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understand what reality is, what it is composed of, what "existence" means, etc., is fundamental to most of the disagreements between irreligious atheists and religious theists. Is Metaphysics Pointless?: Some irreligious atheists, like logical positivists, have argued that the agenda of metaphysics is largely pointless and cant accomplish anything. According to them, metaphysical statements cannot be either true or false as a result, they dont really carry any meaning and shouldnt be given any serious consideration. There is some justification to this position, but it is unlikely to convince or impress religious theists for whom metaphysical claims constitute some of the most important parts of their lives. Thus the ability to address and critique such claims can be important. What is an Atheist Metaphysics?: The only thing all atheists have in common is disbelief in gods, so the only thing all atheist metaphysics will have in common is that reality doesn't include any gods and isn't divinely created. Despite that, most atheists in the West tend to adopt a materialistic perspective on reality. This means that they regard the nature of our reality and the universe as consisting of matter and energy. Everything is natural; nothing is supernatural. There are no supernatural beings, realms, or planes of existence. All cause and effect proceeds via natural laws. Questions Asked in Metaphysics: What is out there? What is reality? Does Free Will exist? Is there such a process as cause and effect? Do abstract concepts (like numbers) really exist? Important Texts on Metaphysics: Metaphysics, by Aristotle. Ethics, by Baruch Spinoza. Branches of Metaphysics: Aristotles book on metaphysics was divided into three sections: ontology, theology, and universal science. Because of this, those are the three traditional branches of metaphysical inquiry. Ontology is the branch of philosophy which deals with the study of the nature of reality: what is it, how many realities are there, what are its properties, etc. The word is derived from the Greek terms on, which means reality and logos, which means study of. Atheists generally believe that there is a single reality which is material and natural in nature. Theology, of course, is the study of gods does a god exist, what a god is, what a god wants, etc. Every religion has its own theology because its study of gods, if it includes any gods, will proceed from specific doctrines and traditions which vary from one religion to the next. Since atheists don't accept the existence of any gods, they don't accept that theology is the study of anything real. At most, it might be the study of what people think is real and atheist involvement
in theology proceeds more from the perspective of a critical outsider rather than an involved member. The branch of universal science is a bit harder to understand, but it involves the search for first principles things like the origin of the universe, fundamental laws of logic and reasoning, etc. For theists, the answer to this is almost always "god" and, moreover, they tend to argue that there can be no other possible answer. Some even go far as to argue that the existence of things like logic and the universe constitute evidence of the existence of their god.