Uploaded August 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
For this episode, we interview Dr. C.M. Lorkowski on his new book Atheism Considered: A Survey of the Rational Rejection of Religious Belief (2020).
This book is a systematic presentation of challenges to the existence of a higher power. Rather than engaging in a polemic against a religious worldview, Lorkowski charitably refutes the classical arguments for the existence of God, pointing out flaws in their underlying reasoning and highlighting difficulties inherent to revealed sources. In place of a theistic worldview, he argues for adopting a naturalistic one, highlighting naturalism’s capacity to explain world phenomena and contribute to the sciences. Lorkowski demonstrates that replacing theism with naturalism, contra popular assumptions sacrifices nothing in terms of ethics or meaning. A charitable and philosophical introduction to a more rigorous philosophical Atheism.
In this interview, we take a tour of some of the major themes of the books with Dr. Lorkowski and discuss many topics including his background, the various arguments of Natural Theology, Apologetics vs. Philosophy, David Hume, and a whole host of other topics. This is definitely the video for those who want an introduction to some of the more philosophical aspects of Atheism.
Dr. Lorkowski's work can be followed here:
philpeople.org/profiles/c-m-lorkowski
You can follow the Real Atheology Team here:
Twitter:
twitter.com/RealAtheology
FB:
facebook.com/RealAtheology
Our Patreon is here:
patreon.com/RealAtheology
Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
1:02 - Prof. Lorkowski's background going from Catholicism to Atheism and interest in the Philosophy of Religion
5:25 - Atheist Thinkers that influenced Prof. Lorkowski and the best defenders Atheism
8:45 - Differences between Theistic Philosophers and Professional Apologists
21:20 - Dogmatic Atheists, Good Theistic Philosophers, and Intellectual Virtues in Philosophy
25:25 - Societal Impact of the New Atheism: The Positives and The Negatives
29:48 - Advice for Atheists and Agnostics moving forward from New Atheism
31:52 - Reasons for writing Atheism Considered and the importance of charitable thinking and Philosophy
36:00 - The Definition of Atheism and responding to the charge that Atheism is a "religion" or Atheism takes "faith"
43:21 - Do we need to have certainty to be Atheists? Evidentialism, Presuppositionalism, and Plantinga's Properly Basic Beliefs
55:20 - Burden of Proof in Atheist vs. Theist Debates and the Low Prior Probability of Theism
1:09:13 - Christian and Theistic Philosophers having an Intellectual Renaissance and how Atheist Philosophers are responding?
1:15:38 - Introduction to Ontological Arguments, Criticisms, and why they remain an interest for Atheist Philosophers
1:25:28 - Strongest versions of Cosmological Arguments. Discussion on Kalam, Thomistic, and Leibnizian Arguments
1:31:28 - Why should we prefer a Naturalistic Initial State/Singularity as a stopping point for our ultimate explanations as opposed to God?
1:36:28 - Graham Oppy's approach to Cosmological Arguments: Naturalism explains the relevant data and is simpler than Theism
1:38:43 - Prevalency of Design Arguments, Intelligent Design vs. Traditional Design Arguments,
1:46:05 - Global/Fine-Tuning Arguments - Contemporary Discussion and Critiques
1:55:24 - Bishop Barron's Argument on Theism's ability to allow us to do Science and Inferring Design in Nature
2:04:57 - Robert Koons' on Metaphysical Explanations vs. Scientific Inference/Hypotheses
2:11:11 - J.H. Sobel on the transition in Natural Theology and the shifts in arguments that Theists are using.
2:16:58 - Models of God, Classical Theism/Thomism and problems with certain Divine Attributes
2:22:28 - Logical and Evidential Problem of Evils/Responding to Theodicies and Objections
2:28:56 - Skeptical Theism
2:33:00 - Cumulative Cases for Atheism
2:35:28 - Revelation and the Average Theists being unaware of Sophisticated Theist Philosophy/Complexity of Theism
2:42:49 - Religious Disagreement and Primary Challenges to Scripture/Old Testament Violence
2:51:59 - The Problem of an Eternal Hell and Arguments from Prophecy
2:58:49 - Religious Experiences and Miracles
3:11:00 - Do Atheists rule out Miracles from the start?
