A001: Darwin Diary 2009

Darwin Diary 2009

Charles Darwin revolutionised the way we understand life on Earth with his theory of evolution by natural selection. This and other observations remain fundamental to the study of life sciences, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most innovative scientists who ever lived. This timely week-to-view diary is published to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species". Every week there is a specially selected full-page illustration as well as entries reflecting the important dates or landmarks from Darwin's life. The images include many from the Natural History Museum's extensive collection and fascinating captions give more detailed facts and highlights from Darwin's life, from the day HMS Beagle returned from its most famous voyage to the publication of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. This lovely diary is the perfect gift to anyone with an interest in one of the world's most inspiring characters and heroes of atheism.

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A003: Why I Became An Atheist

Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity
by John W Loftus

For about two decades, John W Loftus was a devout evangelical Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an ardent apologist for Christianity. With three degrees - in philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion - he was adept at using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the years, as he ministered to various congregations and taught at Christian colleges, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s, he experienced a full-blown crisis of faith, brought on by emotional upheavals in his personal life as well as the gathering weight of the doubts he had long entertained.In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, Loftus carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious belief. The bulk of the book is his 'cumulative case' against Christianity. Here, he lays out the philosophical, scientific, and historical reasons that can be raised against Christian belief.

From the implications of religious diversity, the authority of faith vs reason, and the problem of evil, to the contradictions between the Bible and the scientific worldview, the conflicts between traditional dogma and historical evidence, and much more, Loftus covers a great deal of intellectual terrain. For every issue, he succinctly summarises the various points of view and provides references for further reading.In conclusion, he describes the implications of life without belief in God, some liberating, some sobering. This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the claims of religion.

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A004: In Defence of Atheism

In Defence of Atheism: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam
By Michel Onfray

If Nietzsche proclaimed the "Death of God," Onfray starts from the premise that not only is God still very much alive, but increasingly controlled by fundamentalists who pose a danger to the human race. From Christian anti-abortion campaigns to suicide bombers claiming the righteousness of Islam, we are witnessing a resurgence of fundamentalism. Michel Onfray's response to the threat of a post-modern theocracy is to lay down the principles of an authentic atheism: exposing the fiction that is God, he proposes instead a new philosophy of reason that celebrates life and humanity. "In Defence of Atheism" is a hugely controversial work that demonstrates that organised religion is motivated by worldly, historical and political power; that the three dominant monotheisms - Christianity, Islam and Judaism - exhibit the same hatred of women, reason, the body, the passions; that religion denies life and glorifies death. Onfray exposes some uncomfortable truths: Judaism invented the extermination of a people; Jesus never existed historically; Christianity was enforced with extreme violence by Constantine; Islam is anti-Semitic, misogynist, warlike and incompatible with the values of a modern democracy.

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A006: The Secular Conscience

The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life
By Austin Dacey

Has secularism lost its soul? From Washington to the Vatican to Tehran, religion is a public matter as never before, and secular values--individual autonomy, pluralism, separation of religion and state, and freedom of conscience--are attacked on all sides and defended by few. The godly claim a monopoly on the language of morality, while secular liberals stand accused of standing for nothing.

Secular liberals did not lose their moral compass: they gave it away. For generations, too many have insisted that questions of conscience--religion, ethics, and values--are "private matters" that have no place in public debate. Ironically, this ideology hinders them from subjecting religion to due scrutiny when it encroaches on individual rights, and from unabashedly advocating their own moral vision in politics for fear of "imposing" their beliefs on others.

In his incisive new book, The Secular Conscience (Prometheus Books, March 2008), philosopher Austin Dacey calls for a bold rethinking of the nature of conscience and its role in public life. Inspired by an earlier liberal tradition he traces to Spinoza and John Stuart Mill, he urges liberals to lift their self-imposed gag order and defend a renewed secularism based on the objective moral value of conscience.

Conscience is like the free press in an open society: it is protected from coercion and control, not because it is private, but because it has a vital role in the public sphere. Conscience is free, but not liberated from shared standards of truth and right. Conscience must come before any and all faiths, for it is what tells us whether or not to believe. In this way, it supplies a shared vocabulary for meaningful dialogue in a diverse society, and an ethical lingua franca in which to address the world.

