Download or read book Essays on American Atheism written by Jon G. Murray and published by Amer Atheist Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Essays on American Atheism written by Jon G. Murray and published by Amer Atheist Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Honest Doubt written by James A. Haught and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-06-02 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the prevalence of religious belief in the United States (nearly 200 million Americans belong to 350,000 congregations), a growing minority (14 percent) of U.S. adults identify with no religion whatsoever. Journalist James A. Haught addresses the secular segment of American society in this interesting collection of incisive essays that give voice to honest doubts about religious beliefs. Taken together, Haught''s essays endorse the idea that freedom of religion must include freedom to doubt as well as to believe. Individually, the articles present many different reasons to doubt: - Intellectual integrity demands that we express doubts about beliefs for which there is no scientific evidence.- The historical record, past and present, shows that religion is often the cause of evils, from the Inquisition and the burning of witches to current terrorist violence committed in the name of religion.- Natural evils, such as the 2004 Asian tsunami and devastating diseases, should make any thoughtful person question whether an all-powerful and all-merciful God governs the universe.- The sheer number and diversity of often-conflicting belief systems raise serious doubts about the philosophical coherence of religion as an approach to finding the truth.- Scandals among the clergy undermine the credibility of religion as a sound basis for morality.Written in a straightforward conversational style that makes clear the many scientific, philosophical, and ethical difficulties that plague religion, Haught''s thought-provoking essays will appeal to atheists, agnostics, and anyone with questions about religion.
Download or read book A 21st Century Rationalist in Medieval America written by John Bice and published by Chelydra Bay Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the power of "preaching to the converted," this motivating collection challenges other atheists, secularists, agnostics, and freethinkers to become vocal and involved in their own local media, adding a rational voice to the daily dialogue taking place in newspapers across the country.
Download or read book Essays in Freethinking atheism written by Chapman Cohen and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Say What written by Joel T. Heinen and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2018-11-28 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion is a funny thing. Most people believe in one or another and assert that theirs is true. Many religious people also assert that every other religion believed in by anyone else ranges from completely false to highly suspect. There are religions that believe in many gods, others that believe in one god, and there are even religions that preach no gods. There are also sects within religions that disavow other sects within the same religion. There are religions that are extinct and new religions formed all the time. The reformation of older religions is also ongoing. What all religions seem to have in common are (1) supernatural beliefs that others don't believe and (2) absolutely no real demonstrable evidence that can be repeated and shown to others in support of any of their supernatural beliefs. If you think about it, religion truly is a funny thing in every sense of that word. Many people define their religion to be the all-encompassing paradigm of their existence that causes them to do completely virtuous, altruistic things. Yet religion also causes others, who are equally or even more pious, to commit mass murder. And both have been true for many religions throughout history. This volume takes a broad and satirical look at religions writ large, mainly to question. It's aimed largely at atheists and those on the fence, but theists may be encouraged to read it too and question for themselves. How did you acquire religion? Why? What do you believe? Why? Why not believe other equally implausible things that others do believe? This volume is just a light hearted attempt to ask. C'est tout.
Download or read book Free Thoughts a Collection of Essays by an American Atheist written by Al Stefanelli and published by . This book was released on 2012-04-30 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of the top 60 most critically acclaimed essays and articles written by Al Stefanelli. They represent the cream of the crop, and have been re-edited and refreshed for relevancy and content. This is a compilation that you will definitely want to have on your book shelf.
Download or read book Atheism in Philosophy and Other Essays written by Frederic Henry Hedge and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Essays in Freethinking written by Chapman Cohen and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Essays of an Atheist Activist written by Jon Garth Murray and published by Amer Atheist Press. This book was released on 1980-08-01 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Faith written by Victoria Zackheim and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-02-24 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delve into this thought-provoking collection of personal essays from award-winning and bestselling authors who explore the perennial question: What do I believe? Whether believer, skeptic, agnostic, atheist, or something other, these twenty-four authors share a fascinating, daring, and multifaceted perspective on what faith means (or doesn’t mean). The collection of personal essays includes bestselling authors such as Anne Perry, who writes about a deeply spiritual faith that embraces and sustains her through every step of her life. Caroline Leavitt writes about tarot cards, mediums, and quantum physics to explain her concept of faith. Afghan-American author Tamim Ansary beautifully captures his childhood curiosity amidst his Islamic views. There is the irrepressible Malachy McCourt’s anti-religion rant, and then Pam Houston’s signature wit and sense of irony, which gives the question of faith a surprising twist. Honest, provocative, and candid, Faith begins a larger conversation and invites the question: What do you believe?
