Atheism: A Reader edited by S.T. Joshi

Book Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Does agnosticism constitute a belief system? Are science and religion compatible? This compilation of views from the agnostic to the antireligious spans two millennia and poses those questions in excerpts from world history's great nonbelievers. Joshi's collection provides an unflinching look into the minds of doubters, atheists and freethinkers, exposing much that is wrong with religion and posing alternatives to it that constitute various nonreligious ethical systems. Many points of view are represented here, including the non- or anti-religious sentiments of Lucretius, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Clarence Darrow, Thomas Henry Huxley, Emma Goldman, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Bertrand Russell, H.L. Mencken, Nietzsche, Hume, Darwin and others. The delightfully readable Carl Sagan compares demonology to the modern UFO cult and a bitter, nearly ranting (but brilliant) Gore Vidal examines the threat of fundamentalist politics to American freedom. Some contributions display an openly mocking wit, as when Darrow wonders aloud why mint sauce is not offered with the sacrificial lamb. Well-conceived and thematically organized (though perhaps a tad long), this collection is definitely for persons who enjoy intellectually challenging reading and who are not offended when what the contributors see as the crimes of Christianity are called to the dock.


Book Description
ATHEISM: A READER is a unique anthology that presents for the first time a comprehensive selection of writings on atheism, agnosticism, and skepticism by some of the world's most celebrated thinkers, past and present. Arranged thematically, the essays in this valuable collection cover many of the significant areas in which atheists have questioned religious orthodoxy. The authors eloquently address the most significant questions concerning religious belief: Is belief in God justified? Is religion necessary to live a moral life? What is the role of religion in the political arena? Should religion be taught in schools? How harmful has religion been in the suppression of women's rights, the subversion of clear thinking, and the advancement of science?

Included are essays by Bertrand Russell and A.J. Ayer on the existence of God; Percy Bysshe Shelley on the "argument from design"; John Stuart Mill and Antony Flew on immortality and life after death; David Hume and George Eliot on the dangers of fanaticism, superstition, and religious fundamentalism; Charles Darwin on how his scientific studies led him to discard his religious beliefs; H.L. Mencken on the 1925 Scopes trial; Carl Sagan on demons and the persecution of witches; Elizabeth Cady Stanton on Christianity's demeaning influence on women's social status; Robert Ingersoll on God and the constitution; Gore Vidal on modern American fundamentalism; and many other notable writers on controversial issues.

Editor S.T. Joshi has carefully selected these essays, many of which are landmarks in the history of atheistic thought. He has also supplied explanatory annotations and a comprehensive introduction that succinctly and forcefully summarizes the atheist critique of religion.