Philosophy Thoughts as and when

Happy Atheist Day! 🥳🎉🎊🎉🥂🍾🎇🎆 I would add some atheist emojis here but I can't find any specific ones, unlike the choice we have for the various religions 🙄 There's bias right there! This despite the fact that there could be up to 750 million atheists in the world which would make atheism the 4th largest 'religion'! Anyway, it seems that the emoji atheists have adopted on social media is one that scientists also use, which is a scientific symbol of an atom: ⚛️ For Atheist Day this year, I'd like to unpack the complexities and a few details about atheism, which, I think, are oversimplified and generalised. Just as with most belief systems or identities, atheism is on a spectrum and not a simple matter of 'either you are, or you are not'. Nevertheless, there is no set definition of Atheism or a required set of beliefs one must hold to count as an atheist. My aim in this post is two fold: one, to explore the various ways in which people can be atheists a

As I've been mentioning on my blog about Spinoza, I think some people may conflate my personal and philosophical beliefs and thoughts with the philosophers I research, assuming it's somehow all the same system of thought/belief. One aspect of this is becoming confused about my personal religious beliefs and experience and, I suppose, consequently what my account of philosophy of religion would look like, if I were to expound one. In terms of religion, the philosophers I write about are superficially quite different, ranging from Spinoza who was Jewish, to Shepherd and Cavendish who were liberal-minded Christians to Hume and JS Mill who were on the agnostic/atheistic side. Well, the thing I and all these philosophers have in common is being rational, tolerant, freethinkers who keep philosophy clearly separate from religion, reject dogma, superstition and are critical of institutional religion, preferring religious beliefs or non-beliefs to be a personal, private matter.  Even Sh