Seven types of atheism / John Gray.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First American editionDescription: vi, 170 pages ; 22 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780374261092
- 0374261091
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Main Library | NonFiction | 211.809 G779 | Available | 33111009162161 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
From the provocative author of Straw Dogs comes an incisive, surprising intervention in the political and scientific debate over religion and atheism
When you explore older atheisms, you will find that some of your firmest convictions--secular or religious--are highly questionable. If this prospect disturbs you, what you are looking for may be freedom from thought.
For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a shrill, narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood "science." John Gray's stimulating and enjoyable new book, Seven Types of Atheism , describes the complex, dynamic world of older atheisms, a tradition that is, he writes, in many ways intertwined with and as rich as religion itself.
Along a spectrum that ranges from the convictions of "God-haters" like the Marquis de Sade to the mysticism of Arthur Schopenhauer, from Bertrand Russell's search for truth in mathematics to secular political religions like Jacobinism and Nazism, Gray explores the various ways great minds have attempted to understand the questions of salvation, purpose, progress, and evil. The result is a book that sheds an extraordinary light on what it is to be human.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 160-170).
Introduction : how to be an atheist -- The new atheism : a nineteenth-century orthodoxy -- Secular humanism, a sacred relic -- A strange faith in science -- Atheism, gnosticism and modern political religion -- God-haters -- Atheism without progress -- The atheism of silence -- Conclusion.
"For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a shrill, narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood "science." John Gray's... new book, Seven Types of Atheism, describes the complex, dynamic world of older atheisms, a tradition that, he writes, is in many ways intertwined with and as rich as religion itself."--Dust jacket.
The public debate on atheism is often corroded by a shrill, narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood 'science.' Gray provides a stimulating description of the complex world of older atheisms; a tradition that is, he writes, in many ways intertwined with and as rich as religion itself. He explores a spectrum that ranges from the convictions of 'God-haters' to the search for truth in mathematics, to secular political religions like Jacobinism and Nazism. In exploring the questions of salvation, purpose, progress, and evil, Gray sheds light on what it is to be human. -- adapted from jacket