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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems > Humanist & secular alternatives to religion

The Four Horsemen - The Discussion That Sparked An Atheist Revolution (Hardcover): Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel C.... The Four Horsemen - The Discussion That Sparked An Atheist Revolution (Hardcover)
Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel C. Dennett, Christopher Hitchens; Foreword by Stephen Fry 3
R444 Discovery Miles 4 440 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Known as the `four horsemen' of New Atheism, these four big thinkers of the twenty-first century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging. Everything that was said as they agreed and disagreed with one another, interrogated ideas and exchanged insights - about religion and atheism, science and sense - speaks with urgency to our present age.

Questions they asked of each other included:

  • Is it ever possible to win a war of ideas?
  • Is spirituality the preserve of the religious?
  • Are there any truths you would rather not know?
  • Would you want to see the end of faith?

The dialogue was recorded, and is now transcribed and presented here with new introductions from the surviving three horsemen. With a sparkling introduction from Stephen Fry, it makes essential reading for all their admirers and for anyone interested in exploring the tensions between faith and reason.

Storming Zion - Government Raids on Religious Communities (Hardcover): Stuart A. Wright, Susan J. Palmer Storming Zion - Government Raids on Religious Communities (Hardcover)
Stuart A. Wright, Susan J. Palmer
R3,797 Discovery Miles 37 970 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

While scholars, media, and the public may be aware of a few extraordinary government raids on religious communities, such as the U.S. federal raid on the Branch Davidians in 1993, very few people are aware of the scope and frequency with which these raids occur. Following the Texas state raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints in 2008, authors Stuart Wright and Susan Palmer decided to study these raids in the aggregate-rather than as individual cases-by collecting data on raids that have taken place over the last six decades. They did this both to establish for the first time an archive of raided groups, and to determine if any patterns could be identified. Even they were surprised at their findings; there were far more raids than expected, and the vast majority of them had occurred since 1990, reflecting a sharp, almost exponential increase. What could account for this sudden and dramatic increase in state control of minority religions? In Storming Zion, Wright and Palmer argue that the increased use of these high-risk and extreme types of enforcement corresponds to expanded organization and initiatives by opponents of unconventional religions. Anti-cult organizations provide strategic "frames" that define potential conflicts or problems in a given community as inherently dangerous, and construct narratives that draw on stereotypes of child and sexual abuse, brainwashing, and even mass suicide. The targeted group is made to appear more dangerous than it is, resulting in an overreaction by authorities. Wright and Palmer explore the implications of heightened state repression and control of minority religions in an increasingly multicultural, globalized world. At a time of rapidly shifting demographics within Western societies this book cautions against state control of marginalized groups and offers insight about why the responses to these groups is often so reactionary.

A Little Celebration of the Green Man (Paperback): Karen Cater A Little Celebration of the Green Man (Paperback)
Karen Cater
R251 Discovery Miles 2 510 Ships in 12 - 19 working days
A Sceptic's Guide to Atheism (Paperback): Peter S. Williams A Sceptic's Guide to Atheism (Paperback)
Peter S. Williams
R593 Discovery Miles 5 930 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This is an accessible response to the contemporary anti-God arguments of the 'new atheists' (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens, Grayling, etc). Atheism has become militant in the past few years, with its own popular mass media evangelists such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. In this readable book, Christian philosopher Peter S. Williams considers the arguments of the 'new atheists' and finds them wanting. Williams explains the history of atheism and responds to the claims that: 'belief in God causes more harm than good'; 'religion is about blind faith and science is the only way to know things'; 'science can explain religion away'; 'there is not enough evidence for God'; 'the arguments for God's existence do not work'. Williams argues that belief in God is more intellectually plausible than atheism.

The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism (Hardcover): Catherine Wessinger The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism (Hardcover)
Catherine Wessinger
R5,789 Discovery Miles 57 890 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Seventh-Day Adventists, Melanesian cargo cults, David Koresh's Branch Davidians, and the Raelian UFO religion would seem to have little in common. What these groups share, however, is a millennial orientation-the audacious human hope for a collective salvation, which may be either heavenly or earthly. While many religions feature a belief in personal salvation, millennial faiths involve the expectation that salvation will be accomplished for an entire group by a superhuman agent, with or without human collaboration. While the term "millennialism" is drawn from Christianity, it is a category that is used to study religious expressions in diverse cultures, religious traditions, and historical periods. Sometimes, as with the American Millerite movement, millennialism expresses itself benignly. Other times, as in the Branch Davidians' showdown with the FBI in Waco, these movements turn violent. This handbook will offer readers an in-depth look at both the theoretical underpinnings of the study of millennialism and its many manifestations across history and cultures. The book will begin with a section that lays out the four different types of millennialism and will then move on to examine millennialism in a wide variety of places and times, from ancient millennial movements to modern apocalyptic movements. This handbook will be a valuable resource for scholars of religious studies, sociology, psychology, history, and new religious movements.

