Arguments Against God
by Gary Gutting
February 25, 2014
The Stone, New York Times
(
The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless)
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/arguments-against-godThis is the second in a series of interviews about religion that I am conducting for
The Stone. The interviewee for this installment is Louise Antony, a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the editor of the essay collection
Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life.
Louise Antony: "O.K. So the question is, why do I say that theism is false, rather than just unproven? Because the question has been settled to my satisfaction. I say “there is no God” with the same confidence I say “there are no ghosts” or “there is no magic.” The main issue is supernaturalism — I deny that there are beings or phenomena outside the scope of natural law.
I say ‘there is no God’ with the same confidence I say ‘there are no ghosts’ or ‘there is no magic.’
That’s not to say that I think everything is within the scope of human knowledge. Surely there are things not dreamt of in our philosophy, not to mention in our science – but that fact is not a reason to believe in supernatural beings. I think
many arguments for the existence of a God depend on the insufficiencies of human cognition. I readily grant that we have cognitive limitations. But when we bump up against them, when we find we cannot explain something — like why the fundamental physical parameters happen to have the values that they have —
the right conclusion to draw is that we just can’t explain the thing. That’s the proper place for agnosticism and humility."
Alex's comment: Exactly.
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