There are many atheist philosophers
(Bertrand Russell and Friedrich
Nietzsche are two that come to mind right
away), but most came a little later than
the time period we're in now.

The Anglican church was also known as
the Church of England -- it was the state
church that Henry VIII founded so that he
could divorce his first wife. It was
exceedingly powerful, just as the Catholic
church was.

As I understand it, religion was a much
bigger part of life then than it is now -- not
because we live in an immoral time, but
because we now have science to explain
why things happen (which was originally
one of the primary roles of religion).
Before the serious scientific inquiry of the
late 18th century, God was assumed to
be the only possible answer to "Where
did all this come from?" Now we have
some other ideas to entertain.

So, as others have said here, I think it's
important to look at the climate of the
times that each philosopher (or any other
kind of writer/thinker) lived in. God was a
"given." People thought about the
existence of God the way we think about
the earth revolving around the sun -- of
course that's the way it is. Keep in mind
that Darwin didn't publish his ideas of
natural selection (evolution) until 1859 --
before then, it hadn't really been seriously
considered (or even thought of) by a very
many people.

Kimberly *
fruitbat@cookiemonster.com

"What is truth? I don't know and I'm
sorry I brought it up."

-- Edward Abbey