Hardback edition (US Import). £2P&P

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A008: The Purple Economy

Purple Economy – supernatural charities, tax and the state
by Max Wallace.

In this provocative book, Max Wallace argues that democracies should be republics characterised by constitutional separations of church and state. Wallace argues the separation of secular authority from supernatural authority should be understood as the first separation of powers in a democracy prior to, and equivalent to, the separation between the executive, legislature and judiciary.

The failure of democracies to fully realise this distinction constitutionally has seen the churches become immensely wealthy as a consequence of their centuries old tax-exempt status as charities that ‘advocate religion’. Their wealth is now a recognisable financial phenomenon – the Purple Economy.

But, following the French principle, Wallace argues it is not the role of a state to ‘advance religion’. Ancient exemptions from taxation for the ‘supernatural’ charities which are under no obligation to spend their wealth on ‘good works’ are not appropriate for the 21st century. They should be treated for tax purposes in the same way as all other taxpayers. The failure of governments to formalise separation of church and state has contributed to the significant wealth of supernatural charities largely as a function of the exemptions. These are effectively a concealed tithe on all taxpayers. At the same time, church attendance has plummeted.

Published by the Australian National Secular Society, this book is packed with information about religious privilege, how it is obtained and how governments conspire with religious leaders to ensure it cannot be challenged.

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A010: Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church

By David Ranan

This is a firecracker of a book, exposing the corruption, deceit and criminality that has been rife throughout the history of the Vatican and which is still rampant today. If the Vatican was afraid of the effects of the Da Vinci Code, it should be even more frightened of the revelations in this book – because this is not a novel, it is a well-researched and documented volume that lays bare the Vatican’s inherent evil.

The author is a political scientist and his objectivity adds weight and authority to the incendiary contents. He pushes past the Vatican’s usual tactic of trying to silence and demean its critics, and puts the evidence on the table to show that some of the Church’s teachings and policies actually kill people; he explains where how and why. He examines why the Church seems unable to change its ruinous policies on contraception, abortion, the Jews and homosexuality. And he casts a merciless eye over the Church’s foul cover-ups of child abuse by its priests.

This is an important book for all secularists, for at last we get the full story of the Vatican’s darkness, uncorrupted by its usual apologists, and uncensored by the Vatican’s propagandists.

426 pages (£2 p&p)

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A015: The Origin Of Species

The Origin Of Species
By Charles Darwin

This is one of the most important and influential books ever written, and it is one of the very few groundbreaking works of science that is truly readable.

Darwin challenged many of the most deeply-held beliefs of the Western world. Arguing for a material, not divine, origin of species, he showed that new species are achieved by `natural selection'. The Origin communicates the enthusiasm of original thinking in an open, descriptive style, and Darwin's emphasis on the value of diversity speaks more strongly now than ever.

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A015: Why Darwin Matters

Why Darwin Matters - The Case Against Intelligent Design
by Michael Shermer

In Why Darwin Matters, Michael Shermer, the bestselling author of Why People Believe in Weird Things and the publisher of Skeptic Magazine, decodes the facts of evolution and shows how natural selection achieves the elegant design of life. Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents invoke a combination of bad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology in their new brand of creationism. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.

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A020: The Portable Atheist

The Portable Atheist: Essential reading for the non-believer
Selected & introduced by Christopher Hitchens

From NSS Honorary Associate and best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages--with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices--past and present--that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they're all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens--"political and literary journalist extraordinaire" (Los Angeles Times)--can.

Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.

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A022: God Is Not Great

God Is Not Great - The Case Agaist Religion (Paperback)
by Christoper Hitchens.

Christopher Hitchens, described in the Observer as "one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time" takes on his biggest subject yet--the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian,
Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. In a series
of acute readings of the major religious texts, he demonstrates the ways in
which religion is man-made, dangerously sexually repressive and distorts
the very origins of the cosmos. With robust clarity, Hitchens frames the
argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell
is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe and
Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the
double helix.