Early Modern Atheism from Spinoza to d'Holbach (Paperback): Gianluca Mori Early Modern Atheism from Spinoza to d'Holbach (Paperback)
Gianluca Mori
R3,406 Discovery Miles 34 060 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Examining the birth and development of early modern atheism from Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670) to d'Holbach's Systeme de la nature (1770), this study considers Spinoza, Hobbes, Cudworth, Bayle, Meslier, Boulainviller, Du Marsais, Freret, Toland, Collins, Hume, Diderot, Voltaire, and d'Holbach and positions them in a general interpretive scheme, based on the idea that early modern atheism is itself an unwanted fruit of early modern metaphysics and theology. Breaking with a long-standing tradition, Descartes claimed that it was possible to have a "clear and distinct" idea of God, indeed that the idea of God was the "clearest and most distinct" of all ideas accessible to the human mind. Humans could thus obtain a scientific knowledge of God's nature and attributes. But as soon as God became an object of science, He also became the object of a thoroughgoing scientific analysis and criticism. The effortlessness with which early modern atheists managed to turn round their adversaries' arguments to their own favour is a sign that the new doctrines of God which emerged in the seventeenth-century, each based in its own way on principles and dogmas related to the new science of nature, were plunging headfirst towards the precipice under their own steam.

The Humanist Movement in Modern Britain - A History of Ethicists, Rationalists and Humanists (Hardcover): Callum G. Brown,... The Humanist Movement in Modern Britain - A History of Ethicists, Rationalists and Humanists (Hardcover)
Callum G. Brown, David Nash, Charlie Lynch
R2,363 Discovery Miles 23 630 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Humanists have been a major force in British life since the turn of the 20th century. Here, leading historians of religious non-belief Callum Brown, David Nash, and Charlie Lynch examine how humanist organisations brought ethical reform and rationalism to the nation as it faced the moral issues of the modern world. This book provides a long overdue account of this dynamic group. Developing through the Ethical Union (1896), the Rationalist Press Association (1899), the British Humanist Association (1963) and Humanists UK (2017), Humanists sought to reduce religious privilege but increase humanitarian compassion and human rights. After pioneering legislation on blasphemy laws, dignity in dying and abortion rights, they went on to help design new laws on gay marriage, and sex and moral education. Internationally, they endeavoured to end war and world hunger. And with Humanist marriages and celebration of life through Humanist funerals, national ritual and culture have recently been transformed. Based on extensive archival and oral-history research, this is the definitive history of Humanists as an ethical force in modern Britain.

God is Good (Hardcover): Martin G Kuhrt God is Good (Hardcover)
Martin G Kuhrt; Foreword by Alex Jacob
R1,294 R1,079 Discovery Miles 10 790 Save R215 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
An Atheist's Letters to Heaven (Hardcover): Naimbai Njerakey An Atheist's Letters to Heaven (Hardcover)
Naimbai Njerakey
R1,041 R881 Discovery Miles 8 810 Save R160 (15%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Welcome to Our Real Matrix - One With No Escape (Hardcover): Tom Arant Welcome to Our Real Matrix - One With No Escape (Hardcover)
Tom Arant
R672 R616 Discovery Miles 6 160 Save R56 (8%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Logic in Theology and Other Essays (Hardcover): Isaac Taylor Logic in Theology and Other Essays (Hardcover)
Isaac Taylor
R1,330 R1,098 Discovery Miles 10 980 Save R232 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Purposehood - Transform Your Life, Transform the World (Hardcover): Ammar Charani Purposehood - Transform Your Life, Transform the World (Hardcover)
Ammar Charani
R765 Discovery Miles 7 650 Ships in 12 - 19 working days
Does God believe in atheists? (Paperback, This edition 2014): John Blanchard Does God believe in atheists? (Paperback, This edition 2014)
John Blanchard
R265 Discovery Miles 2 650 Ships in 3 - 5 working days

This book was first published in fourteen years ago, but its

content is timeless. It is John Blanchard's major work, and was

voted 'Best Christian Book' in the 2001 UK Christian Book

Awards, and immediately became a best-seller, described as 'a

brilliant defense of belief in God'.

