Agnosticism and atheism Books

Book SynopsisCallum G. Brown is Professor of Late Modern European History at the University of Glasgow, UK. He is author of The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation 1800-2000 (2nd edition 2009) and Religion and the Demographic Revolution: Women and Secularisation in Canada, UK, Ireland and USA since the 1960s (2012).Trade ReviewThis will be a useful resource for those interested in secularism and humanism. * CHOICE *An ambitious book. Lively and well-written ... Brown's imaginative treatment certainly provides rich material for lively debates. * Times Higher Education *Brown’s research has an important role to play, and I commend his latest book for study and discussion. * Reviews in History *[A] readable little book. * Sofia *As the number of men and women rejecting religious faith continues to grow by leaps and bounds, so too grows the need for scholarship that illuminates this historical trend, and Callum Brown's latest work is among the best out there: astute, insightful, unbiased, and informative. So thorough, so thoughtful -- this work is highly recommended. Essential reading for those interested in religion's modern decline. * Phil Zuckerman, Pitzer College, USA and author of Living the Secular Life (Penguin, 2014) *Any book by Callum Brown is sure to be lively, provocative and full of new ideas. He is already internationally renowned as one of the leading historians of secularisation. This oral history of modern atheism and humanism from Vancouver to Tallinn, with long stops on the way in the USA and Britain, is further enriched by vivid detail and a warm sympathy with those whose stories he tells. * Hugh McLeod, University of Birmingham, UK *Callum Brown provides a convincing new interpretation of secularization in the West since 1945, using fascinating oral history narratives to identify key paths to atheism and humanism. He challenges a range of academic orthodoxies with compelling and original arguments. Brown demonstrates the significance of childhood rejection of religion for many lifelong atheists and the crucial intersection of feminism and family issues with the abandonment of religion for women, who have been central to secularizing trends since the 1960s. Other original arguments featured in this groundbreaking and very readable book further transform our understanding of the growing secularization of the modern West. * Lynne Marks, University of Victoria, Canada *One of the biggest cultural shifts in the west - especially the English speaking west - in modern history has been the movement away from religion and towards humanist beliefs and values. This is a people's history as much as it is a tale of cultural and intellectual elites but until now it has been under-studied and under-told. Callum Brown's masterly narrative puts that right and his great skill as an oral historian suits him for the task better than any other. * Andrew Copson, British Humanist Association, UK *A social and cultural historian, Brown (a specialist in late modern European history, Univ. of Glasgow, UK) has written extensively on secularism, humanism, and atheism. Part of a project that includes Religion and the Demographic Revolution: Women and Secularisation in Canada, Ireland, UK and USA since the 1960s (CH, Jun'13, 50-5537), the present book analyzes individual narratives of loss of religion and identifies patterns based on the narratives. Those studied reflect a wide range of positions about religion, from those who are anti-religion to those who are simply not concerned with religion. Brown provides a framework for understanding the positive impact of secularism in human development based on interviews with people from the US, Canada, and the UK and born between the 1920s and 1960s. The larger patterns diverge secondary to gender and ethnicity, but the whole is considered in Western Christian context. This will be a useful resource for those interested in secularism and humanism. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. * V. M. Ehret, Mercyhurst University *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Narratives of Belief and Unbelief 3. The Atheist Child 4. The Silent and Indifferent Atheist 5. Women, Feminism and Becoming Faithless 6. Men, Reason and Radicalism 7. Atheism and Ethnicity 8. The Humanist Condition Sources Index