Download or read book The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality written by André Comte-Sponville and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poses an argument for living a spiritual life that is not dependent on religion, explaining that an acceptance of philosophical spiritual traditions and values does not require practitioners to embrace the existence of a higher order.
Download or read book Atheism written by Bertrand Russell and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Am I an atheist or an agnostic? [First published 1949].--An outline of intellectual rubbish [first published 1943].--Can men be rational? [First published 1947].--The faith of a rationalist [first published 1947].--Ideas that have harmed mankind [first published 1946].--Ideas that have helped mankind [first published 1946].--On the value of scepticism [first published 1947].--The value of free thought [first published 1944].--What can a free man worship? [First published 1944].
Download or read book A Manual for Creating Atheists written by Peter Boghossian and published by Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA). This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thousands of years, the faithful have honed proselytizing strategies and talked people into believing the truth of one holy book or another. Indeed, the faithful often view converting others as an obligation of their faith—and are trained from an early age to spread their unique brand of religion. The result is a world broken in large part by unquestioned faith. As an urgently needed counter to this tried-and-true tradition of religious evangelism, A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith—but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than 20 years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason.
Download or read book A God for Atheists written by Liam Martin and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-05-24 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We see ourselves as human when we see ourselves as not a god...Gods are simply the specific antithesis that allows us to know ourselves as human... God remained the same from Moses to Muhammad. But his method of communication changed, reflecting the religious practice of the larger surrounding society. With Moses, his communication employed animism, speaking through plants, inanimate objects and natural phenomena. With the prophets that followed Moses, the method of communication was polytheism, through a multiplicity of divine beings called angels, and employing the oracle format of recitation (of a heard message). With Jesus, the method was the direct communication of the divine Caesars of Rome. Muhammad reverted to the oracle format of recitation, mirroring the polytheism of his Arabian society.
Download or read book The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience written by Jerome P. Baggett and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration of the breadth of social, emotional, and spiritual experiences of atheists in America Self-identified atheists make up roughly 5 percent of the American religious landscape, comprising a larger population than Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus combined. In spite of their relatively significant presence in society, atheists are one of the most stigmatized groups in the United States, frequently portrayed as immoral, unhappy, or even outright angry. Yet we know very little about what their lives are actually like as they live among their largely religious, and sometimes hostile, fellow citizens. In this book, Jerome P. Baggett listens to what atheists have to say about their own lives and viewpoints. Drawing on questionnaires and interviews with more than five hundred American atheists scattered across the country, The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience uncovers what they think about morality, what gives meaning to their lives, how they feel about religious people, and what they think and know about religion itself. Though the wider public routinely understands atheists in negative terms, as people who do not believe in God, Baggett pushes readers to view them in a different light. Rather than simply rejecting God and religion, atheists actually embrace something much more substantive—lives marked by greater integrity, open-mindedness, and progress. Beyond just talking about or to American atheists, the time is overdue to let them speak for themselves. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in joining the conversation.
Download or read book Between Faith and Unbelief written by Elisabeth Hurth and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets out to shed light on what is specific to American Transcendentalism by comparing it with the atheistic vision of German philosophers and theologians like Ludwig Feuerbach and Arthur Schopenhauer. The study argues that atheism was part of the discursive and religious context from which Transcendentalism emerged. Tendencies toward atheism were already inherent in Transcendentalist thought. The atheist scenario came to the surface in the controversy about Emerson's "new views." Contemporary critics charged that the deity Emerson worshipped was himself. Emersonian Transcendentalism thus anticipated some of the central concerns in the works of German atheists like Feuerbach. From idealism to atheism seemed but a short step.
