(April 23, 2013 at 10:42 am)Dawud Wrote: Hi I am a Muslim and I don't hate atheists.
I just want to check this to be certain.
Richard Dawkins was in no way influenced by atheism when he wrote the God delusion - this is because he was really reacting to theism (and not atheism)!
Is this really what most atheists here believe? That atheists are never motivated by atheism?
I'm not going to respond - I'm just checking that there is a consensus on this issue...
Atheism doesn't motivate
Hey, Dawud. I think it might be more accurate to say that someone's reasons for writing a book like that and someone's reasons for being an atheist may be related. Dawkins seems to come to atheism by way of scientific skepticism, and that same skepticism combined with frustration over dealing with creationists led to him writing The God Delusion.
Neither atheism nor theism of themselves can motivate, but atheists and theists can have motivations that aren't entirely divorced from their atheism or theism. No one becomes a missionary just because they're a theist, but they might because they're a particular kind of theist, combined with a personality willing to go through with it.
