Graham Oppy: Arguing For Atheism

Graham Oppy is a well-renowned atheist philosopher who is a professor at Montash University in Australia. His recently published book 'Atheism: The Basics' is a succinct work that goes into depth about what Atheism is, its history, and its future. Talking with Graham was a privilege, please let me know what you thought of the discussion in the comments!

TIMESTAMPS:
(0:00) - INTRO
(3:04) - Oppy’s Book ‘Atheism: The Basics’ + Book Recommendation
(6:07) - Defining Atheism / “Lack-Theism”
(11:42) - Is Atheism the Default Position?
(14:09) - Agnostic Atheism, Debating Theists, Certainty
(21:36) - The Best Argument for Atheism & Theism?
(26:49) - Which Evidence Would Convince Oppy that God Exists?
(37:24) - New Atheists: What They Did Best & Worst
(42:42) - Thoughts on Friedrich Nietzsche
(49:17) - The Problem with Surveys on Atheism
(53:34) - Which Religion Would Oppy Hypothetically Join?
(59:45) - Which Books on Theism Would Oppy Recommend?
(1:04:02) - Closing Thoughts

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[RealAtheology]

Fantastic interview, thank you for putting this together. While Oppy's introductory work is great, I'd recommend reading his more academic work, including his work _Arguing About Gods_ which is widely considered one of the best defenses of Atheism in the literature. His book _Naturalism and Religion_ is excellent too. Another excellent book is J.H. Sobel's _Logic and Theism_ which Oppy and others consider to be among one of the best books on arguments for and against the existence God to appear in the literature.

[jmike]

Definitely teased out some views oppy hasn't expressed in interviews yet, thanks!

[jakek.]

I love
Dr. Graham Oppy. Thanks for having him here.

[adamc]

Default position is one has never thought about the question.

[hasanhaytham]

You should check out firas zahabi's philosophy, one of the most intelligent people on earth he is an amazing philosopher and MMA coach who helped GSP became a ufc champion. He would definitely come onto your channel and discuss philosophy and religion definitely check him out I think you'd be very interested

[greylonewolf]

41:40
"Islamophobia, a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons"
-Christopher Hitchens

I deeply respect Mr Oppy, but as a former muslim, it's my duty to tell people that hatred of muslim should be termed as muslimophobia or antimuslim bigotry, as they exist in reality, and not Islamophobia which has become the muslim apologist's go to term to dismiss any critic of Islam.It really is used to discredit any critic of Muhammad/Islam by labelling the person as bigot/racist/islamophobe.

[joeregan.]

I don't agree with the concept that certainty is unobtainable. God is not physical but individuals can interact with Him regardless, and that gives them personal certainty even if they can't show physical proof of that interaction to give others certainty.

[michelangelope]

If everything needed to be created nothing would exist, therefore God exists. The God's paradox is that it is impossible to exist existance without the existence of an impossibility. It is impossible for existence to exist without the existence of an eternal entity that was not created. The existence of an eternal entity or infinitude is an impossibility. Can a car go at infinite speed, have a painting infinite colors, start a race an eternity ago, have a football pitch infinite surface? It is impossible. The God's paradox is resolved being the eternal entity a miracle or impossibility that God makes possible. God is the eternal miracle of Life and Death, everything that ever existed, exists and would exist. The debate between religious people and atheists is encysted because God exists and the religious god doesn’t, so both are wrong having arguments to be right. Why the cosmological argument is understood by religious people and not by atheists? Because humanity choose to ignore the arguments that contradict their vision of reality. Is the logical proposition “if everything had to be created or have a predecessor nothing would exist” true or false? An atheist answered “it’s false, you don’t have evidence to support this ‘proposition’”.

[Nithin_sp]

37:00 I wonder why Oppy thinks that historians cannot possibly deliver the necessities to believe that Jesus wasn't God 🤔

[pureevil]

Seems like a lot of fluff talk, the guest appeared to avoid answering questions he didn't like by being wishy washy especially when it came to choosing a religion that made more sense. He'd be a great politician. The interviewer should have pressed a bit more rather than trying to appease his feelings. It's ok to disagree dude