Abstract
In the Introduction, Wróbel and Skonieczny provide a starting point for the rethinking of atheism, something which is much needed in the current historical moment, characterized as it is by the conflicting forces of secularization and the “return of religion”. As a starting point for this reconsideration, they formulate three questions: (1) What is atheism, especially in its philosophical form, which has been dubbed the “atheism of the concept”? (2) Are we living in a post-atheistic age and, if so, what does this entail? (3) To what form of atheism should we remain faithful today? The authors then proceed to stress the importance of rethinking Modernity—its main characteristics, main thinkers and remnants—as a starting point for the analysis of atheism, showing also that only through such a rethinking can we invent new modes of (atheist) life. The Introduction also contains short summaries of the chapters gathered in this volume.
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Notes
- 1.
On 10 April 2010, a Polish government aircraft crashed near the city of Smolensk in Russia, killing all 96 passengers and crew. Among the people on the plane were Poland’s president Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, along with many other prominent politicians and public figures. Although several investigations ruled the disaster an accident caused by foggy weather and bad decisions, many conspiracy theories were born, citing anything from bombs to artificial fog as the cause of the crash. For some years, politicians close to Kaczyński—mostly from the Law and Justice party—held vigils on the 10th of each month in front of the Presidential Palace to commemorate the crash. Promises of discovering the “true” nature of the disaster and allusions to conspiracy theories, often voiced by top Law and Justice figures, were a common part of these gatherings.
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Wróbel, S., Skonieczny, K. (2020). Introduction to Atheism. In: Wróbel, S., Skonieczny, K. (eds) Atheism Revisited. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34368-2_1
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