Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Got any?
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Alan Chalmers
Umberto Eco
Antonio Gramsci
Karl Marx
Douglas Adams
Carl Sagan
...
Umberto Eco
Antonio Gramsci
Karl Marx
Douglas Adams
Carl Sagan
...
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Christopher Hitchens by some margin for his pyrotechnical grasp of the English language even if he was a bit of a twat at times.
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Frack, I did not even know Eco was an open atheist.
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Ambrose Bierce
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Never thought about. My atheism is not a philosophy. It is nothing.
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
For the sheer well-written-ness of their prose, Hitchens (of course) and A.C. Grayling.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Interesting. bought an A. C. Grayling book to check out. Thanks.
Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Still think Bertrand Russell is the best atheist philosopher to this day. Along with some of the other early philosophers and writers like George Ingersoll and Jean Meslier.
The thing is that most of these people dealt with the main theist ages ago and the theists haven't come up with any new ones to further debunk. There's nothing left to do except go around in circles.
That said; I like A.C. Grayling, but as a humanist philosopher who's great at writing food-for-thought tracts and letting you come out with your own conclusions. He does have a bandwagonning book specifically on atheism called Against All Gods which I have no interest in reading.
There is a great book called Darwin, God, and the Meaning of Life by Steve Stewart-Williams. An excellent train of thought leading to an inescapable conclusion from what Darwinism means for God (ie. He's fucked), and what that means for morality following from there.
For another angle Michael Onfray's Atheist Manifesto is an interesting treatise on hedonism.
Sean Carroll recently wrote a great book called The Big Picture. A bravely positive argument on why materialism is the best fit for the scientific evidence. This is the opposite of most athiest books which argue a lack of evidence for gods and immaterialism. Carroll shows how all of the universes energy is accounted for leaving no room for undetected sources.
Carroll is also the only atheist I've seen destroy William Lane Craig in debate. And Craig refuses to debate Jeffrey Lowder on the spurious reason that he's not a professional theist/philosopher. Now that last guy can argue. John W. Loftus, an ex-student of Craig he also refuses to debate on another spurious reason that it would be improper to debate an ex-student, too.
The thing is that most of these people dealt with the main theist ages ago and the theists haven't come up with any new ones to further debunk. There's nothing left to do except go around in circles.
That said; I like A.C. Grayling, but as a humanist philosopher who's great at writing food-for-thought tracts and letting you come out with your own conclusions. He does have a bandwagonning book specifically on atheism called Against All Gods which I have no interest in reading.
There is a great book called Darwin, God, and the Meaning of Life by Steve Stewart-Williams. An excellent train of thought leading to an inescapable conclusion from what Darwinism means for God (ie. He's fucked), and what that means for morality following from there.
For another angle Michael Onfray's Atheist Manifesto is an interesting treatise on hedonism.
Sean Carroll recently wrote a great book called The Big Picture. A bravely positive argument on why materialism is the best fit for the scientific evidence. This is the opposite of most athiest books which argue a lack of evidence for gods and immaterialism. Carroll shows how all of the universes energy is accounted for leaving no room for undetected sources.
Carroll is also the only atheist I've seen destroy William Lane Craig in debate. And Craig refuses to debate Jeffrey Lowder on the spurious reason that he's not a professional theist/philosopher. Now that last guy can argue. John W. Loftus, an ex-student of Craig he also refuses to debate on another spurious reason that it would be improper to debate an ex-student, too.
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Very good, much thanks Ani.
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell is worth a read...
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Favourite authors who were atheist - Carl Sagan and Bertrand Russell. Haven't read any atheist tracts from them, though. In fact the only atheist literature I've ever read was Dawkins and a bit of Dennett.
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
Yep. All the 'atheist books' since "Why I am not a Christian" have basically rehashed it in one way or another.
Against All Gods is a collection of shortish essays and articles written for the British Humanist Society magazine. A good pickerupper. He's also written a quite cheeky tome called 'The Good Book' which sets out to reflect a scientific view of the world allied to a grounded secular ethic - in the form of a cod-religious text (chapters and verses etc). It's actually quite amusing in concept, and not a bad read in parts. More of a dipper than a straight read through.That said; I like A.C. Grayling, but as a humanist philosopher who's great at writing food-for-thought tracts and letting you come out with your own conclusions. He does have a bandwagonning book specifically on atheism called Against All Gods which I have no interest in reading.
Rationalia relies on voluntary donations. There is no obligation of course, but if you value this place and want to see it continue please consider making a small donation towards the forum's running costs.
Details on how to do that can be found here.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
.
Details on how to do that can be found here.
.
"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
I read mostly biologists and I can’t imagine any of them are anything but atheists. It does not come up much in the texts.
Example
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_Heinrich
The running book is the only one where he even discusses man! The Snoring bird is his family history.
He used to (now he is 78) run:
In 1983, he set an absolute American record for the 24-hour run of 156 miles, 1388 yards in a track race in Maine. In 1984, he set an absolute American 100 mile record of 12:27:01, again in a track race. One year later, he set the American track record of 7:00:12 for 100 kilometers. In so doing, he became the only American man to hold both the road and track versions of the American record for the same event.
Example
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_Heinrich
The running book is the only one where he even discusses man! The Snoring bird is his family history.
He used to (now he is 78) run:
In 1983, he set an absolute American record for the 24-hour run of 156 miles, 1388 yards in a track race in Maine. In 1984, he set an absolute American 100 mile record of 12:27:01, again in a track race. One year later, he set the American track record of 7:00:12 for 100 kilometers. In so doing, he became the only American man to hold both the road and track versions of the American record for the same event.
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http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
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Our case for survival before it's too late
Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...
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Re: Favourite Atheist Philosopher/Writer
You can't beat Nietzsche on Christian morality.
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