50 Voices of Disbelief Why We Are Atheists

by Blackford, Russell; Schü; klenk, Udo

• ISBN13: 9781405190466
• ISBN10: 1405190469
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-19
• 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 a truly international cast of contributors, ranging from public intellectuals such as Peter Singer, Susan Blackmore, and A.C. Grayling, novelists, such as Joe Haldeman, and heavyweight philosophers of religion, including Graham Oppy and Michael Tooley Contributions range from rigorous philosophical arguments to highly personal, even whimsical, accounts of how each of these notable thinkers have come to reject religion in their lives 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	p. ix
Introduction: Now More Important than Ever - Voices of Reason	p. 1
Unbelievable!	p. 5
My "Bye Bull" Story	p. 10
How Benevolent Is God? - An Argument from Suffering to Atheism	p. 16
A Deal-Breaker	p. 23
Why Am I a Nonbeliever? - I Wonder ...	p. 28
Wicked or Dead? Reflections on the Moral Character and Existential Status of God	p. 33
Religious Belief and Self-Deception	p. 41
The Coming of Disbelief	p. 48
What I Believe	p. 50
Too Good to Be True, Too Obscure to Explain: The Cognitive Shortcomings of Belief in God	p. 57
How to Think About God: Theism, Atheism, and Science	p. 65
A Magician Looks at Religion	p. 78
Confessions of a Kindergarten Leper	p. 82
Beyond Disbelief	p. 86
An Ambivalent Nonbelief	p. 97
Why Not?	p. 105
Godless Cosmology	p. 112
Unanswered Prayers	p. 118
Beyond Faith and Opinion	p. 123
Could It Be Pretty Obvious There's No God?	p. 129
Atheist, Obviously	p. 139
Why I am Not a Believer	p. 145
Evil and Me	p. 157
Who's Unhappy?	p. 161
Reasons to be Faithless	p. 165
Three Stages of Disbelief	p. 168
Born Again, Briefly	p. 172
Cold Comfort	p. 177
The Accidental Exorcist	p. 182
Atheist Out of the Foxhole	p. 187
The Unconditional Love of Reality	p. 191
Antinomies	p. 197
Giving Up Ghosts and Gods	p. 200
Some Thoughts on Why I Am an Atheist	p. 204
No Gods, Please!	p. 214
Welcome Me Back to the World of the Thinking	p. 220
Kicking Religion Goodbye...	p. 226
On Credenda	p. 230
"Not Even Start to Ignore Those Questions!" A Voice of Disbelief in a Different Key	p. 236
Imagine No Religion	p. 252
Humanism as Religion: An Indian Alternative	p. 259
Why I Am NOT a Theist	p. 263
When the Hezbollah Came to My School	p. 270
Evolutionary Noise, not Signal from Above	p. 274
Gods Inside	p. 279
Why Morality Doesn't Need Religion	p. 288
Doctor Who and the Legacy of Rationalism	p. 294
My Nonreligious Life: A Journey From Superstition to Rationalism	p. 300
Helping People to Think Critically About Their Religious Beliefs	p. 310
Human Self-Determination, Biomedical Progress, and God	p. 323
About the Contributors	p. 332
Index	p. 338
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