3:13:02 - The Harms of Revealed Religion
3:17:05 - Prof. Lorkowski's future projects and writing/hopes for the book
For this episode, we interview Dr. C.M. Lorkowski on his new book Atheism Considered: A Survey of the Rational Rejection of Religious Belief (2020).
This book is a systematic presentation of challenges to the existence of a higher power. Rather than engaging in a polemic against a religious worldview, Lorkowski charitably refutes the classical arguments for the existence of God, pointing out flaws in their underlying reasoning and highlighting difficulties inherent to revealed sources. In place of a theistic worldview, he argues for adopting a naturalistic one, highlighting naturalism’s capacity to explain world phenomena and contribute to the sciences. Lorkowski demonstrates that replacing theism with naturalism, contra popular assumptions sacrifices nothing in terms of ethics or meaning. A charitable and philosophical introduction to a more rigorous philosophical Atheism.
In this interview, we take a tour of some of the major themes of the books with Dr. Lorkowski and discuss many topics including his background, the various arguments of Natural Theology, Apologetics vs. Philosophy, David Hume, and a whole host of other topics. This is definitely the video for those who want an introduction to some of the more philosophical aspects of Atheism.
Dr. Lorkowski's work can be followed here:
philpeople.org/profiles/c-m-lorkowski
You can follow the Real Atheology Team here:
Twitter:
twitter.com/RealAtheology
FB:
facebook.com/RealAtheology
Our Patreon is here:
patreon.com/RealAtheology
Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
1:02 - Prof. Lorkowski's background going from Catholicism to Atheism and interest in the Philosophy of Religion
5:25 - Atheist Thinkers that influenced Prof. Lorkowski and the best defenders Atheism
8:45 - Differences between Theistic Philosophers and Professional Apologists
21:20 - Dogmatic Atheists, Good Theistic Philosophers, and Intellectual Virtues in Philosophy
25:25 - Societal Impact of the New Atheism: The Positives and The Negatives
29:48 - Advice for Atheists and Agnostics moving forward from New Atheism
31:52 - Reasons for writing Atheism Considered and the importance of charitable thinking and Philosophy
36:00 - The Definition of Atheism and responding to the charge that Atheism is a "religion" or Atheism takes "faith"
43:21 - Do we need to have certainty to be Atheists? Evidentialism, Presuppositionalism, and Plantinga's Properly Basic Beliefs
55:20 - Burden of Proof in Atheist vs. Theist Debates and the Low Prior Probability of Theism
1:09:13 - Christian and Theistic Philosophers having an Intellectual Renaissance and how Atheist Philosophers are responding?
1:15:38 - Introduction to Ontological Arguments, Criticisms, and why they remain an interest for Atheist Philosophers
1:25:28 - Strongest versions of Cosmological Arguments. Discussion on Kalam, Thomistic, and Leibnizian Arguments
1:31:28 - Why should we prefer a Naturalistic Initial State/Singularity as a stopping point for our ultimate explanations as opposed to God?
1:36:28 - Graham Oppy's approach to Cosmological Arguments: Naturalism explains the relevant data and is simpler than Theism
1:38:43 - Prevalency of Design Arguments, Intelligent Design vs. Traditional Design Arguments,
1:46:05 - Global/Fine-Tuning Arguments - Contemporary Discussion and Critiques
1:55:24 - Bishop Barron's Argument on Theism's ability to allow us to do Science and Inferring Design in Nature
2:04:57 - Robert Koons' on Metaphysical Explanations vs. Scientific Inference/Hypotheses
2:11:11 - J.H. Sobel on the transition in Natural Theology and the shifts in arguments that Theists are using.
2:16:58 - Models of God, Classical Theism/Thomism and problems with certain Divine Attributes
2:22:28 - Logical and Evidential Problem of Evils/Responding to Theodicies and Objections
2:28:56 - Skeptical Theism
2:33:00 - Cumulative Cases for Atheism
2:35:28 - Revelation and the Average Theists being unaware of Sophisticated Theist Philosophy/Complexity of Theism
2:42:49 - Religious Disagreement and Primary Challenges to Scripture/Old Testament Violence
2:51:59 - The Problem of an Eternal Hell and Arguments from Prophecy
2:58:49 - Religious Experiences and Miracles
3:11:00 - Do Atheists rule out Miracles from the start?
3:13:02 - The Harms of Revealed Religion
3:17:05 - Prof. Lorkowski's future projects and writing/hopes for the book
