Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T17:12:52.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in Religion and Monotheism

Monotheism and Contemporary Atheism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2019

Michael Ruse
Michael Ruse
Affiliation:
Florida State University

Summary

In this Element, Michael Ruse offers a critical analysis of contemporary atheism. He puts special emphasis on the work of so-called 'New Atheists': Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchins, whose views are contrasted with those of Edward O. Wilson. Ruse also provides a full exposition of his own position, which he labels 'Darwinian Existentialism'.
Get access

Keywords

DarwinatheismRichard DawkinsDarwinian existentialismSam HarrisNew Atheism
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Religion and Monotheism
Online ISBN: 9781108758635
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 08 August 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aristotle. 1998. Nicomachean Ethics. Editor Smith, J. A.. Mineola, NY: Dover.Google Scholar
Augustine. 1982. The Literal Meaning of Genesis. Translator J. H. Taylor. New York: Newman.Google Scholar
Augustine 1998. Confessions. Translator H. Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boyle, R. [1688]1966. A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things. The Works of Robert Boyle. 6 vols. Editor Birch, T., 5:392–444. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.Google Scholar
Bullivant, S. B. and Ruse, M., editors. 2013. Oxford Handbook to Atheism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camus, A. [1942]1955. The Myth of Sysiphus. London: Hamish Hamilton.Google Scholar
Coyne, J. A. 2015. Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Crane, T. 2017. The Meaning of Belief: Religion from an Atheist’s Point of View. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwin, C. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1958. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–1882. Editor Barlow, N.. London: Collins.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1985–. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. 1976. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. 1983. Universal Darwinism. Evolution from Molecules to Men. Editor Bendall, D. S., 403–425. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. 1986. The Blind Watchmaker. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. 2006. The God Delusion. New York: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. 2006. Breaking the Spell: Religion As a Natural Phenomenon. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Dickens, C. [1850]1948. David Copperfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dijksterhuis, E. J. 1961. The Mechanization of the World Picture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dostoevsky, F. [1879–1880]2003. The Brothers Karamazov. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Franklin, B. 2009. Autobiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J. 1999. Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life. New York: Ballantine.Google Scholar
Haldane, J. B. S. 1927. Possible Worlds and Other Essays. London: Chatto and Windus.Google Scholar
Hall, A. R. 1954. The Scientific Revolution 1500–1800: The Formation of the Modern Scientific Attitude. London: Longman, Green and Company.Google Scholar
Hardy, T. 1994. Collected Poems. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Poetry Library.Google Scholar
Harris, S. 2004. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Haught, J. F. 2008. God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.Google Scholar
Hick, J. 1973. God and the Universe of Faiths: Essays in the Philosophy of Religion. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Hick, J. 2005. An Autobiography. London: Oneworld Publications.Google Scholar
Hitchens, C. 2007. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. New York: Hachette.Google Scholar
Hume, D. [1757]1963. A Natural History of Religion. Hume on Religion. Editor Wollheim, R., 31–98. London: Fontana.Google Scholar
Hume, D. [1739–1740]1978. A Treatise of Human Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hutton, J. 1788. Theory of the Earth; or An Investigation of the Laws Observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1, no. 2: 209–304.Google Scholar
Huxley, J. S. 1927. Religion without Revelation. London: Ernest Benn.Google Scholar
Ingersoll, R. G. 1874. The Gods and Other Lectures. Peoria, IL: Privately Printed.Google Scholar
Paul, John II. 1998. Fides et Ratio: Encyclical Letter of John Paul II to the Catholic Bishops of the World. Vatican City: L’Osservatore Romano.Google Scholar
Kepler, J. 1977. The Harmony of the World. Translators E. J. Aiton, A. M. Duncan, and J. V. Field. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. 2014. Life after Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. 1993. Metaphor in Science. In Metaphor and Thought. 2nd edn. Editor Ortony, A., 533–542. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Larson, E. J. 1997. Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
LeDrew, S. 2016. The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leibniz, G. F. W. 1714. Monadology and other Philosophical Essays. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. 1955. Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. London: Geoffrey Bles.Google Scholar
Lucretius. 1950. Of the Nature of Things. translator Leonard, W. E.. London: Dutton (Everyman’s Library).Google Scholar
Lyell, C. 1830–1833. Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes in the Earth’s Surface by Reference to Causes now in Operation. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Marrin, A. 1974. The Last Crusade: The Church of England in the First World War. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Marx, K. 1844. A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right Introduction. Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, February 7 and 10.Google Scholar
McGrath, A. and McGrath, J. C.. 2007. The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.Google Scholar
Myers, F. W. H. 1881. G. Eliot. The Century Magazine: November, 47.Google Scholar
Newman, J. H. 1973. The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, XXV. Editors Dessain, C. S. and Gornall, T.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Noll, M. 2002. America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Numbers, R. L. 2006. The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design. Standard edn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Paley, W. [1802]1819. Natural Theology (Collected Works: IV). London: Rivington.Google Scholar
Pennock, R. 1998. Tower of Babel: Scientific Evidence and the New Creationism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Porterfield, A. 2012. Conceived in Doubt: Religion and Politics in the New American Nation (American Beginnings, 1500–1900). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, R. J. and Ruse, M.. 2016. Debating Darwin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 1979. The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 1986. Taking Darwin Seriously: A Naturalistic Approach to Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 1988b. Homosexuality: A Philosophical Inquiry. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 1996. Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruse, M. 2001. Can a Darwinian Be a Christian? The Relationship between Science and Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 2010. Science and Spirituality: Making Room for Faith in the Age of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 2012. The Philosophy of Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruse, M. 2013. The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 2015. Atheism: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 2017. On Purpose. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 2018. The Problem of War: Darwinism, Christianity, and Their Battle to Understand Human Conflict. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. 2019. A Meaning to Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M., editor. 1988a. But Is It Science? The Philosophical Question in the Creation/Evolution Controversy. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. and Richards, R. J., editors. 2017. The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ruse, M. and Wilson, E. O.. 1986. Moral Philosophy As Applied Science. Philosophy 61: 173–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, B. 1927. Why I Am Not a Christian. London: Watts.Google Scholar
Anselm, St.. 1903. Anselm: Proslogium, Monologium, an Appendix on Behalf of the Fool by Gaunilon; and Cur Deus Homo. Editor Deane, S. N.. Chicago, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Aquinas., St. T. 1952. Summa Theologica, I. London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne.Google Scholar
Aquinas., St. T. 1975. Summa Contra Gentiles. Translator V. J. Bourke. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Sartre, J. P. 1948. Existentialism and Humanism. Brooklyn, NY: Haskell House Publishers Ltd.Google Scholar
Spencer, H. 1857. Progress: Its Law and Cause. Westminster Review 67: 244–267.Google Scholar
Weinberg, S. 1977. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Whitcomb, J. C. and Morris, H. M.. 1961. The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications. Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. 1975. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. 1978. On Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. 2006. The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion. New York: NortonGoogle Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Monotheism and Contemporary Atheism
  • Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Online ISBN: 9781108758635
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Monotheism and Contemporary Atheism
  • Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Online ISBN: 9781108758635
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Monotheism and Contemporary Atheism
  • Michael Ruse, Florida State University
  • Online ISBN: 9781108758635
Available formats
×