In Spinoza, one could substitute 'nature' or 'substance' for the word 'God' throughout
[Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
|
7842
|
Leibniz was closer than Spinoza to atheism
[Leibniz, by Stewart,M]
|
19453
|
If love, goodness and personality are human, the God who is their source is anthropomorphic
[Feuerbach]
|
2887
|
I am not an atheist because of reasoning or evidence, but because of instinct
[Nietzsche]
|
2931
|
God is dead, and we have killed him
[Nietzsche]
|
2906
|
By denying God we deny human accountability, and thus we redeem the world
[Nietzsche]
|
18298
|
There can't be gods, because that leaves us nothing to create!
[Nietzsche]
|
7626
|
I do not believe in a personal God
[Einstein]
|
5207
|
If theism is non-sensical, then so is atheism.
[Ayer]
|
15295
|
Theism is supposed to make the world more intelligible - and should offer results
[Harré/Madden]
|
8243
|
Atheism is the philosopher's serenity, and philosophy's achievement
[Deleuze/Guattari]
|
23061
|
Free atheism should start by questioning its faith in humanity
[Gray]
|
19658
|
Now that the absolute is unthinkable, even atheism is just another religious belief (though nihilist)
[Meillassoux]
|