Atheism: A Philosophical Justification [Hardcover]

Michael Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1990

In this book Michael Martin provides logical reasons for being an atheist. Carefully examining the current debate in Anglo-American analytic philosophy regarding God’s existence, Martin presents a comprehensive critique of the arguments for the existence of God and a defense of arguments against the existence of God, showing in detail their relevance to atheism. Claiming that atheism is a rational position while theistic beliefs are not, he relies both on logic and evidence and confines his efforts to showing the irrationality of belief in a personal supreme being who is omniscient, omnipotent, perfect, and the creator of heaven and earth.

The author’s approach is two-fold. By presenting and criticizing arguments that have been advanced in favor of belief, he makes a case for "negative atheism." By offering arguments against atheism and defending it from these attacks, he presents a case for "positive atheism." Along the way, he confronts the views of numerous philosophers—among them Anselm, Aquinas, Plantinga, Hick, and Swinburne—and refutes both classical and contemporary arguments that have been advanced through the history of this debate.

In his conclusion, Martin considers what would and would not follow if his main arguments were widely accepted, and he defines and distinguishes atheism from other "isms" and movements. Building on the work of religious skeptics and atheists of the past and present, he justifies his reconstruction of this philosophical dispute by citing some of the most interesting and important arguments for atheism and criticisms of arguments for the existence of God that have appeared in recent journal articles and have yet to be systematically addressed.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thousands of philosophers—from the ancient Greeks to modern thinkers—have defended atheism, but none more comprehensively than Martin. His lengthy arguments, detailed and incisive, are sharpened by modern developments in logic and inductive reasoning and by special attention to contemporary thinkers whose subtle writings are unknown to the general public.... Atheists should read it to bolster their creed, and theists should read it to test their faith against the deadly force of Martin's attack."
—Martin Gardner, The Humanist

"A tour-de-force for the mind.... This is a book to be read several times and savored while being slowly digested.... If one follows Martin's reasoning throughout this book, one will have gone through the most thorough and vigorous examination of the logical arguments surrounding atheism and theism that has ever been offered."
—Gordon Stein, American Rationalist

"[This book] has the impact of a runaway train. It is certainly the best philosophical justification of atheism that I have ever read.... Even readers with little philosophical background will find themselves richly repaid."
—Free Inquiry

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Logical reasons for being an atheist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr (March 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877226423
• ISBN-13: 978-0877226420
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,549,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars VERY comprehensive but dated introduction to atheism, September 9, 2001

By 

[e-mail] (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (Paperback)

This book is a HUGE overview of the different types of atheism. Overall, I think Martin's book is an excellent introduction to atheism. I particularly enjoyed his refutation of various theistic answers to the argument from evil. Unfortunately, I cannot report that I enthusiastically endorse every feature of this book. Here's why:

First, Martin creates unnecessary problems for himself by trying to argue BOTH that theism is meaningless AND that if theism were meaningful, it is false. I am very familiar with Martin's Internet essay, "Positive Atheism and the Meaninglessness of Theism," where he explains that his defense of both negative and positive atheism is a "fall-back" position. However, Martin's defense of the claim, "theism is factually meaningfulness," is unconvincing. (Even most nontheists believe that theism is meaningful!) Moreover, Martin's "fall-back" strategy is a poor one. By writing such a huge discussion of arguments for and against the existence of God, it sure *appears* that Martin can think of ways in which the existence of God might be confirmed or disconfirmed. In other words, despite the fact that Martin was using a "fall-back" strategy, by the very nature of the issue Martin's fall-back strategy undermines his claim that theism is factually meaningfulness.

Second, given that his book was first published 10 years ago, it is now starting to become dated. Martin's book lacks a discussion of several new evidential arguments for atheism developed and defended since 1991. John Schellenberg has defended the highly influential atheological argument from divine hiddenness. (Indeed, this argument is so powerful that even Christian philosophers are taking it seriously: witness the forthcoming publication of Howard-Snyder's and Moser's anthology on divine hiddenness.) Martin's book is missing other important evidential atheological arguments as well, including Michael Tooley's argument from physical minds, Paul Draper's argument about combining evolution with the problem of evil, Draper's argument from the biological role of pain and pleasure, and religious confusion. Likewise, on the theistic side, Martin's book says nothing about recent sophisticated defenses of so-called 'intelligent design' theory.

Third, I doubt that Martin's critique of moral arguments for theism will satisfy anyone except atheist philosophers, given the brevity of the discussion. If morality can be objective without God, Martin needs to say more about the matter than he does. And moral objectivists will not be impressed by Martin's 4-sentence (hypothetical?) dismissal of moral objectivism (which, I suppose, is another one of Martin's "fall-back" strategies.)

Overall, I think Michael Martin's _Atheism_ can be a useful addition to a person's library, so long as he or she is aware of its limitations. I hope that Martin revises his book so that these limitations are removed.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charged Atheism, January 9, 2001

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"freethoughtmecca" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (Paperback)

In my opinion, this is undoubtedly one of the strongest defenses of Atheism ever written. Martin gives information on both "negative" and "positive" Atheism. These two distinctions are as follows: "negative" Atheism is simply non-belief in any particular god, while "positive" Atheism is the firm belief that no gods exist. It may sound like there is no difference at all, but it mostly has to do with how strong one's Atheism is.

Martin, a professor of philosophy at Boston University, destroys numerous modern incarnations of common theist arguments, including William Lane Craig's twist on the Kalam cosmological argument. The one draw back to this book is that it might make for rough reading for those who are not familiar with the symbolization and syntax of sentential logic. Such readers may have a tough time with Martin's arguments which, at times, resemble mathematical equations.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and very technical, April 26, 2000

By 

Martin Carlsson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (Paperback)

As a layman in terms of philosophy I found this book to be at the edge of my ability to comprehend. This is really no page-turner in the Stephen King sense. It requires long hours of careful reading and thinking on the reader's behalf.

Martin does a great job in defining the various ideas surrounding atheism and the problems with theism. All the classic theistic proofs, in various and modern form, of the existance of God gets a good pounding. Martin deals with both so called negative atheism (the mere lack of belief in gods(s) and positive atheism (the disbelief in God and then mainly the omnipotent,omniscient and omnibenevolent construction apparent in say, christianity.

I would recommend to read Atheism: the case against God by George Smith if you are not into philosophy a lot instead of this book. This one goes so much further and is therefor at a much higher level