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Atheist Universe Excerpt
I was honored when I learned that my book, Atheist Universe, had been nominated by booktalk.org as freethinker reading material for the 4th quarter of 2006. Thank you!
For those who would like to read an extended excerpt of the book, you may freely download a PDF at DavidMills.Net This PDF showcases the book's entire introduction and index, and runs about 20 pages.
This same website also makes available for free download the Atheist Universe Audio Book. There are no logins, passwords, pop-ups or sales pitches on the website. Enjoy!
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Re: Atheist Universe Excerpt
David
Welcome to the BookTalk community! I am thoroughly enjoying Atheist Universe and have recommended it to many of my friends and family members. I'm loving the "Interview with an Atheist" chapter. A few nights ago I kept my fiance awake as I read that chapter to her out loud. Wow! Good stuff! But that isn't an actual interview is it?? You're more or less recreating what we atheists go through in a typical discussion with a theist....right?
Pg. 23 was awesome.
Quote:You may disagree with my message; but you, as the reader, shouldn't have to struggle to discern what that message is.
You are truly a gifted writer who doesn't waste words. I agree that many authors seem to think they're paid a penny a word. In the end they've said very little. Several of our past selections fall into that category, unfortunately.
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Re: Atheist Universe Excerpt
If you're looking for a book that addresses every single aspect of the faith vs. reason debate you need to get this book. Another excellent read is George Smith's "Atheism: The Case Against God," but for readability and clarity I'd go with Atheist Universe. I actually have a few problems with how Smith defines some important terms, but I am forgetting now what exactly those problems were. It was about 5 years ago that I read Smith's book. But it is still essential reading.
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Re: Atheist Universe Excerpt
David, welcome to booktalk! I will check out that excerpt and when my budget allows will indeed purchase your book. Right now, I have to settle for borrowing from the library!
Hope you decide to pop in every so often and share some thoughts with us. when your book does get selected for a quarterly reading, we would love to have you come chat wih us about it!
Be Well, Mr. P. Edited by: Chris OConnor at: 9/30/06 10:00 am
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Re: Atheist Universe Excerpt
To Chris, Frank & Mr. P,
Thank you all for your exceptionally generous comments. I really feel at home here! I became aware of the booktalk website by seeing the link on The Infidel Guy.
Chris, you're absolutely right that the MP3 audiobook on my own site is a scripted recording rather than a live interview -- in fact, it's perhaps a little too scripted. I actually had a professional New York actor kindly offer to record the material for free, and I foolishly declined his thoughtful offer, believing that I, the author, could perform the material more genuinely. This was a mistake. Personally, I much prefer the printed book to the very much abridged audiobook. The audiobook is based on a chapter in the book called "Interview with an Atheist," which is itself a compilation of interviews. Lower on the same webpage, however, there are about five or six actual radio shows for download as well.
I'm excited about having discovered booktalk, and I'll surely visit at every possible opportunity.
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Re: Atheist Universe Excerpt
David
Actually, I hadn't listened to the audio interview, but will do so when I get back from my mini-vacation. I just got the email notice that you made a generous financial donation to BookTalk and I am shocked and grateful. We get very few donations so it really means a lot when we do. And to be supported by a great author such as yourself is extremely flattering. Thank you so much David.
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Re: Atheist Universe Excerpt
David
Thank you for the donation! It is truly an honor to have the support of someone of your status in the community. Even if that status gets you labeled "a spokesman for Satan" or a "disgrace to human dignity".
In my opinion your gracious gesture just squashed any negative label.
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Re: Atheist Universe Excerpt
If you happen to run across this site again David, me and a majority of my friends all listen to audiobooks. The number is growing. I'm in my truck all day long with business, and between cell phone calls, I listen to audio books. That's all I listen to, fiction as well as nonfiction. Any topic on Atheism is nonfiction BTW.
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Re: !
Niall
As always, great post. I'll get back to it later tonight or this weekend I hope. But is it really true that the Pope believe in evolution?? I didn't know this. I'm going to do some research when I get a moment. I am on the way out the door to meet a friend that I haven't seen in 21 years! He is an old high school buddy of mine. This is kinda cool.
Have any of you bought and started to read Omnivore's Dilemma? I just got a copy at Borders. $29 hardcover. Ouch.
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IIRC Pius in the 50's or 60's said that teaching evolution as it pertains to the human form, I think meaning that it was ok to teach that our bodies evolved. Then recently in the late 90's john Paul restated this, again focusing on the physical evolution of the body. But this year, Benedict along with one of his cardinals has been kind of contradicting that. Although I don't remember if any official decelerations have been made, the cardinal (I forget his name) wrote a piece for the NY times that sounded more like it backed ID than evolution, and Benedict in a talk recently said similar things. I don't really feel like looking up the references for this tonight, but if I get some time tomorrow I'll post up some articles.
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Re: !
Chris OConnor: Have any of you bought and started to read Omnivore's Dilemma? I just got a copy at Borders. $29 hardcover. Ouch.
Yeah, sorry about that. When I suggested the book, I didn't really think about the fact that it was in its first printing -- no soft-cover edition. Oops. If it makes you feel any better, though, I'm on chapter 3 now, and think it's worth every penny so far. Great read, and very informative. Should give us plenty to talk about.
As for the Catholic Church's position on evolution, the Church itself is slow to make decisions on changes in science, but it does change its mind. It's slow about that sort of thing mostly because it's deciding official doctrine for a very large body of people, it recognizes that the effects of those changes can be widespread, and it doesn't want to risk making hasty decisions. Antievolutionism is far more prominant among Protestant groups, and far more typical of American Protestantism than European Protestantism. That's one of the tendencies that makes me think that there's more to the psychology of antievolutionary controversy than religion by itself. If religion is the primary cause of the group's rejection of evolution theory, then why the regional irregularity?
Anyway, those are topics probably best handled in the "Creationism Vs. Evolution" forum for now.
Quote:(AP) Pope Benedict XVI has waded into the evolution debate in the United States, saying the universe was made by an "intelligent project" and criticizing those who in the name of science say its creation was without direction or order.
Benedict made the off-the-cuff comments during his general audience Wednesday. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published the full text of his remarks in its Thursday editions.
Benedict focused his reflections for the audience on scriptural readings that said God's love was seen in the "marvels of creation."
He quoted St. Basil the Great, a fourth century saint, as saying some people, "fooled by the atheism that they carry inside of them, imagine a universe free of direction and order, as if at the mercy of chance."
"How many of these people are there today? These people, fooled by atheism, believe and try to demonstrate that it's scientific to think that everything is free of direction and order," he said.
"With the sacred Scripture, the Lord awakens the reason that sleeps and tells us: In the beginning, there was the creative word. In the beginning, the creative word, this word that created everything and created this intelligent project that is the cosmos is also love."
His comments were immediately hailed by advocates of intelligent design, who hold that the universe is so complex it must have been created by a higher power. Proponents of the theory are seeking to get public schools in the United States to teach it as part of the science curriculum.
Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism, a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation, camouflaged in scientific language and does not belong in science curriculum.
Questions about the Vatican's position on evolution were raised in July by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.
In a New York Times op-ed piece, Schoenborn seemed to back intelligent design and dismissed a 1996 statement by Pope John Paul II that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis." Schoenborn said the late pope's statement was "rather vague and unimportant."
Schoenborn attended Wednesday's audience. He was seated on the dais behind Benedict in St. Peter's Square, along with other Austrian bishops making a regularly scheduled visit to the Vatican.
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