God is Not Great marvels at the possibility of society without religion,
arguing that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged
humanity. Hitchens proposes instead that the world might be a great deal
better off without `him'.

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A025: Parenting Beyond Belief

Parenting Beyong Belief -
On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion.
Edited by Dale McGowan

Parenting Beyond Belief is a book for loving and thoughtful parents who wish to raise their children without religion. There are scores of books available for religious parents. Now there's one for the rest of us.

Includes essays by Richard Dawkins, Julia Sweeney, Penn Jillette, Mark Twain, Dr. Jean Mercer, Dr. Donald B. Ardell, Rev. Dr. Kendyl Gibbons, Jim Herrick (of the National Secular Society) and over twenty-five other doctors, educators, psychologists, and secular parents.

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A026: The God Delusion

By Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins turns his fierce intellect on to religious delusion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes. While Europe is becoming increasingly secularised, the rise of religious fundamentalism, whether in the Middle East or Middle America, is dramatically and dangerously dividing opinion around the world. In America, and elsewhere, a vigorous dispute between 'intelligent design' and Darwinism is seriously undermining and restricting the teaching of science. In many countries religious dogma from medieval times still serves to abuse basic human rights such as women's and gay rights. And all from a belief in a God whose existence lacks evidence of any kind. Dawkins attacks God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed, cruel tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign, but still illogical, Celestial Watchmaker favoured by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry and abuses children. In "The God Delusion" Dawkins presents a hard-hitting, impassioned rebuttal of religion of all types and does so in the lucid, witty and powerful language for which he is renowned. It is a brilliantly argued, fascinating polemic that will be required reading for anyone interested in this most emotional and important subject.

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A028: Trick or Treatment?

Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial
By Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst

Prince Charles is a staunch defender and millions of people swear by it; most UK doctors consider it to be little more than superstition and a waste of money. Welcome to the world of alternative medicine. In "Trick or Treatment?", the truth about the efficacy of alternative medicine is rigorously addressed for the first time by the scientist uniquely qualified to do so: Professor Edzard Ernst, the world's first professor of complementary medicine. Having spent over a decade at Exeter University meticulously analyzing the bewildering evidence for and against alternative therapies, this former practitioner of both traditional and complementary medicine brings no bias to the subject.

Writing with him is the respected science writer, Simon Singh, who also brings his considerable scientific knowledge and scrupulous impartiality to this most controversial subject.Together, they present a hard-hitting, groundbreaking examination of more than thirty of the most popular treatments, such as Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Aromatherapy, Reflexology, Chiropractic and Herbal medicines, delivering the ultimate verdict on all of them.

Read a recent Simon Singh article on Homeopathy from the Times

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A030: Maybe Yes, Maybe No

Maybe Yes, Maybe No -
A Guide For Young Skeptics
By Dan Barker

Maybe Yes, Maybe No is a child's introduction to healthy skepticism. The book's ten-year-old heroine, Andrea, is "always asking questions," writes author Dan Barker, because she thinks "you should prove the truth of a strange story before you believe it." This book teaches the essentials of critical thinking - "Check it out," "Repeat the experiment," "Try to prove it wrong," "It has to make sense" - illustrating each of these rules with clear examples.

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A032: Quotable Atheist

Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies and Those Generally Hell-bound
by Jack Huberman

Sensing a backlash against the fundamentalism and ignorance that have made America a worldwide laughingstock, best-selling author Jack Huberman has collected a treasure trove of quotes by philosophers, scientists, poets, writers, artists, entertainers, and political figures.

These aphorisms will delight and hearten but also challenge nonbelievers, and perhaps even make belivers think again. The colourful cast of atheist, agnostic, cynical, and spiritual characters includes Woody Allen, Lance Armstrong, Bjork, Buddha, George Carlin, Noam Chomsky, Larry Flynt, E.M. Forster, Benjamin Franklin, Sigmund Freud, Galileo, Matt Groening, Stephen Hawking, Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Jefferson, John Lennon, the Marquis de Sade, Carl Sagan, Sarah Silverman, Gertrude Stein, Howard Stern, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, and Frank Zappa.