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Book SynopsisCompares secular attitudes characterizing religious nones in the United States and CanadaAlmost a quarter of American and Canadian adults are nonreligious, while teens and young adults are even less likely to identify religiously. None of the Above explores the growing phenomenon of religious nones in North America. Who are the religious nones? Why, and where, is this population growing? While there has been increased attention on secularism in both Europe and the United States, little work to date has focused on Canada. Joel Thiessen and Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme turn to survey and interview data to explore how a nonreligious identity impacts a variety of aspects of daily life in the US and Canada in sometimes similar and sometimes different ways, offering insights to illuminate societal and political trends. With numbers of nonreligious people even higher in Canada than in the US, some believe that secular currents to the north foreshadow what will happen inTrade ReviewClearly written and highly accessible, this book will make a significant contribution to the sociological study of religious nones in North America. -- Chad Seales, The University of Texas at AustinGreatly advances our knowledge about nonreligion in North America. Thiessen and Wilkins-Laflamme add a much-needed comparative perspective, provide the most in-depth analysis of nonreligion in Canada available, and expertly use mixed methods to narrate in rich detail both the long-term trends in nonreligion and the lived experiences of secular individuals. . . . Essential reading for understanding important changes to religion and society in both the U.S. and Canada. -- Joseph O. Baker, author of American Secularism: Cultural Contours of Nonreligious Belief SystemsA unique and especially welcome addition to the field. The empirical foundations of this work mark it out as superior to other books in this area. An excellent treatment of an important topic. -- David Voas, University College LondonNone of the Above will be of most interest to scholars working on issues related to secularization of the United States and Canada. Given its clearly explained methodology, useful appendices, and extensive up-to-date bibliography, it would also be a good book for graduate seminars on the sociology of religion. * Nova Religio *This book is an engaging read and important contribution to our understanding of nonreligious identity ... None of the Above is clearly written and should be appealing to scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates alike. It is especially well-suited to courses on the sociology of religion but could also enrich courses on social change, identity, and/or politics. * Social Forces *In None of the Above, Joel Thiessen and Sarah Wilkins-LaFlamme have done a great service for the field, producing a stellar overview of what we have learned to date and pointing us toward fruitful new directions for work on this topic. * Sociology of Religion *

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Book SynopsisFor about two decades John W. Loftus was a devout evangelical Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an ardent apologist for Christianity. With three degrees--in philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion--he was adept at using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the years, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s he experienced a full-blown crisis of faith. In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, the author carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious belief. The original edition of this book was published in 2006 and reissued in 2008. Since that time, Loftus has received a good deal of critical feedback from Christians and skeptics alike. In this revised and expanded edition, the author addresses criticisms of the original, adds new argumentation and references, and refines his presentation. For every issue he succinctly summarizes the various points of view and provides references for further reading. In conclusion, he describes the implications of life without belief in God, some liberating, some sobering. This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the claims of religion.

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Book SynopsisIn this new anthology critiquing Christianity, John Loftus-a former minister and now a leading atheist-has brought together an outstanding group of respected scholars who focus on the harms caused by the world's leading religion. The contributors begin by dissecting the many problematic aspects of religious faith generally. They repeatedly demonstrate that, with faith as a foundation, almost anything can be believed or denied. And almost any horrific deed can be committed. The authors then take a good hard look at many of the most important political, institutional, scientific, social, and moral harms committed in the name of Christianity. These range from the historical persecutions of the Inquisition and witch hunts to the current health hazards of faith healing. Finally, the authors answer three common Christian retorts to criticisms from nonbelievers: (1) that atheists cannot judge a harmful action without an objective moral standard; (2) that atheists need faith to solve the world's problems; and (3) that atheists cannot live a good life without faith. Loftus and the contributors generally conclude that, given both the well-documented historical record and ongoing problems raised by the faith, Christianity decisively fails empirical tests of its usefulness to humanity.

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Book SynopsisDisproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings compiles popular and lesserknown arguments against the principles established by the Christian canon.Using a phenomenological approach to build his case based on indepth study at the University of California, Santa Barbara, McAfee analyzes the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament doctrine to build a logical and reasonable case against their validity. From contradictions between lived and portrayed religions to factual errors within the texts themselves, no stone is left unturned in this fully updated and expanded refutation of Christianity.