The Secular Paradox - On the Religiosity of the Not Religious (Hardcover): Joseph Blankholm The Secular Paradox - On the Religiosity of the Not Religious (Hardcover)
Joseph Blankholm
R2,687 Discovery Miles 26 870 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

A radically new way of understanding secularism which explains why being secular can seem so strangely religious For much of America’s rapidly growing secular population, religion is an inescapable source of skepticism and discomfort. It shows up in politics and in holidays, but also in common events like weddings and funerals. In The Secular Paradox, Joseph Blankholm argues that, despite their desire to avoid religion, nonbelievers often seem religious because Christianity influences the culture around them so deeply. Relying on several years of ethnographic research among secular activists and organized nonbelievers in the United States, the volume explores how very secular people are ambivalent toward belief, community, ritual, conversion, and tradition. As they try to embrace what they share, secular people encounter, again and again, that they are becoming too religious. And as they reject religion, they feel they have lost too much. Trying to strike the right balance, secular people alternate between the two sides of their ambiguous condition: absolutely not religious and part of a religion-like secular tradition. Blankholm relies heavily on the voices of women and people of color to understand what it means to live with the secular paradox. The struggles of secular misfits—the people who mis-fit normative secularism in the United States—show that becoming secular means rejecting parts of life that resemble Christianity and embracing a European tradition that emphasizes reason and avoids emotion. Women, people of color, and secular people who have left non-Christian religions work against the limits and contradictions of secularism to create new ways of being secular that are transforming the American religious landscape. They are pioneering the most interesting and important forms of secular “religiosity†in America today.

Nonreligion in Late Modern Societies - Institutional and Legal Perspectives (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022): Anne-Laure Zwilling,... Nonreligion in Late Modern Societies - Institutional and Legal Perspectives (Hardcover, 1st ed. 2022)
Anne-Laure Zwilling, Helge Arsheim
R3,633 Discovery Miles 36 330 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

This volume presents results from new and ongoing research efforts into the role of nonreligion in education, politics, law and society from a variety of different countries. Featuring data from a wide range of quantitative and qualitative studies, the book exposes the relational dynamics of religion and nonreligion. Firstly, it highlights the extent to which nonreligion is defined and understood by legal and institutional actors on the basis of religions, and often replicates the organisation of society and majority religions. At the same time, it displays how essential it is to approach nonreligion on its own, by freeing oneself from the frameworks from which religion is thought. The book addresses pressing questions such as: How can nonreligion be defined, and how can the "nones" be grasped and taken into account in studies on religion? How does the sociocultural and religious backdrop of different countries affect the regulation and representation of nonreligion in law and policymaking? Where and how do nonreligious individuals and collectives fit into institutions in contemporary societies? How does nonreligion affect notions of citizenship and national belonging? Despite growing scholarly interest in the increasing number of people without religion, the role of nonreligion in legal and institutional settings is still largely unexplored. This volume helps fill the gap, and will be of interest to students, researchers, policymakers and others seeking deeper understanding of the changing role of nonreligion in modern societies.

Mass Observers Making Meaning - Religion, Spirituality and Atheism in Late 20th-Century Britain (Hardcover): James Hinton Mass Observers Making Meaning - Religion, Spirituality and Atheism in Late 20th-Century Britain (Hardcover)
James Hinton
R3,205 Discovery Miles 32 050 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

What do people believe about death and the afterlife? How do they negotiate the relationship between science and religion? How do they understand apparently paranormal events? What do they make of sensations of awe, wonder or exceptional moments of sudden enlightenment? The volunteer mass observers responded to such questions with a freshness, openness and honesty which compels attention. Using this rich material, Mass Observers Making Meaning captures the extraordinarily diverse landscape of belief and disbelief to be found in Britain in the late 20th-century, at a time when Christianity was in steep decline, alternative spiritualities were flourishing and atheism was growing. Divided as they were about the ultimate nature of reality, the mass observers were united in their readiness to puzzle about life’s larger questions. Listening empathetically to their accounts, James Hinton – himself a convinced atheist – seeks to bring divergent ways of finding meaning in human life into dialogue with one another, and argues that we can move beyond the cacophony of conflicting beliefs to an understanding of our common need and ability to seek meaning in our lives.

A Little Book of Stoicism (Hardcover): St.George Stock A Little Book of Stoicism (Hardcover)
St.George Stock
R565 Discovery Miles 5 650 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Dreams, Death, Rebirth - A Topological Odyssey Into Alchemy's Hidden Dimensions [Hardcover] (Hardcover): Steven M. Rosen Dreams, Death, Rebirth - A Topological Odyssey Into Alchemy's Hidden Dimensions [Hardcover] (Hardcover)
Steven M. Rosen
R1,609 Discovery Miles 16 090 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Comforting Thoughts About Death that Have Nothing to do With God (Paperback): Greta Christina Comforting Thoughts About Death that Have Nothing to do With God (Paperback)
Greta Christina
R239 R221 Discovery Miles 2 210 Save R18 (8%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

A unique take on death and bereavement without a belief in God or an afterlife   Accepting death is never easy, but we don’t need religion to find peace, comfort, and solace in the face of death. In this inspiring and life-affirming collection of short essays, prominent atheist author Greta Christina offers secular ways to handle your own mortality and the death of those you love.

