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David Hume WAS an atheist

Hume specialist Peter Millican is the interviewee for the latest episode of Philosophy Bites on the topic of David Hume's Significance. In the course of the interview Peter explains why he believes that Hume died an atheist...

Listen to Peter Millcan on Hume's Significance

For textual evidence of Hume's Atheism, see this post (added April 27th)

Peter Millican has also provided a very detailed linked bibliography on David Hume:

Peter Millican's Bibliography on Hume

My thoughts on Alan Ramsay's portraits of Hume and Rousseau

Latest Philosophy Bites Podcast: Stewart Sutherland on Hume on Design

Is there evidence of intelligent design in the Universe? In the Eighteenth Century David Hume presented a series of powerful arguments against the Argument from Design.  Stewart Sutherland, Provost of Gresham College,  outlines these arguments and demonstrates their continuing relevance in this latest interview for Philosophy Bites.

Listen to Stewart Sutherland on Hume on Design

Sam Harris on Why Atheists Shouldn't Call Themselves Atheists

Sam Harris has a very  interesting polemic online about atheism and why atheists shouldn't call themselves atheists...it has generated over 600 comments already. His basic line is that we should focus on ideas such as 'reason' and 'evidence' rather than define ourselves in opposition to believers...

Read Sam Harris on The Problem With Atheism

Podcast on David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

I've just posted the latest reading from my book Philosophy: The Classics, the chapter on David Hume's posthumous Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, one of my favourite books. You can listen to it here. You can either download it as an mp3 file or listen to it streaming on your computer.

Anthony Grayling on Atheism - audio interview on Philosophy Bites

You can listen to an interview with Anthony Grayling on Atheism on www.philosophybites.com. Grayling compares belief in God to belief in fairies...

Ophelia Benson talks about Why Truth Matters on Point of Inquiry Podcast

Point of Inquiry has just released a 25 minute interview with Ophelia Benson (you can listen to it here). Ophelia runs the excellent Butterflies and Wheels website and is co-author with Jeremy Stangroom of Why Truth Matters and the Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense. In a wide-ranging discussion she explains why truth is so important, why we owe it to our children not to mislead them, the dangers of anti-intellectualism, and why literary theorists are so often snappy dressers and  mathematicians generally aren't. This is part of an ongoing series of Point of Inquiry podcasts that you can subscribe to via iTunes.

Read Ophelia's earlier interview on Virtual Philosopher

Audio interview: John Cottingham on The Meaning of Life

An interview with John Cottingham on The Meaning of Life is now available on Philosophy Bites...
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Stephen Law on The Problem of Evil

Listen to a new interview with Stephen Law on The Problem of Evil here. This is part of the Philosophy Bites podcast series of interviews with top philosophers which David Edmonds and I have been working on.

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Secular Thought for the Day

Now available. A series of secular thoughts for the day  podcast from www.thinkhumanist.org. I've contributed one that will be there from this Thursday (15th Feb.)...... Other contributors include Anthony Grayling and Stewart Lee. For an article in the Glasgow Herald including edited transcripts of Grayling, Lee's and my thoughts click here.

It is absurd that Radio 4 only allows religious contributions to this slot; just as it is absurd that we have unelected religious leaders with seats in our legislature. There was a flurry of debate about Thought for the Day when Richard Dawkins was allowed a secular one in 2002, but now podcasting is so easy, there are ways of getting round Radio 4's reluctance to cater for a  very significant proportion of its listeners to this slot. If this gets really popular, perhaps Radio 4 will have to revisit its policy.

Daniel Dennett: An Optimistic Philosopher

Philosophers are notoriously cautious and pessimistic. So it is a surprise to find Daniel Dennett, one of the greatest living philosophers, in optimistic frame of mind on the website Edge : there he confidently predicts the evapouration of the powerful mystique surrounding religion. Sadly, this is probably wishful thinking.