''Atheïstisch manifest: drie wijsgerige opstellen over godsdienst en moraal'' ("Atheist Manifesto: Three Philosophical Essays on Religion and Morality") is an

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

bundle by the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Herman Philipse Herman Philipse (born 13 May 1951) is a Dutch professor of philosophy at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Philipse taught at Leiden University from 1986 until 2003 where he obtained his doctorate in 1983. Work Philipse has written many p ...

. Originally published in 1995, Philipse brought out a new version in 2004 that included a new bundle of four essays titled ''De onredelijkheid van religie'' ("The Unreasonableness of Religion"). The compilation was published under the name ''Atheïstisch manifest en De onredelijkheid van religie'' ("Atheist Manifesto and The Unreasonableness of Religion"). In the short book, Philipse opines that one can speak rationally about the existence of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, but if one wishes to take the

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

seriously, one needs to reject the traditional meaning of the word 'God'. However, if one wished to define the word 'God' as something unknowable, God cannot have any descriptive contents and therefore not exist. Thus there is no grounding for

theistic Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of at least one deity. In common parlance, or when contrasted with '' deism'', the term often describes the philosophical conception of God that is found in classical theism—or the co ...

morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...

. Philipse's ''Atheïstisch manifest'' got him into a fierce argument with several theologians, including Eginhard Meijering,

Vincent Brümmer Vincent Brümmer (30 December 1932 – 30 March 2021) was a South African-born Christian theologian who worked for most of his career in the Netherlands. From 1967 to 1997 he was the Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Utrech ...

and Harry Kuitert, who replied to him disapprovingly, and eventually faced him in a debate on "the tenability of atheism" in the spring of 1996. Philipse claimed that all arguments thus far proposed for the

existence of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the exis ...

were invalid, while the theologians argued Philipse had insufficiently delved into the matter, missed the religious context, and ignored how much

consolation Consolation, consolement, and solace are terms referring to psychological comfort given to someone who has suffered severe, upsetting loss, such as the death of a loved one. It is typically provided by expressing shared regret for that loss and ...

belief in God offered. In the aftermath of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Ayaan Hirsi Ali (; born 13 November 1969) is a Dutch and American writer, activist, conservative thinker and former politician. She is a critic of Islam and an advocate for the rights and self-determination of Muslim women, opposing forced mar ...

read ''Atheïstisch manifest'' in 2002, which led her to her definitive

apostasy Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous re ...

, after which she famously became a critic of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. For Philipse, too, the topic of religion and morality once again gained urgency because of "9/11", whereupon he decided to write four new essays on the

relationship between religion and science The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern ...

under the title of ''De onredelijkheid van religie'', and combine it with his 1995 work. The entire composition, complete with a preface written by Hirsi Ali, was published in 2004 under the name ''Atheïstisch manifest en De onredelijkheid van religie''. In 2012, Philipse published a new and much more elaborate book, '' God in the Age of Science?'', as an improvement on ''Atheïstisch manifest''. He commented on the issue: "It was a matter of conscience. Everyone in the Netherlands knows me only because of that odd manifesto. Well, that frustrates one. I wanted to research the question really well for once. So that they can no longer say: you have merely written a superficial booklet about it."Original in Dutch: "Het was een gewetenskwestie. Iedereen in Nederland kent mij van dat rare manifest. Nou, daar baal je ook van. Ik wilde de zaak een keer echt goed onderzoeken. Dan kunnen ze niet meer zeggen: jij hebt er alleen maar zo'n oppervlakkig boekje over geschreven."

References

Books about atheism Books by Herman Philipse Books critical of religion Dutch books Books about religion and science {{atheism-book-stub