Atheism And The Case Against Christ (Paperback): Matthew S McCormick Atheism And The Case Against Christ (Paperback)
Matthew S McCormick
R528 Discovery Miles 5 280 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Hundreds of millions of people believe that Jesus came back from the dead. This cogent, forcefully argued book presents a decidedly unpopular view --namely, that the central tenet of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus, is false. The author asks a number of probing questions:
Is the evidence about Jesus as it has been relayed to us over the centuries of sufficient quantity and quality to justify belief in the resurrection? How can we accept the resurrection but reject magic at the Salem witch trials? What light does contemporary research about human rationality from the fields of behavioral economics, empirical psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy shed on the resurrection and religious belief? Can we use contemporary research about the reliability of people's beliefs in the supernatural, miracles, and the paranormal to shed light on the origins of Christianity and other religions? Does it make sense that the all-powerful creator of the universe would employ miracles to achieve his ends? Can a Christian believe by faith alone and yet reasonably deny the supernatural claims of other religions? Do the arguments against Christianity support atheism?
By carefully answering each of these questions, this book undermines Christianity and theism at their foundations; it gives us a powerful model for better critical reasoning; and it builds a compelling case for atheism. Without stooping to condescension or arrogance, the author offers persuasive arguments that are accessible, thoughtful, and new.

Atheists in American Politics - Social Movement Organizing from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries (Hardcover):... Atheists in American Politics - Social Movement Organizing from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries (Hardcover)
Richard J. Meagher
R2,392 Discovery Miles 23 920 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Today atheists, it seems, are everywhere. Nonbelievers write best-selling books and proudly defend their views in public; they have even hired a lobbyist. But, as political scientist Richard J. Meagher shows, atheist political activism is not a new phenomenon. From the "Freethought" movement of the late 1800s, to postwar "rationalists" and "humanists," to today's proud atheists, nonbelievers have called for change within a resistant political culture. While atheist organizing typically has been a relatively lonely and sad affair, advances in technology and new political opportunities have helped atheists to finally gain at least some measure of legitimacy in American politics. In Atheists in American Politics, one of the first works to take atheism seriously as a social movement, Meagher highlights key moments within the political history of atheism and freethought, and examines how the changing circumstances that surround the movement help explain political mobilization. In doing so, this book also highlights the ways that social movements in general gain momentum, and how a number of interlocking factors are often necessary to enable a movement to "take off" in American politics.

On God's Existence - Traditional and New Arguments (Paperback): John J. Pasquini On God's Existence - Traditional and New Arguments (Paperback)
John J. Pasquini
R899 Discovery Miles 8 990 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Philosophy and the advances in cosmology, neurology, molecular biology, and the social sciences have made the convincing and converging arguments for God's existence more probable than ever in history. On God's Existence is concise summary of these arguments as well as new arguments inspired by the advances of the sciences.

Laconics of Cult (Hardcover): Ingersoll Lockwood Laconics of Cult (Hardcover)
Ingersoll Lockwood
R450 Discovery Miles 4 500 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Reasonable Atheism - A Moral Case for Respectful Disbelief (Paperback, New): Scott F. Aikin, Robert Talisse Reasonable Atheism - A Moral Case for Respectful Disbelief (Paperback, New)
Scott F. Aikin, Robert Talisse
R547 Discovery Miles 5 470 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

A recent poll from the University of Minnesota finds that atheists are America's least trusted social group. Perhaps compounding this negative impression is the attack-dog persona taken on in the past decade by the "New Atheists." Not only have they been quite public about their disbelief, but they've also stridently lambasted religious belief generally in a number of bestselling books.
Disturbed by this negative public perception and the deterioration in the tone of open debate, the authors of this eminently reasonable work attempt to introduce a note of civility and rational clarity. To both religious believers and fellow atheists they counsel a measured approach that combines serious intellectual engagement with respect for the reasonableness of the other side's position.
The heart of the book is the authors' moral case for atheism. Atheism, they contend, manifests a decidedly moral concern for others and their wellbeing. The authors further argue that atheism is driven by the kinds of moral considerations that should be familiar to all religious believers. Atheists are motivated by a moral concern for others, a desire to alleviate suffering and combat evil, and an appreciation for the value of life, freedom, and responsibility.
In the end, the authors make not only a compelling case for atheism but also for the value and necessity of mutual respect in a democratic society composed of diverse citizens.

From Pastor to Atheist (Hardcover): Larry Cartford From Pastor to Atheist (Hardcover)
Larry Cartford
R723 Discovery Miles 7 230 Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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