The Broad Description of Atheism - Term Paper Example

Atheism The broad of atheism is the rejection of the belief of the existence of a divine being. Atheists believe that there are no holy beings. The belief that there is the existence of at least deity is referred to as theism. The 18th century was the time when the first group of individuals declared that they were atheist. With time; there has been an increase in the number of atheists in the world. Different atheists have different reasons for not believing in the existence of any supreme being. Most of these atheists have argued that their reason for not believing in the existence of deities is the hypocrisy that comes along with religion. Some see religion as means used by the people in the upper social class to oppress the ordinary or poor people. Some also argue that religion creates a platform on which leaders try to discourage people from rebelling against their leadership. For instance, some religions claim that violence is wrong and punishable this believe is drilled into children as they grow up, making sure that they fear punishment. This makes the children who grow up having this belief to be calm even when they are oppressed by those with higher status than them. This implies that these people will not rebel against any forms of oppression. Some of the major reasons, why people become atheists are discussed below. To begin with, religions argue that there is one creator, who made heaven and earth and all that is in it for seven days. Man was also created, and the creator created a channel to speak to mankind through prophets. With the development of many religions and beliefs, there are many prophets that have emerged most of whom are fake prophets, out to lie to mankind and oppress them in some way. The many numbers of prophets lead to different prophets who make different prophesies. Many atheists wonder that if there is one creator that exists, why it that prophets often give is prophesies that contradict, instead of prophesying constituent issues. Religion prompts mankind to be kind to each other, and to help one another. Religion also helps one to understand that life is not a practice run, thus creates the urge to fulfill the part of life that requires to be fulfilled. Another fact about atheists is that they are very conversant with different religions and their teachings and practices. This is because atheists more often than not, read too much literature on religion. Karl Marx is one of the very well known atheists. Marx has been an atheist since he was a child for the rest of his life. In the 19th century, Karl Marx was an economist, theorist, and activist of socialism and communism. In his criticisms, Marx refers to religion as the “opium of the people.” He viewed religion as a foundation for the oppression of the poor and ordinary by the strong and influential people. He also argues that religion is created so as to make the believers docile, and to preventing them from rebelling from their leaders. Moreover, he says that the people who want to fight against the leadership in place use religious interpretations to come up with justifications for their rebellion. The atheism practiced by Marx was both practical and theoretical. Various factors have contributed to his theoretical atheism. The primary factor for his theoretical atheism is due to philosophical reasons; others include social, historical and political reasons. Marx argues that if individual visits a new town and finds their beliefs being totally different from his/her believes, the natives of this place are bound to mock him and claim that the visitor is a victim of fantasy and abstraction. The theoretical atheism of Karl Marx has led to him developing three postulates. These three include dialectical or metaphysical materialism, which makes a consideration of matters pertaining the supreme and exceptional basis of all things that do exist. Second is the historical materialism, in which the economic factor is the basic principle and the determining factor. This postulate also argues that tall other structures that make up a society are dependent on the society’s economic structure. Finally, the postulate of absolute humanism sets man as the Supreme Being. Many critics say that the basis used by Karl Marx in coming up with these postulates is the last one, which declares that man is the Supreme Being. Their reason of argument is that Marx has a lot of passion for man, thus seeks to sustain the greatness of man, to the extent of considering the necessity to destroy religion, since religion is the drug that prevents mankind from becoming conscious of their dignity. In dialectal materialism, Marx presents material things as being superior over the human mind and his progression. He also says that the society develops particular dialects with each of their development stage. According to Marx, inner contradictions develop paving the way for the next stage of development. He classified these development stages into “primitive communism, aristocratic slave societies, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and True Communism”, in the order of their occurrence. In the socialism stage, the society and business would be run in a way similar to democratic workers' cooperatives. This stage eventually fades away and leaves true communism, which is a stateless and classless utopia. Richard Dawkins is a modern atheist who has recently been involved in comments that he made, which were thought to have been made against the Muslim community. He is a part of a movement known as the “New Atheist”. This group has proven to act in ways that are so different from the atheists of the 18th and the 19th century, like Karl Marx and Frederick Nietzsche. Together with his group, they have been involved in problems such as stirring up conflicts against different religions. According to critics, the New Atheist movement has certain goals, which include the following. To begin with, these people together with Richard have developed a mentality that all the problems being experienced in the whole world are caused by religion. Due to this, they are often found making ill comments regarding religion. For instance, Richard once tweeted that: “ Trinity College at Cambridge University has had more Nobel Prize winners than the entire Muslim world.” This comment is directed towards the Muslim community, and Richard was not justified to give such ill comments. Especially since they are attacking a religion that is the most retrograde of all religions. The New Atheist movement does not show their experience in theology. This is because from the arguments they make, they are focused on attacking those who worship anthropomorphic God. This God is only believed by few people. Another reason is that they