Many religious folk insist on presenting the debate over the existence of their *very* specific worship- and gratitude-worthy God as a debate about theism vs naturalism. That's a false narrative - do not accept it. 'Naturalism or theism' is a false dilemma - there are many other options on the table (e.g. you find non-naturalists about maths, modals, and morals who are not theists, for example; there are also all sorts of theisms to consider other than the *particularly* implausible omnipotent omnibenevolent Judeo-Christian God). Most folks who reject religious monotheism reject it, not because they're wedded to scientism, naturalism, or some other philosophical or metaphysical -ism, but for much the same reasons they're skeptical about fairies, ghosts, and a flat earth - they think there's little evidence for, a great deal of evidence against (e.g. the evidential problem of evil, the problem of divine hiddenness). They also think there are
Stephen Law is a philosopher and author. Currently Director of Philosophy and Cert HE at Oxford University Department of Continuing Education. Stephen has also published many popular books including The Philosophy Gym, The Complete Philosophy Files, and Believing Bullshit. For school talks/ media: stephenlaw4schools.blogspot.co.uk Email: think-AT-royalinstitutephilosophy.org