Joachim Kahl

Joachim Kahl ( born May 12, 1941 in Cologne ) is a German philosopher and humanist, with the focal points of criticism of religion, ethics and aesthetics, which he tries to combine the concept of secular humanism.

Life

In 1967, Joachim Kahl at the Philipps- University Marburg with the work philosophy and Christology in thinking Friedrich Gogarten to Dr. theol. doctorate. Shortly thereafter, he resigned from the Evangelical Church because his critical examination of the Christian faith the world had led him to the rejection of Christianity and beyond of religion in general. He was an atheist and justified this in his book The Misery of Christianity or plea for a humanity without God (1968).

In the second study at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main in the fields of philosophy, sociology and politics, he sat down especially with the " critical theory " of the " Frankfurt School" apart. During this time he was a Marxist. When the "orthodox" Marxist philosopher Hans Heinz Holz was called to Marburg, Kahl returned there and was founded in 1975 with the work description, analysis and critique of the ideological criticism Ernst Topitschs Dr. phil. doctorate.

From 1974 to 1984 Kahl organized as a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the University of Marburg regular seminars on the history of philosophy. In parallel, he worked as a spokesperson for the " Marburger Committee against prohibitions " and " Hessian Committee against prohibitions " and engaged in the 1970s and 1980s against the radicals adoption. Kahl took this as moral courage necessary to strengthen democracy.

From 1982 to 1990 he was Education Officer for the former Federation of Spiritual Freedom Nuremberg ( Bavaria today HVD ), a philosophical community and cultural organization. From there, links to other organizations, including the Thomas Dehler Foundation and the Society for Critical philosophy arose. These influences, but especially the world-historical events of "1989" Kahl led eventually to move away from Marxism in his book Secular what he humanism. A philosophy for our time reflected.

Joachim Kahl lives in Marburg and has been married since 1968 with the special education teacher Anna Margaret Bald, with whom he has two children. He is a member of the Humanist Association of Germany.

Conception

As a representative of a classical atheism, which is deeply rooted in the history of theories of the European Enlightenment, Kahl limited his views at first compared to those of the so-called new atheism, as he would represent, among others, Richard Dawkins, clearly from:

" Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion, which I prefer approach here as the main example of the new atheism ... is a characteristic document intellectual Caesarean madness. Has megalomania - according to the historian Ludwig Quidde, who coined the term in 1894 - two complementary features: triumphalist hubris and abysmal blindness to reality. "

The hubris was to be allowed to use that Dawkins his expertise in evolutionary biology "means to maltreat completely non-specialist topics of the history of religion, philosophy of religion, the criticism of religion - with the gesture of here universally literate and knowledgeable experts ... Dawkins' wet brash attitude ... betrays on every step you take a bottomless ignorance in matters of religion and religious criticism, revealing a fatal lack of understanding of their historical developments and their content complexity. "

Kahl's own position is clear when he writes against the new atheism that with the " vulgar force sayings " Dawkins' and on the other, the atheism Can you turn under the hand in anti-theism, the abkanzele religion from above. " It would be necessary, however, to penetrate them mentally to explain their historical development and their social function and to engage in a critical, even polemical dialogue with their followers. Remember, no, absolutely unknown is [ ... ] not the squeamish, but delicate religious criticism of the German Enlightenment [ ... ] "

This differentiation from Dawkins already preceded criticisms of Karlheinz Deschner and Michael Schmidt -Salomon.

In an interview for the podcast of the Humanist Press Service Joachim Kahl praised initiated by leaders of the Giordano Bruno Foundation bus campaign 2009, approximately two years later as a " smart " campaign and " good form of public relations", which he supported.

Writings

• Philosophy and Christology in thinking Friedrich Gogarten. Marburg 1967 ( theological dissertation)
• The Misery of Christianity or plea for a humanity without God. Reinbek 1968 ISBN 3-499-11093-8. ; several editions; Translations into English, Japanese, Italian, Dutch. Revised and enlarged edition 1993
• Description, analysis and critique of the ' ideological critique ' Ernst Topitschs. A philosophical study on the relationship between positivism and conservatism. Marburg 1975 ( philosophical dissertation); Edition under the title positivism as conservatism - A philosophical study on the structure and function of the positivist way of thinking on the example Ernst Topitsch. Cologne, Pahl - Rugenstein, 1976
• Why I am an atheist, in: Karlheinz Deschner (ed.): Why I am a Christian / atheist / agnostic. Cologne, Kiepenheuer and Malevich, 1977
• Etty, Peter and Silvia Gingold. Portrait of a family. A picture book about German states, ed. by Joachim Kahl and others. Cologne, Pahl - Rugenstein Verlag, 1978
• Freethinkers. Past and present, ed. by Joachim Kahl and Erich Wernig. Cologne, Pahl - Rugenstein Verlag, 1981
• The rock of atheism. Epicurus and Georg Büchner's critique of theodicy. In: Georg Büchner Yearbook 2/1982, European publishing house, Frankfurt am Main, 1983
• The other Christmas book, ed. by Joachim Kahl and Peter Schütt. World Circle Verlag, Dortmund, 1983
• Secular Humanism. A philosophy for our time. LIT Verlag, Münster, 2006, ISBN 3-8258-8511-9.
• Current atheism debates. A structuring overview, in: Information Philosophy, March 2010, Lörrach