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A033: The Happy Heretic

The Happy Heretic
by Judith Hayes

Judith Hayes has the unique ability to raise serious points while making us laugh as she throws buckets of cold water on the irrational beliefs and maddening inconsistencies that often characterize popular religion. She's at her best when recounting modern-day "miracles" such as the apparition of the Virgin Mary's face in a waffle at a Fresno diner; or when she describes how she started rubbing a stuffed penguin whenever she had the urge to pray, and got the same results. But there are also poignant stories about believing friends and acquaintances whose struggles with irrational beliefs in the face of perplexing dilemmas and personal tragedies are in many cases heartrending. She also devotes a chapter to explaining in clear, concise, layperson's terms exactly what humanism is and stands for, in particular extolling its tolerance. By turns funny, provocative, and touching, Judith Hayes is the perfect popular spokesperson for clear thinking and reason.

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A035: Honest Doubt

Honest Doubt - Essays on Atheism in a Beliving Society
by James A. Haight

Despite the prevalence of religious belief in the United States (nearly 200 million Americans belong to 350,000 congregations), a growing minority (14 percent) of U.S. adults identify with no religion whatsoever. Journalist James A. Haught addresses the secular segment of American society in this interesting collection of incisive essays that give voice to honest doubts about religious beliefs. Taken together, Haught’s essays endorse the idea that freedom of religion must include freedom to doubt as well as to believe. Individually, the articles present many different reasons to doubt.

Written in a straightforward conversational style that makes clear the many scientific, philosophical, and ethical difficulties that plague religion, Haught’s thought-provoking essays will appeal to atheists, agnostics, and anyone with questions about religion.
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A040: Philosophers Without Gods

Philosophers Without Gods:
Meditations On Atheism And The Secular Life.
Edited by Louise M. Antony

Atheists are frequently demonized as arrogant intellectuals, antagonistic to religion, devoid of moral sentiments, advocates of an "anything goes" lifestyle. Now, in this revealing volume, nineteen leading philosophers open a window on the inner life of atheism, shattering these common stereotypes as they reveal how they came to turn away from religious belief.

These highly engaging personal essays capture the marvelous diversity to be found among atheists, providing a portrait that will surprise most readers. Many of the authors, for example, express great affection for particular religious traditions, even as they explain why they cannot, in good conscience, embrace them. None of the contributors dismiss religious belief as stupid or primitive, and several even express regret that they cannot, or can no longer, believe. Perhaps more important, in these reflective pieces, they offer fresh insight into some of the oldest and most difficult problems facing the human mind and spirit. For instance, if God is dead, is everything permitted? Philosophers Without Gods demonstrates convincingly, with arguments that date back to Plato, that morality is independent of the existence of God. Indeed, every writer in this volume adamantly affirms the objectivity of right and wrong.

Moreover, they contend that secular life can provide rewards as great and as rich as religious life. A naturalistic understanding of the human condition presents a set of challenges--to pursue our goals without illusions, to act morally without hope of reward--challenges that can impart a lasting value to finite and fragile human lives.

Collectively, these essays highlight the richness of atheistic belief--not only as a valid alternative to religion, but as a profoundly fulfilling and moral way of life.

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A065: God - The Failed Hypothesis

God - The Failed Hypothesis: How Science shows That God Does Not Exist.
By Victor J. Stenger

Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology. In the meantime, science has sat on the sidelines and quietly watched this game of words march up and down the field. Despite the fact that science has revolutionised every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality. Physicist Victor J Stenger contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, Stenger examines all of the claims made for God's existence. He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God's influence in biology. He looks at human behaviour for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God's special creation. After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God.

"I leaned an enormous amount from this splendid book"
- Richard Dawkins

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A070: Infidel

Infidel: My Life
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today's most admired and controversial political figures. She burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened she would be next.

An international bestseller, her life story INFIDEL shows the coming of age of this elegant, distinguished -- and sometimes reviled -- political superstar and champion of free speech. Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright, curious, dutiful little girl evolves into a pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no other book could be more timely, or more significant.

"Remarkable...Infadel shows that a determined woman can change more history than her own"
Christopher Hitchens, Sunday Times

UK Paperback, £2.00 p&p

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