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A exclusively western treatment; considers Jainism, Buddhism and
Confucianism only in the context of whether these religions, all of which
reject a notion of a personal god, may be considered to be atheistic.  "The
concept of atheism was developed historically in the context of Western
monotheistic religions, and it still has its clearest application in this
area."

What is atheism?

Positive atheism: belief there is no God
Negative atheism: no belief that there is God.
Agnosticism, the position of neither believing nor disbelieving that God
    exists, is compatible with negative atheism in that agnosticism entails
    negative atheism.

Theism: that there is a personal God who takes an active interest in the
    world and who has given a special revelation to humans.

polytheism, the belief in more than one God,
pantheism, the belief that God is identical with nature

Deism, belief in a God that is based not on revelation but on evidence
    from nature. The God assumed by deists is usually considered to be remote
    from the world and not intimately involved with its concerns.

Is Jainism atheistic?

Michael Martin, in Chapter 13, "Atheism and Religion", considers the question
of Jainism, Buddhism and Confucianism:

Disagreement on whether Jainism is an atheistic religion:

   E. Royston Pike asserts: “Jain theology does not exist, since Jainism is
   completely atheistic. God, spirits, demons – all are equally rejected; the
   only supernatural beings are the Tirthankaras, who are good men made
   perfect.”13
   Herbert Stroup: “Original Jainism had no teachings regarding the existence
   of God, whether the deity be conceived as personal, transpersonal or
   impersonal.  Mahavira rejected the polytheistic beliefs of Vedic and
   Brahmanic Hinduism, a rejection apparently based on the conviction that the
   gods are superfluous.”14

On the other hand,

   J. Jaini: Jainism “is accused of being atheistic. This is not so, because
   Jainism believes in Godhood and in innumerable gods; but certainly Jainism
   is atheistic in not believing its gods to have created the Universe.”15
   S. Gopalan, in turn, says that “to categorically dub Jainism as atheistic
   is both unwarranted and unphilosophical, for we find in Jainism only the
   rejection of a ‘supremely personal god’ and not godhead itself.”16

   Gopalan: in Jainism “there is a deep analysis of the concept of God as the
   Supreme Cause of the Universe and a systematic refutation of the arguments
   of the philosophers who have sought to prove the existence of God.”17
   Gopalan argues that the term “god” in Jainism is “used to denote a higher
   state of existence of the jiva or the conscious principle. The system
   believes that this state of godly existence is only a shade better than
   that of ordinary human beings, for, it is not free from the cycle of birth
   and death.”18 Thus a god can ascend to the highest spiritual plane and
   become a Tirthankara who is free from the cycle of birth and death or
   descend to earth if he exhausts his good karma. Gopalan points out that
   even the Tirthankaras, the perfected beings of Jainism, “have cut
   themselves away from the world of life and death (samsara) and so, by
   hypothesis, cannot exert any influence over it.  Hence, the function of a
   Supreme Ruler, Creator and Regulator cannot be attributed to them.”19 Thus,
   one could say that the gods of Jainism, unlike the gods of Western
   religions, operate within the uncreated universe and are no help in our
   spiritual salvation, for they too must escape from the cycle of rebirth
   through their own efforts.

Martin: one can say that Jainism is an atheistic religion in the narrow sense
in that it rejects the theistic creator God but not in the broad sense since
it accepts lesser gods who have no spiritual significance.

Jainist philosophers were vigorous in attacking the arguments used by some
Nyaya philosophers, a school of Hindu philosophers who attempted to prove
various theological propositions by logical reasoning.  Indeed, Jainists
philosophers use many of the same arguments that Western philosophers do
against the existence of God. In some instances they have even anticipated
them. Some of these Jainists’s counterarguments are reminiscent of Hume’s
famous rebuttal of the argument from design. Jainist philosophers also ask:
“If every existent object must have a maker, that maker himself would be
explained by another – his maker etc. To escape from this vicious circle we
have to assume that there is one uncaused, self-explaining cause, god. But
then, if it is maintained that one being can be self-subsistent, why not say
that there are many others also who are uncreated and eternal similarly?”
Hence, “it is not necessary to assume the existence of any first cause of the
universe.”20

13. Pike, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Religions, p. 204.
14. Stroup, Four Religions of Asia, p. 100.
15. Jagomandar Lal Jaini, Outlines of Jainism (Westport, Conn.: Hyperion Press,
1982), pp. 4–5.
16-18,20. Subramania Gopalan, Outlines of Jainism (New York: Halsted Press, 1973),
p. 38.

