Clarence Darrow, the famous American lawyer of the twenties, talks about his views and opinions concerning religion in these three essays.
Table of Contents:
Publisher’s Preface; Facing Life Fearlessly; The Pessimistic Versus The Optimistic view Of Life; Absurdities Of The Bible; Haldeman-julius Publications Girard, Kansas; Why I Am An Agnostic
About the Publisher:
Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org
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About this product: Agnosticism - the philosophical argument that it is impossible to know whether God exists or not - has been the point of view of many distinguished thinkers from the 19th century to the present. In contrast to atheism, which asserts that God does not exist, agnosticism holds that reason and the best scientific evidence do not allow one to reach a decisive conclusion regarding the existence of God. This reader prints selections of some of the most profound and pioneering discussions of agnosticism over the past two centuries. Beginning with early formulations of the agnostic perspective by Thomas Henry Huxley (who coined the term), Bertrand Russell, and others, editor S. T. Joshi shows how agnosticism received a strong boost in the later 19th century from the so-called higher criticism of the Bible. Selections from Edward Burnett Tylor, Arthur Schopenhauer, Robert G. Ingersoll, and Edward Westermarck made a strong case that religion was a natural product of primitive development and that the Bible was the product of an age of scientific ignorance and superstition. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Christianity in Europe was in a state of decline among the intellectual classes. The writings of W. E. H. Leckey, Leslie Stephen, and Walter Lippmann show that leading commentators were openly pondering a European society in which Christianity was a thing of the past. The increasing success of the natural sciences during this same time period supported the agnostic viewpoint by accounting for phenomena on a natural, rather than a supernatural, basis. Selections from John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Isaac Asimov, and others demonstrate the scientific respectability of agnosticism. Finally, selections from such thinkers as Frederic Harrison, H. L. Mencken, and Corliss Lamont emphasise how living with agnosticism can be intellectually and morally satisfying, even exhilarating. Overall, "The Agnostic Reader" shows how agnosticism can provide a framework for living with courage and dignity.
About this product: Do you think that the Ten Commandments are a valid source of morality? Before you say yes, read pages 205-217. Do you believe that the Christian doctrine of Salvation is a fair and just plan initiated by a god? Read pages 322-331 for a very different view.
This book expresses some very harsh criticisms of religion which are based, not on historical or scientific incompatibilities, but on the intrinsic value of religious doctrines in themselves. It is an unusual approach seldom seen -- at least by this reviewer.
About this product: "I believe passionately that christianity is a way of life, not a theological system with which one must be in intellectual agreement..." Thus the author takes many Christian beliefs/doctrines and discusses them from a minimalist point of view, making a strong case that loyalty to and love for Christ and his spirit go hand in hand with a rejection of much theological dogma and creed. Traditionalists may be shocked! Highly recommended! This, along with C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity," ought to be required reading for all Christians.
About this product: Is there a good God? And if there is, has that God revealed anything of significance to us? Philosophers pondering these two questions have automatically assumed that the first must be answered before the second. But Sandra Menssen and Thomas Sullivan argue philosophically -- that is, without reliance on divine revelation -- that unless the content of revelatory claims has been considered, it is a mistake to deny the existence of God.
The Agnostic Inquirer presents a clear, analytical argument that without reflection on the content of revelatory claims, atheists and agnostics are missing a large part of the relevant database for establishing the existence of God, and many theists are working with an impoverished database in trying to explain the foundations of their faith.
About this product: Kenny writes By profession I am a philosopher: and in the present century philosophers in this country have been keen to emphasise not only the difficulty of stating God's will on particular issues but the difficulty for human beings of saying anything intelligible at all about the nature of God. It is probably true to say that the majority of philosophers in this country in the last fifty years have been atheists of one kind or another. In his masterly introduction, Kenny explains the autobiographical background to this important new book. For some years, Kenny was a Roman Catholic priest, he lost his faith and resigned from the priesthood. This was something of a cause celebre and Kenny gave a full account of this development in his book The Path From Rome. But, as this book demonstrates, he has never been able to let go of God and he continues to struggle with the intellectual problems of theism and the possibility of believing in God, especially in an intellectual climate dominated by Logical Positivism. In this book Kenny revisits the Five Ways of Aquinas and argues that they are not so much proofs as definitions of God. He is also in constant dialogue with Wittgenstein for, Kenny writes, no man in recent years has surpassed him in devotion of sharp intelligence to the demarcation of the boundary between sense and nonsense. This is an important book from a major philosopher and will be widely and favourably reviewed.
About this product: Robert Ingersoll is not only one of our greatest american authors but a true free thinker of our time. In Why I Am An Abnostic, he goes into great detail on the faults and fallacies of modern christianity. He brings a new perspective to this sometimes tiring subject, and sheds some light on the subject of religion.
About this product: "I believe passionately that christianity is a way of life, not a theological system with which one must be in intellectual agreement..." Thus the author takes many Christian beliefs/doctrines and discusses them from a minimalist point of view, making a strong case that loyalty to and love for Christ and his spirit go hand in hand with a rejection of much theological dogma and creed. Traditionalists may be shocked! Highly recommended! This, along with C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity," ought to be required reading for all Christians.
“Who knows if there’s a God? There’s us, now, and caterpillars and other insects and mulch. So thinks Stephen Wirth as he watches his marriage collapse. Between bouts of alcoholism and attempts to restore a fleet of decrepit boats, Stephen does his best to help his daughters cope with their mother having fallen in love with another woman. But growing up and making sense of the world is something the girls must do on their own, just as for their mother there is no easy way around building a new life. Set on Long Island, The Agnostics follows the Wirths through several decades as they struggle to redefine themselves and their idea of family.
Painting with a fine and delicate brush, Wendy Rawlings reveals her characters’ lives as a series of discrete moments, illuminating the intimate story of one American middle-class family.
“Already an accomplished stylist, Rawlings has given us a first novel that is at once delicate and intense. The characters are so finely engraved and their passions so recognizable, the river of their daily lives runs so broad and deep, in the end we feel not that we have merely read about them but that we have lived with them, side by side. A poignant, exquisitely focused book.” —Sigrid Nunez, author of The Last of Her Kind
Ronald Aronson has a mission: to demonstrate that a life without religion can be coherent, moral, and committed. Optimistic and stirring, Living Without God is less interested in attacking religion than in developing a positive philosophy for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, skeptics, and freethinkers. Aronson proposes contemporary answers to Immanuel Kant’s three great questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope? Grounded in the sense that we are deeply dependent and interconnected beings who are rooted in the universe, nature, history, society, and the global economy, Living Without God explores the experience and issues of 21st-century secularists, especially in America. Reflecting on such perplexing questions as why we are grateful for life’s gifts, who or what is responsible for inequalities, and how to live in the face of aging and dying, Living Without God is also refreshingly topical, touching on such subjects as contemporary terrorism, the war in Iraq, affirmative action, and the remarkable rise of Barack Obama.
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