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Michael Lou Martin

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 67.97.43.182 (talk) at 16:39, 26 August 2005 (Zapped the section on Bahnsen, which had more to do with Bahnsen and his "transcendental argument" than with Martin himself. The information itself wasn't bad, it just wasn't appropriate here.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Michael Martin is a philosopher at Boston University as professor emeritus.

Martin has concerned himself largely with philosophy of religion, though the philosophies of science, law, and sport have not escaped his attention. On the former, Martin has published a copious number of books and articles defending atheism and various arguments against the existence of god in exhaustive detail. Martin, in his introduction to Atheism: a Philosophical Justification, 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, ironically, 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 theistic beliefs are not always based on reason. My claim is that they should be."
Atheism: a Philosophical Justification, (24).

Published books

  • Legal Realism: American and Scandinavian (New York: Peter Lang, 1996)
  • The Big Domino in The Sky and Other Atheistic Tales, (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1996)
  • Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science (Cambridge:The MIT Press, 1994) with L. McIntyre.
  • The Case Against Christianity (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991)
  • Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990)
  • The Legal Philosophy of H.L.A. Hart: A Critical Appraisal (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987)
  • Social Science and Philosophical Analysis: Essays on The Philosophy of The Social Sciences (Washington, D.C.: University Press Of America), 1978
  • Concepts of Science Education: A Philosophical Analysis (Chicago: Scott-Foresman,1972)
  • Probability, Confirmation and Simplicity (New York: Odyssey Press, 1966) with M. Foster
  • Martin's page from infidels.org, which contains a number of his critiques of theism
  • Martin's homepage at Boston University