21. Sources for this section include Stroup, Four Religions of Asia,
  pp. 115–67; Ninian Smart, “Buddhism,” in Edwards (ed.), Encyclopedia of
  Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 416–20; Karen Christiana Lang, “Unbelief within
  Buddhism,” in The Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus,
  1985), vol. 1, pp. 74–77; and Helmuth von Glasenapp, Buddhism:ANon-Theistic
  Religion (New York: George Braziller, 1966).

Buddhism

there are two main schools of Buddhism: Mahayana and Hinayana (or
Theravada). The doctrine of Theravada Buddhism (the doctrine of the elders) is
generally believed to represent the original Buddhist teachings, but from
another of the early sects a school developed that gave itself the name of
Mahayana Buddhism (the greater vehicle) and referred to Theravada Buddhism and
related schools as Hinayana Buddhism (the lesser vehicle).

The religious ideal of Hinayana Buddhism is the arahat, the person who has
achieved nirvana and escaped the cycle of rebirth. In contrast, the religious
ideal of the Mahayana school is the bodhisattva, the person who vows to
postpone entrance into nirvana, although deserving it, until all others become
enlightened and liberated. The term “bodhisattva” is also used to refer to a
class of celestial beings who were worshipped.

No one disputes that Buddhism in all its forms is a religion, but, as
in the case of Jainism, there is disagreement among religious scholars
over whether Buddhism is atheistic.
What is disputed is whether original Buddhism was atheistic; or, what amounts
to the same thing, whether Theravada Buddhism, which is generally recognized
to be close to the original Buddhism, is atheistic.

   Herbert Stroup tells us that Buddhism “is more accurately described as
   atheist than as theist”;23 E. Royston Pike asserts that Buddhism in its
   original form maintained no belief in God;24 and Ninian Smart holds that in
   Theravada Buddhism, which he considers most likely to represent the basic
   teaching of the Buddha, “there is no belief in God, nor even a divine
   Absolute.”25

This standard interpretation has been challenged, however, by Helmuth von
Glasenapp, who argues that old Buddhist texts “confirm unmistakenly and
authoritatively that since the oldest times Buddhists believed in the
existence of gods (devas)”26; that is, the finite and impermanent gods of the
Hindu religion. However, the power of these gods or devas is limited, von
Glasenapp says, to the fulfillment of worldly petitions: “to create the world,
to change its order, to bestow a good rebirth on a suppliant, or to grant him
liberation, is not within their power.”27 Furthermore, these gods are subject
to birth and death.

Jamshed K. Fozdar has launched an even more radical challenge to the orthodox
atheistic interpretation of original Buddhism.28 He argues that it is vitally
important to understand Buddhism within the context of the Hindu tradition. So
understood, Buddha was a reformer of the Hindu religion and not a creator of a
new religion. Using textual analysis of Buddhist and Hindu documents, he
argues that Buddha believed not only in devas but in the uncreated, the
unborn, the unoriginated – in short, the absolute of the Hindu religion.

Fozdar maintains that the absolute or God is the ultimate reality that lies
behind nirvana and the laws of karma. What Buddha was opposed to, he says, was
not belief in God but belief in an anthropomorphic personal God whom one can
understand in human terms and speak about using commonsense notions. In
contrast, the absolute or God for Buddha was beyond all comprehension and
could be understood only in an ineffable mystic state. Thus Fozdar not only
opposes the orthodox atheistic interpretation of Buddhism. He also maintains
that the interpretations by the Buddhist philosophers referred to above who
argue against the absolute or God are based on a misunderstanding of Buddha’s
original teaching.

23. Stroup, Four Religions of Asia, p. 158.
24. Pike, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Religions, p. 71.
25. Smart, “Buddhism,” p. 417.
26-27. Helmuth von Glasenapp, Buddhism:ANon-Theistic Religion (New York: George
	Braziller, 1966
28. Jamshed K. Fozdar, The God of Buddha (New York: Asia Publishing, 1973),
	chap.4.

