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| ATHEISTS : A Groundbreaking Study of America's Nonbelievers [Bruce E Hunsberger] According to polls, almost all Americans believe in God. So atheists naturally stand out as dissident nay-sayers, especially when challenging the use of "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, or the display of religious symbols in public places. Such protests make many Americans wonder about the motivations and character of militant unbelievers. But disbelief is spreading. After reviewing the mounting evidence that organised religion is declining in many countries, this accessible book provides the first scientific study of active atheists. The authors surveyed nearly 300 members of atheist organisations in the United States. Besides soliciting these non-believers' level of education, political leanings, etc., the researchers sought to understand how each respondent had become an atheist. Had they ever believed in God, or had they never? Had they paid a price for their atheism? Three chapters describe the levels of dogmatism, zealotry, and religious prejudice found among the active atheists. These results, compared with others obtained from more ordinary samples of atheists (and strong fundamentalists), often surprised the authors. Uniquely, the book features a chapter in which the atheists give their reaction to the study and its often-surprising findings. Another chapter breaks down the answers a large Canadian sample gave to the measures used in the American study, according to how religious the respondent was -- from atheist to agnostic to four different levels of theistic intensity. A clear finding emerged: the more religious a group was, the more their personalities, prejudices and beliefs separated them from everyone else. { 160pp, 150x230mm, June 2006; PB, £13.50, 1591024137:9781591024132 , Prometheus Books } |
| GREAT FREETHINKERS : Selected Quotations by Famous Skeptics & Nonconformists [James C Sanford] Grouped into categories that range from religion and psychology to sex and politics, the 1,000 quotations by the world's great iconoclasts and sceptics collected in this volume challenge conventional notions of god, country, science, art, society, and culture. In eclectic harmony, the words of cynics Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, and H. L. Mencken counterbalance those of idealists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein, and Jane Addams. Utopians Emma Goldman and Che Guevara contrast with anti-utopians George Orwell and Albert Camus. Individualists contend with egalitarians as do deists with atheists in these thought-provoking quotations that have been carefully selected from a broad range of writings and chosen on the basis of their wit, eloquence, novelty, and incisiveness. { 250pp, 145x215mm, September 2005; HB, £15.50, 0974704237:9780974704234 , IPG (Metacomet Books) } |
| HOW SKEPTICS DO ETHICS : A Brief History of the Late Modern Linguistic Turn [Aubrey Neal] Enlightenment philosophers are often credited with formulating many theories about humankind & society, & in our post-modern age, we still live with some of the very same compelling, contentious & often unresolved questions about ourselves & the world we live in. Author Aubrey Neal suggests that one of these issues that lingers with us today is scepticism, & in 'How Skeptics do Ethics', he unravels the thread of this philosophy from its origins in enlightenment thinking down to our present age. He contends that linguistics & language have not brought modern philosophy any closer to understanding the role & nature of ethics in our current science-based society. Going further, Neal suggests the contemporary reader meets traditional terms for ethical theory, plausible belief & moral action in a different world from the one in which they were coined. Instead, these considerations for modern thinkers require a coherent language practice suitable for the social context in which we live, & thus raise the question of the meaning of old philosophical debates & their value for our society today. Referencing such luminary thinkers as Hume, Kant, & Hegel, Neal seeks to re-ignite age old questions & awaken the reader to a sense that our contemporary modes of reference & understanding should be seen from a substantially different point of view. Challenging, bracing, & entirely unflinching, 'How Skeptics do Ethics' is a wake-up call for anyone who thinks seriously about our society, ourselves, & the world in which we live. { 316pp, 155x230mm, February 2007; PB, £20.99, 1552382028:9781552382028 , University of Calgary Press } |
| NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNBELIEF [Tom Flynn (ed). Foreword by Richard Dawkins] Successor to the highly acclaimed 'Encyclopedia of Unbelief' (1985), edited by the late Gordon Stein, the 'New Encyclopedia of Unbelief' is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America's fastest growing minority: those who live without religion. All-new articles by the field's foremost scholars describe and explain every aspect of atheism, agnosticism, secular humanism, secularism, and religious scepticism. Topics include morality without religion, unbelief in the historicity of Jesus, critiques of intelligent design theory, unbelief and sexual values, and summaries of the state of unbelief around the world. Over 130 respected scholars and activists world-wide served on the editorial advisory board and over 100 authoritative contributors have written in excess of 500 entries. In addition to covering developments since the publication of the original edition, the 'New Encyclopedia of Unbelief' includes a larger number of biographical entries and much-expanded coverage of the linkages between unbelief and social reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, including the labour movement, woman suffrage, anarchism, sex radicalism, and second-wave feminism. The distinguished contributors are philosophers, scientists, scholars, and Nobel Prize laureates. With a foreword by evolutionary biologist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins, this unparalleled reference work provides comprehensive knowledge about unbelief in its many varieties and manifestations. { 897pp, 180x260mm, August 2007; HB, £132.99, 1591023912:9781591023913 , Prometheus Books } |
| PAPERBACK APOCALYPSE : How the Christian Church Was Left Behind [Robert M Price] The author traces the origin and scriptural basis for such beliefs as the Rapture, Second Coming, Antichrist and Messianic Prophesy. He emphasises that the writers of the new Testament consistently set a 1st century deadline for the return of Jesus Christ and yet the stubborn fact that the Second Coming obviously did not occur has not deterred fundamentalist Christians from blindly predicting the event throughout the centuries up to the present day. Price then critiques the raft of previous apocalyptic novels before turning to the 'Left Behind' series. He offers both literary and theological criticism, while explaining the psychological appeal of the books. { 390pp, 155x230mm, December 2007; PB, £12.99, 1591025834:9781591025832 , Prometheus Books } |
| SCIENCE & NONBELIEF [Taner Edis] Scientists have raised questions about religious belief since the earliest development of scientific thought. Over the centuries, as science has become ever more sophisticated and answered many of the questions previously in the domain of religion, more and more people have developed a sceptical point of view regarding religion. Today, many scientists are non-believers with a secular, science-based perspective. In this wide-ranging overview, physicist and acclaimed science writer Taner Edis examines the relationship between today's sciences and religious non-belief. Beginning with a brief history of science and philosophical doubt, Edis goes on to describe those theories in contemporary science that challenge spiritual views by favouring a naturalistic conception of the world. He provides a very readable, non-technical introduction to the leading scientific ideas that impinge upon religious belief in the areas of modern physics and cosmology, evolutionary biology, and cognitive and brain science. He also shows how science supplies naturalistic explanations for allegedly miraculous and paranormal phenomena and explains widespread belief in the supernatural. Finally, he addresses the political context of debates over science and non-belief as well as questions about morality. { 283pp, 155x230mm, November 2007; PB, £12.99, 1591025613:9781591025610 , Prometheus Books } |