Michael Martin (philosopher)

Michael Martin
Born	February 3, 1932(1932-02-03)
Nationality	American
Education	B.S. (1956), MA (1958), PhD (1962)
Alma mater	Arizona State University University of Arizona Harvard University
Occupation	Philosopher
Employer	Professor emeritus, Boston University
Known for	Philosophy of social science, philosophy of law, philosophy of religion, weak atheism
Notable works	The Impossibility of God (2003), Atheism, Morality and Meaning (2002), The Case Against Christianity (1991), Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (1989)

Michael L. Martin (born February 3, 1932) is an American philosopher and professor emeritus at Boston University.^[1] He obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 1962.

Martin specializes in the philosophy of religion, though he has also worked on the philosophies of science, law, and social science. 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 sits on the editorial board of the philosophy journal, Philo.^[2]

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 nonbelief 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.^[3]

Books

See also

• American philosophy
• Christ myth theory
• Historicity of Jesus
• List of American philosophers
• Verificationism

References

1. ^ "Michael Martin". Boston University. http://www.bu.edu/philo/faculty/martin.html. Retrieved 2007-05-25. ; "Michael Martin". Secular Web Kiosk and Bookstore. http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAuthor&id=38. Retrieved 2007-05-25. 
2. ^ Philo, accessed April 15, 2010.
3. ^ Atheism: A Philosophical Justification, p. 24.

External links

• Martin's homepage, Boston University
• Martin's page from infidels.org, which contains a number of his critiques of theism
• Biography, philosophyofreligion.info.

Persondata
Name	Martin, Michael
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Date of birth	February 3, 1932
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