Disenchanting India

Disenchanting India
Author: Johannes Quack
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2011-11-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199812608

India is frequently represented as the quintessential land of religion. Johannes Quack challenges this representation through an examination of the contemporary Indian rationalist organizations: groups who affirm the values and attitudes of atheism, humanism, or free-thinking. Quack shows the rationalists' emphasis on maintaining links to atheism and materialism in ancient India and outlines their strong ties to the intellectual currents of modern European history. At the heart of Disenchanting India is an ethnographic study of the organization ''Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti'' (Organization for the Eradication of Superstition), based in the Indian State of Maharashtra. Quack gives a nuanced account of the Organization's specific "mode of unbelief." He describes the group's efforts to encourage a scientific temper and to combat beliefs and practices that it regards as superstitious. Quack also shows the role played by rationalism in the day-to-day lives of the Organization's members, as well as the Organization's controversial position within Indian society. Disenchanting India contributes crucial insight into the nature of rationalism in the intellectual life and cultural politics of India.

The God Market

The God Market
Author: Meera Nanda
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2011-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1583673105

Conventional wisdom says that integration into the global marketplace tends to weaken the power of traditional faith in developing countries. But, as Meera Nanda argues in this path-breaking book, this is hardly the case in today’s India. Against expectations of growing secularism, India has instead seen a remarkable intertwining of Hinduism and neoliberal ideology, spurred on by a growing capitalist class. It is this “State-Temple-Corporate Complex,” she claims, that now wields decisive political and economic power, and provides ideological cover for the dismantling of the Nehru-era state-dominated economy. According to this new logic, India’s rapid economic growth is attributable to a special “Hindu mind,” and it is what separates the nation’s Hindu population from Muslims and others deemed to be “anti-modern.” As a result, Hindu institutions are replacing public ones, and the Hindu “revival” itself has become big business, a major source of capital accumulation. Nanda explores the roots of this development and its possible future, as well as the struggle for secularism and socialism in the world’s second-most populous country.

Dictionary Of Atheism Skepticism & Humanism

Dictionary Of Atheism Skepticism & Humanism
Author: Bill Cooke
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 607
Release: 2009-12-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1615923659

In the tradition of Voltaire''s Philosophical Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce''s Devil''s Dictionary, and Joseph McCabe''s Rationalist Encyclopedia, this accessible dictionary addresses the contemporary need for a reference book that succinctly summarizes the key concepts, current terminology, and major contributions of influential thinkers broadly associated with atheism, skepticism, and humanism. In the preface, author Bill Cooke notes that his work is intended "for freethinkers in the broadest sense of the word: people who like to think for themselves and not according to the preplanned routes set by others." This dictionary will serve as a guide for all those people striving to lead fulfilling, morally responsible lives without religious belief. Readers are offered a wide range of concepts, from ancient, well-known notions such as God, free will, and evil to new concepts such as "eupraxsophy." Also included are current "buzzwords" that have some bearing on the freethought worldview such as "metrosexual." The names of many people whose lives or work reflect freethought principles form a major portion of the entries. Finally, a humanist calendar is included, on which events of interest to freethinkers are noted. This unique, accessible, and highly informative work will be a welcome addition to the libraries of open-minded people of all philosophic persuasions.

Who's who in Hell

Who's who in Hell
Author: Warren Allen Smith
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1264
Release: 2000
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This listing of several thousand nonbelievers includes ancients such as Euripides; French revolutionaries and statements by or about countless individuals including Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Hugh Hefner, Jack Nicholson, Sally Jesse Raphael, Christopher Reeve, Salman Rushdie, Carl Sagan, Ted Turner and Jesse Ventura. This book makes a case not only for the respectability of nonbelievers but also for their positive outlooks and creativity.

Total Atheism

Total Atheism
Author: Stefan Binder
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2020-04-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1789206758

Exploring lived atheism in the South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, this book offers a unique insight into India’s rapidly transforming multi-religious society. It explores the social, cultural, and aesthetic challenges faced by a movement of secular activists in their endeavors to establish atheism as a practical and comprehensive way of life. On the basis of original ethnographic material and engaged conceptual analysis, Total Atheism develops an alternative to Eurocentric accounts of secularity and critically revisits central themes of South Asian scholarship from the hitherto marginalized vantage point of radically secular and explicitly irreligious atheists in India.