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| | ==Tenuousness of Atheism in Prominent Atheist== | | ==Tenuousness of Atheism in Prominent Atheist== |
| | [[Image:Sartre1.gif|thumb|150px|right|[[Jean-Paul Sartre]]]] | | [[Image:Sartre1.gif|thumb|150px|right|[[Jean-Paul Sartre]]]] |
| − | The atheism of notable people who claimed to be atheists has had the characteristic of tenuousness in respect to maintaining thoughts in accordance with atheism. For example, [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] was one of the leading proponents of atheism of the 20th Century. Yet Jean-Paul Sartre made this candid confession:
| + | Notable professing atheists have had the characteristic of tenuousness (lacking in sound basis, or in clarity) with respect to maintaining thoughts in accordance with atheism. For example, [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] was one of the leading proponents of atheism of the 20th Century. Yet Jean-Paul Sartre made this candid confession: |
| − | {{cquote|As for me, I don’t see myself as so much dust that has appeared in the world but as a being that was expected, prefigured, called forth. In short, as a being that could, it seems, come only from a creator; and this idea of a creating hand that created me refers me back to God. Naturally this is not a clear, exact idea that I set in motion every time I think of myself. It contradicts many of my other ideas; but it is there, floating vaguely. And when I think of myself I often think rather in this way, for want of being able to think otherwise.<ref>http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/apologetics/AP0702W4.htm</ref>}} | + | {{cquote|As for me, I don’t see myself as so much dust that has appeared in the world but as a being that was expected, prefigured, called forth. In short, as a being that could, it seems, come only from a creator; and this idea of a creating hand that created me refers me back to God. Naturally this is not a clear, exact idea that I set in motion every time I think of myself. It contradicts many of my other ideas; but it is there, floating vaguely. And when I think of myself I often think rather in this way, for wont of ''being able to think otherwise''.<ref>[http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/apologetics/AP0702W4.htm Is Christianity Alone Fully True and is Jesus Christ Really the Only Way To God? -- Part 4]</ref>}} |
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| | [[Image:darwin.jpg|thumb|120px|left|[[Charles Darwin]]]] | | [[Image:darwin.jpg|thumb|120px|left|[[Charles Darwin]]]] |
| − | [[Charles Darwin]] wrote in his private notebooks that he was a [[materialism|materialist]] which is a type of atheist.<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1877</ref><ref>American Scientist May 1977:323</ref> The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states the following: | + | [[Charles Darwin]] wrote in his private notebooks that he was a [[materialism|materialist]], which is a type of atheist.<ref>[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1877 Darwin’s real message: have you missed it?]</ref><ref>American Scientist May 1977:323</ref> |
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| | + | The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states: |
| | {{cquote|In 1885, the Duke of Argyll recounted a conversation he had had with Charles Darwin the year before Darwin's death: | | {{cquote|In 1885, the Duke of Argyll recounted a conversation he had had with Charles Darwin the year before Darwin's death: |
| − | | + | In the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilization of [[Orchid]]s, and upon The [[Earthworm]]s, and various other observations he made of the wonderful contrivances for certain purposes in nature — I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of Mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin's answer. He looked at me very hard and said, “Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but at other times,” and he shook his head vaguely, adding, “it seems to go away. ”(Argyll 1885, 244)<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/notes.html Notes to Teleological Arguments for God's Existence]</ref>}} |
| − | In the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilization of [[Orchid]]s, and upon The [[Earthworm]]s, and various other observations he made of the wonderful contrivances for certain purposes in nature — I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of Mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin's answer. He looked at me very hard and said, “Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but at other times,” and he shook his head vaguely, adding, “it seems to go away. ”(Argyll 1885, 244)<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/notes.html</ref>}} | |
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| | == Claims of the Conditionality and Nonconditionality of Atheism == | | == Claims of the Conditionality and Nonconditionality of Atheism == |