Victorian Infidels

Victorian Infidels
Author: Edward Royle
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1974
Genre: Secularism
ISBN: 9780719005572

The Dictionary of Nineteenth-century British Philosophers

The Dictionary of Nineteenth-century British Philosophers
Author: W. J. Mander
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Total Pages: 614
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers covers the period beginning (approximately) with Jeremy Bentham and ending with J.H. Muirhead. All the major 19th-century philosophers are here, but so too is a very wide range of less well-known writers, many of whom have not been mentioned elsewhere in philosophical encyclop dias or dictionaries. The importance of looking at minor figures is now widely accepted. These lesser lights often posed the problems that stimulated greater intellects, and it is usually the more obscure figures, not the luminaries, who are the typical representatives of the thought of a period. If an author contributed directly to the history of ideas or wrote for non-specialist readers about the way human beings perceive or respond to the world, he or she is included.

Atheism

Atheism
Author: George H. Smith
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2010-11-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1615929959

"Does a god exist? This question has undoubtedly been asked, in one form or another, since man has had the ability to communicate. . . Thousands of volumes have been written on the subject of a god, and the vast majority have answered the questions with a resounding 'Yes!' " "You are about to read a minority viewpoint." With this intriguing introduction, George H. Smith sets out to demolish what he considers the most widespread and destructive of all the myths devised by man - the concept of a supreme being. With painstaking scholarship and rigorous arguments, Mr. Smith examines, dissects, and refutes the myriad "proofs" offered by theists - the defenses of sophisticated, professional theologians, as well as the average religious layman. He explores the historical and psychological havoc wrought by religion in general - and concludes that religious belief cannot have any place in the life of modern, rational man. "It is not my purpose to convert people to atheism . . . (but to) demonstrate that the belief in God is irrational to the point of absurdity. If a person wishes to continue believing in a god, that is his prerogative, but he can no longer excuse his belief in the name of reason and moral necessity."