Michael Lou Martin (February 3, 1932 – May 27, 2015) was an American philosopher and former professor at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

. Martin specialized in the

philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...

, although he also worked on the philosophies of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

. He served with the US Marine Corps in Korea.

Biography

Life and academic career

Martin completed a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1956 at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

. He was awarded an MA in philosophy at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in 1958 and in 1962 he was awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He was appointed assistant professor at

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

in 1962 and in 1965 he moved to

.ref=CFINews He was appointed Professor of Philosophy Emeritus after a lifelong career at Boston University. Martin died on 27 May 2015, aged 83. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including ''Atheism: A Philosophical Justification'' (1989), ''The Case Against Christianity'' (1991), ''Atheism, Morality, and Meaning'' (2002), ''The Impossibility of God'' (2003), ''The Improbability of God'' (2006), and ''The Cambridge Companion to Atheism'' (2006). He sat on the editorial board of the philosophy journal ''

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's deplo ...

'' and wrote many reviews and articles for journals and magazines including ''Free Inquiry''.

Atheism

In his ''Atheism: A Philosophical Justification'', Martin cites a general absence of an atheistic response to contemporary work in philosophy of religion, and accepts the responsibility of a rigorous defense of non belief as his "cross to bear:"

The aim of this book is not to make atheism a popular belief or even to overcome its invisibility. My object is not utopian. It is merely to provide good reasons for being an atheist. … My object is to show that atheism is a rational position and that belief in God is not. I am quite aware that atheistic beliefs are not always based on reason. My claim is that they should be.

Martin used the concepts of

negative and positive atheism Negative atheism, also called weak atheism and soft atheism, is any type of atheism where a person does not believe in the existence of any deities but does not necessarily explicitly assert that there are none. Positive atheism, also called str ...

as proposed by

Antony Flew Antony Garrard Newton Flew (; 11 February 1923 – 8 April 2010) was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught at ...

rather than the terms weak or soft atheism (negative) and strong or hard atheism (positive).

Debates

Martin took part in a number of written and internet debates with Christian philosophers. * In 1991 Martin and Keith Parsons (founder of Georgia Skeptics and teacher of philosophy at Berry College (Rome, Georgia)) provided atheistic critiques to Douglas Jones' propositions on The Futility of Non Christian Thought in a written debate, ''Is Non-Christian Thought Justifiable?'', originally published in ''Antithesis'' magazine. *Martin had agreed to participate in a debate with Christian reconstructionist philosopher

Greg Bahnsen Greg L. Bahnsen (September 17, 1948 – December 11, 1995) was an American Reformed philosopher, apologist, and debater. He was a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and a full-time Scholar in Residence for the Southern Californi ...

on October 26, 1994, at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. Martin, however, pulled out of the debate on October 14, less than two weeks before the event was to have taken place, due to his stated objection to having the debate recorded. * He conducted a debate with

John M. Frame John M. Frame (born April 8, 1939) is a retired American Christian philosopher and Calvinist theologian especially noted for his work in epistemology and presuppositional apologetics, systematic theology, and ethics. He is one of the foremost int ...

over the internet in a series of articles and responses around Martin's 1996 article, "The Transcendental Argument for the Nonexistence of God". * An internet debate with Christian philosopher Phil Fernandes in 1997 over the existence of God was published as a book in 2000 titled: ''Theism vs. Atheism: The Internet Debate''.

Academic Books

*Martin, M., & Augustine, K. (2015). ''The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death,'' Rowman & Littlefield. *Martin, M. (Ed) (2006). ''The Cambridge Companion to Atheism.''Cambridge: Cambridge University Press''.'' (Translated into Portuguese (2007), Finnish (2011), Croatian (2011)) *Martin, M., & Monnier, R. (Eds.) (2006). ''The Improbability of God''. Prometheus Books. *Martin, M., & Monnier, R. (Eds.) (2003). ''The Impossibility of God''. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. *Martin, M. (2002). ''Atheism, Morality and Meaning''. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. * Fernandes, P., & Martin, M. (2000). ''Theism vs. Atheism: The Internet Debate (Dr. Phil Fernandes vs. Dr. Michael Martin)'', Brenerton, WA: Ibd Press. * Martin, M. (2000). ''Verstehen: The Uses of Understanding in the Social Sciences.'' New Jersey: Transaction Books. * Martin, M. (1996). ''Legal Realism: American and Scandinavian.'' New York: Peter Lang. *Martin, M., & McIntyre, L. (Eds) (1994). ''Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science.'' Cambridge: The MIT Press. *Martin, M. (1991). ''The Case Against Christianity''. Philadelphia: Temple University. * Martin, M. (1989). ''Atheism: A Philosophical Justification''. Philadelphia: Temple University. *Martin, M. (1987). ''The Legal Philosophy of H. L. A. Hart: A Critical Appraisal''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. *Martin, M. (1978). ''Social Science and Philosophical Analysis: Essays on The Philosophy of The Social Sciences'' Washington, D.C.: University Press Of America. *Martin, M. (1972). ''Concepts of Science Education: A Philosophical Analysis.'' Chicago: Scott-Foresman. *Martin, M., & Foster, M. (Eds) (1966). ''Probability, Confirmation and Simplicity''. New York: Odyssey Press. ASIN: B000H03Q86

Fiction and Plays

Martin published ''The Big Domino in the Sky: And Other Atheistic Tales'' in 1996. This is a collection of short stories in various styles presenting philosophical arguments. . In 2011 Martin self-published a fiction novel, ''Murder In Lecture Hall B'', about a murder in the classroom of a philosophy professor whose interests are Religions and Atheism. Martin also wrote 8 short plays with moral or philosophical themes that are available on his website.

References

External links

Martin's homepage
Boston University
Martin's page
from infidels.org, which contains a number of his critiques of theism
Martin's biography
also from infidels.org, which lists his extensive collection of articles and reviews.
Biography
philosophyofreligion.info.
Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Michael 1932 births 2015 deaths 20th-century American philosophers American atheism activists Analytic philosophers Atheist philosophers Boston University faculty Christ myth theory proponents Critics of Christianity Harvard University alumni Philosophers of religion Philosophers of social science Writers about religion and science