appear to lack the argument points for the existence of God or even atheism, yet they confess to be atheists. The existence of nature and man has become practically evident over the years that have passed. The rising of the alien issues as beings that are above nature and man has led to a lot of denial in this group of modern atheists. This is because earlier on atheists believed that man was the Supreme Being, but with these new developments, the atheists of the modern world are lost. Another reason for their denial is the end of socialism. Socialism has faded away over the years, leaving people that are capitalists, or either capitalist and some bits of communism. These changes have resulted in changes in the essence of nature and man and also in the practical and theoretical atheism. These changes have evidently caused an imbalance for the atheists who still had believes similar to the atheists of the 18th and 19th century. Due to this disequilibrium, there has been an increased blame towards religion, for causing the changes. In other words, Richard Dawkins together with the members of the New Atheist movement to blame religion for their predicaments. Another issue that just as stated earlier on Richard and his group do not properly understands the idea of God. This leaves them to use the bourgeois epoch which is deficient in that it causes the narrow rationalism, which could lead to its believers having the wrong perspective towards religion. Having looked at the principles of the two significant atheists required for this discussion, a summary of the similarities and differences is discussed below. To begin with, there are some basic similarities between Karl Marx and Richard Dawkins. The most basic of them all is that they do not believe in the existence of any deities. These two show similarity in the use of practical and theoretical atheism as their guide (Lom 246). Another similarity is that they support communism. As discussed earlier on, Marx postulated three issues based on theoretical atheism. His third postulate sets man as the Supreme Being. This is due to his passion for man thus he postulated communism, which was attained by a society having to pass through various stages of development. This is as discussed above . Dawkins on the other hand, tries to direct the New Atheist movement to live as communists. This fails due to the loss of socialism in the community and its replacement with capitalism. Another similarity between these two have also spent time to develop the reasoning towards the existence of a holy being. Marx uses theoretical atheism to postulate three factors. These were dialectical or metaphysical materialism, which makes a consideration of matters pertaining the supreme and exceptional basis of all things that do exist (Israel, 256). Second is the historical materialism, in which the economic factor is the basic principle and the determining factor. This postulate also argues that tall other structures that make up a society are dependent on the society’s economic structure. Finally, the postulate of absolute humanism sets man as the Supreme Being. On the other hand, though Dawkins does not put as much effort as Marx, they come up with a method to understand the idea of God, although it is prejudiced by giving the wrong perspectives. This is the use of the bourgeois epoch (Israel, 376). There are quite a number of variations between the atheism of Richard Dawkins and Karl Marx. First is that these two have different opinions towards religion. Dawkins views religion as the cause of all the predicaments that have befallen the world. These are inclusive of the end of socialism among other problems. For this reason, Dawkins and the regularly attacks other religions with no justified reason. On the other hand, Marx argues that religion is opium to the people (Israel, 346). This means that believers depend on religion for a lot of issues. He also says that leaders use religion to justify their oppression to the poor and ordinary men (Lom 336). Religion is also used by the leaders to prevent rebellion from the people whom they lead. Marx also says that if a believer fights against their leader, they justify themselves by interpreting their religion in a way that suits their rebellion. Another variation is that Marx took the time to study different philosophies and religions, which helped him to come up with the three theoretical postulates that acted as a guide for him as an atheist. Dawkins fails to understand the idea of God and does not take theological courses that help him understand religion (Lom 346). The only religious thing that Dawkins and his fellow members from the New Atheists movement is the anthropomorphic God. This is not relevant to them since they are not able to argue on the existence of God or even atheism, yet they confess to be atheists (Israel, 301). Moreover, this God is only believed by few people. Another method used by the New Atheists movement is the bourgeois epoch. The variation discussed above has different effects on these two atheists. Marx’s knowledge on the idea of God and the fact that this was boosted by the fact that he was a philosopher enabled him to treat people of different believes with no contempt (Israel, 356). On the other hand, the bourgeois epoch `1gives Dawkins and his group the wrong perspective towards religion. This is further facilitated by his little knowledge on religion, its practices and teachings. This makes Dawkins think of religion as the root cause for all the earthly problems. Dawkins treats those that value religion with a lot of contempt and he often makes ill comments that target religion (Israel, 356). To conclude, the modern atheism is disrespectful of religion, unlike Marx’s believes. Having discussed the concept of atheism and the similarities and differences of atheism by Karl Marx and Richard Dawkins, the meaning of atheism can be broadly described as the rejection of the beliefs of the existence of holy beings. The rejection of the existence of deities does not imply that atheists should be disrespectful to those that believe in religion. Atheism also believes in socialism or communism, the existence of man as the Supreme Being, with no being above humanity. References Israel, J. Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man, 1670-1752. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Lom, P. The Limits of Doubt: The Moral and Political Implications of Skepticism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Print. References Israel, J. Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man, 1670-1752. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Lom, P. The Limits of Doubt: The Moral and Political Implications of Skepticism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Print. Read More