Antitheism
Antitheism is the ideological basic attitude that rejects any belief in a god or gods at least as not meaningful, sometimes also classifies it as harmful and dangerous, sometimes also actively opposes any form of theism and, as a strong antitheism , fights religion.
A generic term for this is atheism as a worldview without belief in a god or gods. In weak atheism or agnosticism , no assumptions are made about the provability of the existence or non-existence of gods or the usefulness of a belief in God.
definition
Theism assumes the existence of one or more divine beings, while antitheism denies this assumption. It is directed against theistic world views, not against their adherents.
The worldview of many people who call themselves atheists (not antitheists) today usually shares the same thoughts that represent the basic statements of antitheism. However, this attitude ignores the fundamental difference that the lack of belief in the existence of God ( atheism ) is philosophically and psychologically something completely different from the conviction that such a belief is irrational or harmful (antitheism).
Atheist writers and speakers of today such as Richard Dawkins seem to define the term antitheism in such a way that they not only deny that all theisms are true, but also deny them completely or at least predominantly of their usefulness. This happens above all in contrast to atheists, who do not believe in the existence of God, but often see a benefit in religiosity (for example for the morality and ethics of a society). Christopher Hitchens , for example, points out that the belief in the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient being who demands adoration for all eternity is in no way to be regarded as desirable, since this corresponds to life in a totalitarian surveillance state .
Criticism of the term
Critics say that "antitheism" is a superfluous word creation because, from their point of view, there is no significant difference to atheism, since atheism in itself is already anti-theistic. According to this definition, antitheism is simply atheism, whereas “weak” atheism is agnosticism .
See also
literature
- PCH: Anti-Theism: its moral and philosophical blindness in a world of realities . 1856
- Richard Hill Sandys: Antitheism: remarks on its modern spirit . London 1883
- Karl Schulze-Jahde: Atheism and Antitheism. 1925
- Howard R. Burkle: The Non-Existence of God: Antitheism from Hegel to Dumery . New York 1969
- Manfred Balkenohl : Nietzsche's antitheism: questions and searches for God: a social anthropological investigation . (Treatises on social ethics; Vol. 12) Schöningh, Munich a. a. 1976, also Diss. Catholic Theol. under the title: Antitheism in the life and work of Friedrich Nietzsche. An anthropological u. theological investigation . Münster, 1972
- BJ Diebner, Karel Adriaan Deurloo: YHWH - Kyrios - Antitheism or The power of the word: Festschrift for Rochus Zuurmond . Heidelberg 1996
- Brian F. Beeching: Antitheism and eschatological theology: Wolfhart Pannenberg's indictment of thirteenth century theology . Univ. S. Pauli, Ottawa undated
- Richard Dawkins : The God Delusion . Ullstein, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-550-08688-5 (Original title: The God Delusion . Translated by Sebastian Vogel).
- Christopher Hitchens : The Lord Is Not A Shepherd : How Religion Poisons the World. Blessing Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89667-355-8