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Single Idea 2641
[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism
]
Full Idea
Did you ever actually see a god? Then why do you believe that gods exist?
Gist of Idea
Why believe in gods if you have never seen them?
Source
M. Tullius Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods ('De natura deorum') [c.44 BCE], I.88)
Book Ref
Cicero: 'The Nature of the Gods', ed/tr. McGregor,Horace [Penguin 1972], p.105
The
35 ideas
with the same theme
[denial of the existence of any gods]:
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14829
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Homer so enjoys the company of the gods that he must have been deeply irreligious
[Homer, by Nietzsche]
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407
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Mortals believe gods are born, and have voices and clothes just like mortals
[Xenophanes]
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408
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Ethiopian gods have black hair, and Thracian gods have red hair
[Xenophanes]
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7488
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Anaxagoras was the first recorded atheist
[Anaxagoras, by Watson]
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5956
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Anaxagoras was charged with impiety for calling the sun a lump of stone
[Anaxagoras, by Plutarch]
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1551
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He said he didn't know whether there are gods - but this is the same as atheism
[Diogenes of Oen. on Protagoras]
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542
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Fear of the gods was invented to discourage secret sin
[Critias]
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338
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Socrates is accused of denying the gods, saying sun is stone and moon is earth
[Socrates, by Plato]
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1543
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He denied the existence of the gods, saying they are just exaltations of things useful for life
[Prodicus]
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535
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The gods are just personified human benefits
[Prodicus]
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278
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If astronomical movements are seen as necessary instead of by divine will, this leads to atheism
[Plato]
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149
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There isn't a single reason for positing the existence of immortal beings
[Plato]
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2632
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Speusippus said things were governed by some animal force rather than the gods
[Speussipus, by Cicero]
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3029
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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]
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2639
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Some say Epicurus only pretended to believe in the gods, so as not to offend Athenians
[Epicurus, by Cicero]
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5731
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Why does Jupiter never hurl lightning from a blue sky?
[Lucretius]
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2641
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Why believe in gods if you have never seen them?
[Cicero]
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5957
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Absurd superstitions make people atheist, not disharmony in nature
[Plutarch]
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22728
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Gods were invented as watchers of people's secret actions
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22737
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An incorporeal God could do nothing, and a bodily god would perish, so there is no God
[Sext.Empiricus]
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3660
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Atheism arises from empiricism, because God is intangible
[Descartes]
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16712
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Atheism is an atrocious and intolerable crime in any country
[Descartes]
|
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7836
|
In Spinoza, one could substitute 'nature' or 'substance' for the word 'God' throughout
[Spinoza, by Stewart,M]
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7842
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Leibniz was closer than Spinoza to atheism
[Leibniz, by Stewart,M]
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19453
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If love, goodness and personality are human, the God who is their source is anthropomorphic
[Feuerbach]
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2887
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I am not an atheist because of reasoning or evidence, but because of instinct
[Nietzsche]
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2931
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God is dead, and we have killed him
[Nietzsche]
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2906
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By denying God we deny human accountability, and thus we redeem the world
[Nietzsche]
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18298
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Not being a god is insupportable, so there are no gods!
[Nietzsche]
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7626
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I do not believe in a personal God
[Einstein]
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5207
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If theism is non-sensical, then so is atheism.
[Ayer]
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15295
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Theism is supposed to make the world more intelligible - and should offer results
[Harré/Madden]
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8243
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Atheism is the philosopher's serenity, and philosophy's achievement
[Deleuze/Guattari]
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23061
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Free atheism should start by questioning its faith in humanity
[Gray]
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19658
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Now that the absolute is unthinkable, even atheism is just another religious belief (though nihilist)
[Meillassoux]
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