Announcement List for the Virginia Atheists & Agnostics

[victoria kovalchuk <>]

Hello heathens!

This week we're hosting a professor from the Department of Religious Studies, Sonam Kachru. The meeting will be this Thursday, April 5th at 7pm in New Cabell 315. 

Here's the blurb:

From Nontheism to Atheism: A Brief Sketch for a History of Indian Buddhists on God

The history of Indian Buddhist philosophy shows a trajectory. From a relative indifference to the idea of God, Buddhist philosophers increasingly began to devote more attention to arguments purporting to establish the existence of God. Buddhists in India have always eschewed the idea of God on principled grounds, though the tenor and extent of engagement change over time. This history of increasing preoccupation with the logic of belief in God mirrors what one scholar has called "desecuralization" in premodern South Asia, a phenomenon which involves the increasing centrality of God as a rational concern where once it had been marginal. This talk will offer the rough contours of this larger story, with particular attention to the kind of arguments available at different historical periods in South Asia.

Hope to see you all there!

Victoria Kovalchuk