An Intelligent Person's Guide to Atheism

by Harbour, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780715629154
• ISBN10: 0715629158
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Duckworth Pub

Summary

Atheism has always been open to the attack that it is a sterile concept and that atheists clearly don't believe in anything. In this remarkable book, Daniel Harbour turns this disadvantage into the spearhead of his defense of atheism and incisive attack on religion, whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or Zen. He argues that the battle between the two has wrongly been fought on the narrow issue of the existence of God. In reality, the question is based on what is morally good and bad, i.e. whether a religious belief or an atheist belief puts one in a better position to do good. Using modern examples such as gay marriages and racial hatred, Daniel Harbour casts a light on the ideas atheism stands for.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction	1	(6)
Basics and Basis	7	(16)
Discovering God	23	(20)
The Price of Knowledge?	43	(18)
Contra Compromise	61	(30)
Individuals and Intuitions	91	(18)
Consequences: Religion and Government	109	(28)
Two Corollaries, Two Addenda, and A Note	137	(4)
Conclusion	141	(4)
Endnotes	145	(4)
Index	149