GLOSSARY

a posteriori argument: an argument based on experience. See also teleological
    argument
a priori argument: an argument not based on experience. See also impossibility
    argument; ontological argument
Anselmian conception of God: the view attributed to St. Anselm that God is a
    being such that no greater being can be conceived
anthropomorphism: the ascription of human traits to God
apostasy: disaffection, defection, alienation, disengagement, or
    disaffiliation from a religious group
argument from design. See teleological argument
argument from evil: an argument that purports to show that the existence of
    evil is either incompatible with the existence of God or makes God’s
    existence improbable. See also problem of evil
argument from indexicals: a type of impossibility argument that maintains
    that, although allegedly all-knowing, God cannot have certain knowledge
    expressed in indexicals. See also indexical
argument from miracles: an argument that purports to show that the existence
    of God is the most plausible explanation of miracles. See also miracle
argument from religious experience: an argument that purports to show that the
    existence of God or other supernatural beings provides the best
    explaination of religious experience. See also mystical experience;
    religious experience
autonomy of ethics: the view that ethics is not based on theology. Cf. divine
    command theory. See also ethical naturalism
Big Bang cosmology: a theory that holds that the universe originated
    approximately 15 billion years ago from the violent explosion of a very
    small agglomeration of matter of extremely high density and temperature.
    See also Kalam cosmological argument for atheism; Kalam cosmological
    argument for God
cancellation agnosticism: the view that the arguments for and against belief
    in God are equally strong and cancel each other out. Cf. skeptical
    agnosticism
clairvoyance: the power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by
    the senses. See also paranormal phenomena
cosmological argument: an argument that seeks to give a causal explanation of
    why some universe exists
deism: the view that God created the world and then had no further interaction
    with it; also, a view of God based on reason and not revelation.
    Cf. pantheism; theism
devas: the finite and impermanent gods described by some Eastern religions
divine command theory: the theory that ethical propositions are based on what
    God commands. Cf. autonomy of ethics; ethical naturalism.  See also
    voluntarism
eliminative materialism: the view that despite appearances, there are no
    mental entities or processes. Cf. reductive materialism
empiricism: the theory that all knowledge is based on experience. Cf. rationalism
epicureanism: a leading Hellenistic philosophical school that advocated an
    atomistic metaphysics and a hedonistic ethics
epistemological naturalism: the thesis that the supernatural lies beyond the
    scope of what we can know, hence theology is rejected as a source of
    knowledge
epistemology: the theory of knowledge
ethical naturalism: the theory that the ethical properties of situations
    depend on the nature of those situations. Cf. divine command theory.  See
    also autonomy of ethics
Euthyphro problem: a dilemma posed in the Platonic dialogue The Euthyphro and
    used as a critique of religiously based ethics. See also autonomy of
    ethics; divine command theory; voluntarism
fine-tuning argument: a teleological argument based on the alleged
    improbability that the fundamental physical constants in the universe are
    compatible with life. See also teleological argument
free-will defense: the response to the argument from evil that evil is the
    result of free will and cannot be blamed on God. See also argument from
    evil; theodicy
impossibility argument: an a priori argument against the existence of God that
    purports to show that the concept of God is inconsistent. See also
    argument from indexicals; paradox of the stone
indexical: a type of expression whose meaning varies with the context; e.g.,
    “I,” “here,” “now.” See also argument from indexicals
intelligent design theory: a theory that does not reject Darwin’s theory
    completely but maintains that evolution needs to be explained in terms of
    the working out of some intelligent design
Kalam cosmological argument for atheism: an argument that purports to show
    that according to the latest scientific cosmology, the origin of the
    universe is incompatible with the existence of God. Cf. Kalam cosmological
    argument for god
Kalam cosmological argument for God: an argument that maintains that the most
    plausible explanation for the universe coming into being is that God
    brought it into existence. Cf. Leibniz cosmological argument
knowledge by acquaintance: knowledge based on direct experience. Cf.
    propositional knowledge
Leibniz cosmological argument: an argument attributed to Leibniz that the
    whole series of contingent beings that make up the universe requires an
    external cause that is not contingent but necessary and that this cause is
    God
logical positivism: a philosophical movement in Anglo-American philosophy in
    the 1930s and ’40s advocating the rejection of metaphysics because it is
    unverifiable and hence meaningless. Both belief in God and disbelief in
    God are thought to be meaningless. See also metaphysics; negative atheism
metaphysics: the philosophical investigation of the nature, composition, and
    structure of ultimate reality
miracle: an event that is not explainable by laws of nature known or
    unknown. See also argument from miracles
modus ponens: the argument form: If A, then B; A therefore B
modus tollens: the argument form: If A, then B; not-B therefore not-A
mystical experience: religious experience that transcends ordinary sense
    perception and purports to be a direct experience of ultimate reality
naturalism: the view that everything that exists is composed of natural
    entities and processes that can in principle be studied by science
naturalized epistemology: an approach that views human beings as natural
    entities and uses the methods of science to study epistemological
    processes; sometimes considered a branch of cognitive science
negative atheism: absence of belief in any god or gods. More narrowly
    conceived, it is the absence of belief in the theistic God. Cf. positive
    atheism. See also logical positivism
neo-Darwinian theory: a synthesis of Darwin’s theory and genetic theory
Occam’s razor: a methodological principle advocating simplicity in theory
    construction
omnibenevolence: the property attributed to God of being all good
omnipotence: the property attributed to God of being all powerful
omniscience: the property attributed to God of being all knowing
ontological argument: an a priori argument that maintains that God’s existence
    is true by definition ontology. See metaphysics
out-of-body experiences: the experience of floating free of one’s body; used
    by believers as evidence of an immaterial soul
pantheism: the view that God is identical with nature. Cf. deism; theism
paradox of the stone: if God can make a stone that he cannot lift, he is not
    all-powerful; but if he cannot make such a stone, he is also not
    all-powerful. See also impossibility argument
paranormal phenomena: phenomena such an ESP, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis
    that at the present time are unexplainable in terms of science
physicalism: the claim that minds are not distinct from matter and hence
    cannot exist apart from it. See also reductive materialism; supervenience
    theory
polytheism: the view that there are many gods
positive atheism: disbelief in any God or gods. More narrowly conceived, it is
    disbelief in the theistic God. Cf. negative atheism
postmodernism: a complex set of reactions to modern philosophy and its
    assumption that typically opposes foundationalism, fixed binary categories
    that describe rigorously separable regions, and essentialism and affirms a
    radical and irreducible pluralism
problem of evil: the problem of why there appears to be gratuitous evil
    although God is all-powerful and all-good. See also argument from evil
procedural knowledge: knowing how to do something. Cf. knowledge by
acquaintance; propositional knowledge
propositional knowledge: factual knowledge that something is, was, or will be
    the case. Cf. knowledge by acquaintance; procedural knowledge
psychokinesis: the ability to affect physical objects without physical contact
    by using powers of the mind
rationalism: the theory that reason is the primary source of knowledge.
    Cf. empiricism
reductive materialism: the theory that mental states and processes are
    identical with brain states and processes. Cf. eliminative materialism;
    supervenience theory
religious experience: a wide variety of experiences, such as hearing voices
    and having visions, of supernatural beings such as God, angels, and Satan
skeptical agnosticism: the rejection of both belief and disbelief in God
    because there are no good arguments for or against such belief.
    Cf. cancellation agnosticism
Sophists: a group of itinerant teachers of rhetoric and philosophy in ancient
    Greece
supervenience theory: the theory that when a certain physical state obtains,
    so does a certain mental state. Cf. eliminative materialism; reductive
    materialism
teleological argument: an argument for the existence of God based on the
    apparent design and order in the universe. Also called the argument from
    design. See also fine-tuning argument. Cf. cosmological argument
theism: belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, personal God who
    created the universe, takes an active interest in the world, and has given
    a special revelation to humans. Cf. deism
theodicy: a theory attempting to explain the problem of evil and answer the
    argument from evil. See also argument from evil; free-will defense
verificationism: the theory that the meaning of a statement consists in its
    method(s) of verification; usually associated with logical positivism
voluntarism: the view that something’s being good depends on God’s will.  See
    also Euthyphro problem

