Atheism, once a minority view, is now openly embraced by an
increasing number of scientists, philosophers, politicians, and
celebrities. How did this formerly closeted secular perspective
gain its current prominence as a philosophically viable and
challenging worldview? In this succinct history of modern atheism,
a prolific author, editor, and scholar traces the development of
atheist, agnostic, and secularist thought over the past century and
a half.
Beginning in the nineteenth century, when intellectuals first
openly voiced skepticism about long-standing Christian beliefs,
Joshi considers the impact of several leading thinkers: Thomas
Henry Huxley ("Darwin's Bulldog"), Leslie Stephen, John Stuart
Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Mark Twain. Each of these writers,
in different ways, made searing criticisms of such religious
conceptions as the immortality of the soul, the doctrine of
biblical inerrancy, and the existence of God, at a time when such
notions were largely taken for granted.
Next, the author examines prominent atheist thinkers of the early
twentieth century: attorney Clarence Darrow, journalist H. L.
Mencken, philosopher Bertrand Russell, and horror writer H. P.
Lovecraft. Around the same time as Darrow and Mencken were involved
in the celebrated Scopes trial in America, which resulted in a
triumph for the theory of evolution, Bertrand Russell in England
was becoming well known as a forthright atheist. And Lovecraft was
championing atheism in his novels and tales.
Turning to recent decades, the author considers the uproar caused
by outspoken atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and the controversial
1962 "school prayer" Supreme Court decision. Finally, he evaluates
the work of best-selling authors Gore Vidal, Richard Dawkins, Sam
Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. In each case, he carefully
dissects the views of the writers in question and points out both
the strengths and fallacies or ambiguities in their arguments.
This excellent intellectual history will be a welcome addition to
the libraries of readers of both secular and religious orientations
seeking a greater understanding of contemporary atheism.
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