Description
In The Atheist’s Creed Dr. Michael Palmer presents the most comprehensive anthology of the major philosophical arguments for atheism. While the so-called ‘new atheism’ of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and others, has attracted considerable publicity, it is the philosophical arguments that have been presented down through the ages that provide the principal landmarks in the unfolding and increasingly widespread belief that no God exists. Using extracts, detailed introductions, biographies, and extensive bibliographies, the author guides us through the history of atheism from the time of the early Greeks to the present day. Particular attention is given to the writings of Hume, Nietzsche, Marx and Freud. The Atheist’s Creed requires no specialist knowledge of philosophy. Each chapter is structured around a single theme and the various authors are coordinated to allow the full force of each atheistic argument to emerge. The result is a compelling and powerful assessment of the case for atheism, which will be fascinating reading for student and nonstudent alike, as well as for all those concerned with the fundamental question: whether or not there is a God. “A wonderful, scholarly, readable book.”
Contents
1. The Meaning of Atheism
Introduction
Extracts:
A. Ernest Nagel: Philosophical Concepts of Atheism
B. Antony Flew: The Presumption of Atheism
C. Thomas Henry Huxley: Agnosticism
D. Leslie Stephen: An Agnostic’s Reply
Guide to Further Reading
2. The Origins of Atheism
Introduction
Extracts:
A. Epicurus: Letter to Herodotus
B. Lucretius: De Rerum Natura
C. Sextus Empiricus: Scepticism
D. Cicero: De Natura Deorum
Guide to Further Reading
3. A Critique of Two Arguments for God’s Existence
Introduction
Extracts:
A. Baron D’Holbach: The System of Nature
B. David Hume: The Argument from Analogy
C. Stephen Jay Gould: Darwin and Paley meet the Invisible Hand
D. Victor Stenger: The Uncongenial Universe
Guide to Further Reading
4. The Problem of Evil
Introduction
Extracts:
A. Fydor Dostoevsky: Rebellion
B. John Stuart Mill: Natural Evil
C. Michael Martin: A Criticism of Soul Making Theodicy
Guide to Further Reading
5. Morality and Religion
Introduction
Extracts:
A. Plato: The Euthyphro Dilemma
B. Bertrand Russell: Why I am Not a Christian
C. Kai Nielsen: Ethics Without God
D. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Deceptions of Religion
E. Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus
Guide to Further Reading
6. Miracles
Introduction
Extracts:
A. Baruch Spinoza: The Impossibility of Miracles
B. Edward Gibbon: Miracles and the Early Church
C. Thomas Paine: On Miracles
D. David Hume: On Miracles
Guide to Further Reading
7. The Motivations of Belief
Introduction
Extracts:
A. Feuerbach
B. Marx
C. Freud
Guide to Further Reading
Comment
“This fine anthology of the long struggle for reason against faith will certainly help those who seek emancipation from religious tyranny.”
— Christopher Hitchens
“This splendid, readable, and scholarly book should be on every believer’s bedside table; and committed atheists will take pleasure from both the extensive and well-chosen extracts and the author’s lucid commentary on them.”
— Professor Peter Atkins, Lincoln College, Oxford