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Book SynopsisHow to study the contemporary dynamics between the religious, the nonreligious and the secular in a globalizing world? Obviously, their relationship is not an empirical datum, liable to the procedures of verification or of logical deduction. We are in need of alternative conceptual and methodological tools. This volume argues that the concept of ‘social imaginary’ as it is used by Charles Taylor, is of utmost importance as a methodological tool to understand these dynamics. The first section is dedicated to the conceptual clarification of Taylor's notion of social imaginaries both through a historical study of their genealogy and through conceptual analysis. In the second section, we clarify the relation of ‘social imaginaries’ to the concept of (religious) worldviewing, understood as a process of truth seeking. Furthermore, we discuss the practical usefulness of the concept of social imaginaries for cultural scientists, by focusing on the concept of human rights as a secular social imaginary. In the third and final section, we relate Taylor's view on the role of social imaginaries and the new paths it opens up for religious studies to other analyses of the secular-religious divide, as they nowadays mainly come to the fore in the debates on what is coined as the ‘post-secular.’

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Book SynopsisScience and Catholicism in Argentina (1750–1960) is the first comprehensive study on the relationship between science and religion in a Spanish-speaking country with a Catholic majority and a "Latin" pattern of secularisation. The text takes the reader from Jesuit missionary science in colonial times, through the conflict-ridden 19th century, to the Catholic revival of the 1930s in Argentina. The diverse interactions between science and religion revealed in this analysis can be organised in terms of their dynamic of secularisation. The indissoluble identification of science and the secular, which operated at rhetorical and institutional levels among the liberal elite and the socialists in the 19th century, lost part of its force with the emergence of Catholic scientists in the course of the 20th century. In agreement with current views that deny science the role as the driving force of secularisation, this historical study concludes that it was the process of secularisation that shaped the interplay between religion and science, not the other way around.

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Book SynopsisThis book brings together case studies dealing with historical as well as recent phenomena in former socialist nations, which testify the transfer of knowledge about religion and atheism. The material is connected on a semantic level by the presence of a historical watershed before and after socialism as well as on a theoretical level by the sociology of knowledge. With its focus on Central and Eastern Europe this volume is an important contribution to the research on nonreligion and secularity.The collected volume deals with agents and media within specific cultural and historical contexts. Theoretical claims and conceptions by single agents and/or institutions in which the imparting of knowledge about religion and atheism was or is a central assignment, are analyzed. Additionally, procedures of transmitting knowledge about religion and atheism and of sustaining related institutionalized norms, interpretations, roles and practices are in the focus of interest.The book opens the perspective for the multidimensional and negotiating character of legitimation processes, being involved in the establishment or questioning of the institutionalized opposition between religion and atheism or religion and science.

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings together for the first time case studies on secularists of the 19th and early 20th centuries in national and transnational perspectives including examples from all over Europe. Its focus is on freethinkers taken as secular avant-gardes and early promoters of secularity. The authors of this book deal with multiple historical, religious, social, and cultural backgrounds and, in these contexts, analyze freethinkers' organizations, projects, networks, and contributions to forming a secular worldview, in particular, the promotion of concrete undertakings such as civil baptism or initiatives to leave church. Next to this secularist agenda, the contributions also take into account ambivalences and difficulties freethinkers were faced with, namely, the tensions between a national self-image and the transnational direction the movement has taken; the regional base of many projects and their transregional horizon; freethinkers' cultural programs and their immanent political mission; and the dialogue with respectively the conceptual distinction from other secularist groups. Readers interested in the history of secularity will learn that it was a heterogeneous enterprise already in its beginnings. This set the course for later European and global developments.

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Book SynopsisScience and Catholicism in Argentina (1750–1960) is the first comprehensive study on the relationship between science and religion in a Spanish-speaking country with a Catholic majority and a "Latin" pattern of secularisation. The text takes the reader from Jesuit missionary science in colonial times, through the conflict-ridden 19th century, to the Catholic revival of the 1930s in Argentina. The diverse interactions between science and religion revealed in this analysis can be organised in terms of their dynamic of secularisation. The indissoluble identification of science and the secular, which operated at rhetorical and institutional levels among the liberal elite and the socialists in the 19th century, lost part of its force with the emergence of Catholic scientists in the course of the 20th century. In agreement with current views that deny science the role as the driving force of secularisation, this historical study concludes that it was the process of secularisation that shaped the interplay between religion and science, not the other way around.

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