Contents

Contributors page ix
Preface xiii
Glossary xv
General Introduction 1
Part I Background
    1 Atheism in Antiquity 11 jan n. bremmer
    2 Atheism in Modern History 27 gavin hyman
    3 Atheism: Contemporary Numbers and Patterns 47 phil zuckerman
Part II The Case against Theism
    4 Theistic Critiques of Atheism 69 william lane craig
    5 The Failure of Classical Theistic Arguments 86 richard m. gale
    6 Some Contemporary Theistic Arguments 102 keith parsons
    7 Naturalism and Physicalism 118 evan fales
    8 Atheism and Evolution 135 daniel c. dennett
    9 The Autonomy of Ethics 149 david o. brink
    10 The Argument from Evil 166 	andrea m. weisberger
    11 Kalam Cosmological Arguments for Atheism 182 	quentin smith
    12 Impossibility Arguments 199 	patrick grim
Part III Implications
    13 Atheism and Religion 217 	michael martin
    14 Feminism and Atheism 233 	christine overall
    15 Atheism and the Freedom of Religion 250 	steven g. gey
    16 Atheism, A/theology, and the Postmodern Condition 267 	john d. caputo
    17 Anthropological Theories of Religion 283 	stewart e. guthrie
    18 Atheists: A Psychological Profile 300 	benjamin beit-hallahmi
Index 319

blurb:
In this volume, eighteen of the world's leading scholars present original
essays on various aspects of atheism: its history, both ancient and modern,
defense and implications. The topic is examined in terms of its implications
for a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, religion, feminism,
postmodernism, sociology and psychology. In its defense, both classical and
contemporary theistic arguments are criticized, and, the argument from evil,
and impossibility arguments, along with a non religious basis for morality are
defended. These essays give a broad understanding of atheism and a lucid
introduction to this controversial topic.