An Essay about Atheism in Latin

[Belacqua]

there does seem to be this one dominant theme in theology that generally constrains the range of thinking allowed in the field, and that is the dogmatic belief that "God exists".

Yes, I suspect that nearly everyone who has devoted himself to theology takes it as true a priori that God exists. And for most of them, given the time and place they were in, this was reasonable and understandable of them. When absolutely everything anyone knows about the world is explained through a small set of "givens," it must be near-impossible to get outside of that. 

I think this is what I want to keep in mind as a warning to myself. Everybody has these a priori ideas, and practically nobody can imagine them not being so, and it must be as true of me as of anybody. This is maybe the main reason to study the old guys, I think, even if we don't expect to end up agreeing with much of what they say. To be presented with a fantastically intelligent system which is nonetheless completely different from our own is an important message that entirely different sets of ideas are possible. It would be cool if we could read what people will say 700 years from now, but since that isn't available I think 700 years ago is also good.  

What got me started on all this, years ago, was Umberto Eco's book on Thomist aesthetics. Eco's first novel had just become a best-seller so they published an early non-fiction book of his. I was putting myself through my first grad school by working at the Cloisters museum in NYC, and this book made waves in the staff there. Of course I was completely soaked in modern ideas of what good art is and does (which much later I discovered were based in Kant) and I thought that's all there was. So to be presented with this entirely different yet fully worked-out system made a big impression on me. 

(And I realized that Aristotle's system of Four Causes makes a perfect recipe for modern art: take an object and mess up one of the four, and it's ready for the MoMA. Like a handsaw, but made of glass.)

nevertheless you don't find them convincing as well. I would say that's confirmation that perhaps they're not strong arguments after all.

I guess it would be comforting to have the youthful confidence of FlatAssembler, but I have to keep open the possibility that the fault is with me!

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Belaqua, I was able to locate that book by Feser on Kindle but there is no purchase option for it. There are two other books by the same author that I am able to purchase that seem relevant here: "Five Proofs of the Existence of God" and "Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide". I'll download the Aquinas one for now, and if I get enough value out of it will consider the other one.

Since I am possessed by evil demons, I have no qualms about pirating these things. 

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But I think it makes sense to begin with Aquinas. It is a more general view of things, and then if you're at all still interested Scholastic Metaphysics takes it farther. 

I'm not always crazy about Feser, who is a social conservative and not somebody I think I'd enjoy drinking with. But he knows about Aquinas and he's a clear writer.