With reference to other aspects of human experience explore the claim that atheism is without foundation. Justify your answer

Dawkins countered this argument by claiming that he cannot prove the flying spaghetti monster does not exist, but any logical person does not believe that he exists. However this presents a faulty analogy by likening the almighty creator God to an aspect of his creation.

Many notable atheists have converted to theism just by thinking logically. Notable examples of this would include Antony Flew and Lee Strobel.  Flew died in 2010 and for most of the latter half of the twentieth century he was an outspoken critic of theism. The main argument that converted him was the teleological argument. He realised that atheism could not account for the existence of the universe and believed that the atheist counter-arguments were insufficient, especially Dawkin’s The God Delusion. However, Flew only believed in the deistic, Aristotelian conception of God in comparison to Strobel, who became an evangelical Christian after his conversion through religious experience.

However, others would argue that atheism has a stronger foundation than theism. Atheists such as Stephen Hawking claim that the foundation of atheism is reason and observation, in contrast to theism which requires faith in something that cannot be subject to scientific testing and is often founded in ancient texts. God was wildly involved with mankind in the Old Testament: striking down enemies, physically appearing to people and making animals speak. This sort of immediate involvement appears to have ceased. It’s ironic that these miracles all happened before the advent of video cameras.

Many would argue that atheism is the default position of mankind, and it is only through childhood indoctrination that people become theists. Religions are founded for many corrupt reasons, such as desire for money and power. For example, Scientology was only invented in 1953 and a quote often attributed to L Ron Hubbard is, “The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion.” Therefore it is hypocritical of theists to criticise the foundation of atheism when their own religious foundations can be very dubious.