Examining Richard Dawkins' criticisms of the agnostic view on the issue of God's existence

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Islamic Education, faculty of Theology, Hakim Sabzevari University, sabzevar, Iran

Abstract

In his book "The God delusion" Richard Dawkins has denied the existence of the God of Abrahamic religions, including Islam. In order to prove his point of view, in addition to presenting the reasons he tried to remove everything that is considered as an obstacle. The point of view of agnosticism is one of these obstacles that Dawkins, by accepting its principle, believes that the probability of the non-existence of God is greater than his existence; therefore, one should not be agnostic about the existence of God. He has based his belief on the basis of the division of " agnosticism " into temporary and permanent, Knowing the existence of God as a scientific hypothesis, the principle of the impossibility of definitively proving the absence of a thing, criticism of Bayesian reasoning and improbable reasoning. In this article, Dawkins' point of view and reasons are first introduced in a descriptive way, and then the success rate of the reasons presented in proving his claim is analyzed by a critical method. The result of the research shows that these reasons cannot prove his claim and their ultimate efficiency is to prove theoretical agnosticism.

Keywords

Main Subjects


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