Julian Baggini
British philosopher with doctorate from University College London, born 1968. Cofounder and editor of The Philosophers' Magazine.
Atheism - A Very Short Introduction
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003
"The atheist position is based on evidence and arguments to best explanation. The atheist believes in what she has good reason to believe in and doesn't believe in supernatural entities that there are few reasons to believe in, none of them strong. If this is a faith position than the amount of faith required is very small. Contrast this with believers in the supernatural and we can see what a true faith position is. Belief in the supernatural is belief in what there is a lack of strong evidence to believe in."
"The status of atheist and religious belief are thus quite different. Only religious belief requires faith because only religious belief postulates the existence of entities which we have no good evidence to believe exist." pp32,33
[Lennox on p38-39 of "Gunning for God" analyzes this kind of "begging the question" approach which uses "faith" as a special term for belief without warrant.]
|
Collins |