50 Voices of Disbelief Why We Are Atheists

by Blackford, Russell; Schü; klenk, Udo

• ISBN13: 9781405190459
• ISBN10: 1405190450
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-26
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists presents a collection of original essays drawn from an international group of prominent voices in the fields of academia, science, literature, media and politics who offer carefully considered statements of why they are atheists+ Features original essays that offer an extremely diverse range of viewpoints by the inclusion of authors from every continent except Antarctica+ Includes the presence of academic philosophers who work in philosophy of religion, such as John Schellenberg, Graham Oppy, Michael Tooley and others, to give the collection added intellectual gravitas+ Likely to have broad appeal given the current public fascination with religious issues and the reception of such books as The God Delusion and The End of Faith

Author Biography

Russell Blackford is a freelance writer, critic, and editor, based in Melbourne, Australia. He teaches part-time in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics at Monash University, where he specialises mainly in philosophical bioethics and legal/political philosophy. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Evolution and Technology, an on-line peer reviewed journal devoted to rigorous consideration of future prospects for the human species or its possible descendants.

Udo Schüklenk is a German-Australian philosopher. He has written or edited five books and published over one hundred articles in peer reviewed journals and books. His latest books are the co-edited volumes The Power of Pills (2006) and The Bioethics Reader (Blackwell, 2007). He is the Joint Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Bioethics and currently the Ontario Research Chair in Bioethics at Queen’s University in Canada. His current research focuses on ethical and policy issues in drug research and development.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Now More Important than Ever - Voices of Reason

Unbelievable!

My "Bye Bull" Story

How Benevolent Is God? - An Argument from Suffering to Atheism

A Deal-Breaker

Why Am I a Nonbeliever? - I Wonder ...

Wicked or Dead? Reflections on the Moral Character and Existential Status of God

Religious Belief and Self-Deception

The Coming of Disbelief

What I Believe

Too Good to Be True, Too Obscure to Explain: The Cognitive Shortcomings of Belief in God

How to Think About God: Theism, Atheism, and Science

A Magician Looks at Religion

Confessions of a Kindergarten Leper

Beyond Disbelief

An Ambivalent Nonbelief

Why Not?

Godless Cosmology

Unanswered Prayers

Beyond Faith and Opinion

Could It Be Pretty Obvious There's No God?

Atheist, Obviously

Why I am Not a Believer

Evil and Me

Who's Unhappy?

Reasons to be Faithless

Three Stages of Disbelief

Born Again, Briefly

Cold Comfort

The Accidental Exorcist

Atheist Out of the Foxhole

The Unconditional Love of Reality

Antinomies

Giving Up Ghosts and Gods

Some Thoughts on Why I Am an Atheist

No Gods, Please!

Welcome Me Back to the World of the Thinking

Kicking Religion Goodbye à

On Credenda

"Not Even Start to Ignore Those Questions!" A Voice of Disbelief in a Different Key

Imagine No Religion

Humanism as Religion: An Indian Alternative

Why I Am NOT a Theist

When the Hezbollah Came to My School

Evolutionary Noise, not Signal from Above

Gods Inside

Why Morality Doesn't Need Religion

Doctor Who and the Legacy of Rationalism

My Nonreligious Life: A Journey From Superstition to Rationalism

Helping People to Think Critically About Their Religious Beliefs

Human Self-Determination, Biomedical Progress, and God

About the Contributors

Index

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