life among the unbelievers

[adelaidesean]

Voices of Disbelief is (or soon will be) a book edited by Russell Blackford and Scottish bioethicist Udo Schuklenk containing statements and short essays by prominent atheists, humanists, and skeptics explaining why they do not believe in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim God or embrace any kind of religious belief.

I'm very excited to be one of them. My piece "Doctor Who and the Legacy of Rationalism" was accepted this week. Thanks to everyone in the community who helped with the research. A great deal of thought that went into it. My opinion of recent Who storylines has been somewhat mollified, as the essay in its final form will show. When it comes out (from Blackwell, probably next year) I'll post a much earlier draft here for anyone interested in comparing the two.

The editors were inspired to create the book by "the aggressive role currently being played by religious organisations and their leaders in attempting to impose their values, beliefs, and specifically religious moralities on others--whether the issues relate to gay rights, medical research, AIDS policy, the availability of abortion, and a whole range of others." If they can succeed in making the views of their contributors available to a large audience, then that can only be a good thing.



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Listening to: Gui Boratto - Beautiful Life

Comments

[mikandra.livejournal.com]

Good on you and congratulations. Wholeheartedly agree on the 'imposing values' statement.

And thanks for the book. I finished it and shall be buying vol 2 soon ;-)

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Thanks, my pleasure, and hurrah! :-)

Oh Lord, Help Thou My Unbelief

[http://claimid.com/graham (from livejournal.com)]

Good luck with the book. I'm very glad people are publishing this kind of material but I can't imagine it having a big effect on the religious - or even the undecided. In fact, I can't imagine anything having much effect until someone can give a palatable answer to the question, 'If there is no God, then what's the point?'

Loved the cartoon strip :-)

Re: Oh Lord, Help Thou My Unbelief

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

My answer to that question is "Why does there need to be a god for there to be a point?"

Red Meat rocks. :-)

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

It will indeed! (I wish.)

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

Yeah - while I applaud the sentiments I fear such books only preach to the converted. And let's not forget that not all religions espouse bigotry. (I'm a Buddhist, too, and being non-theists we already know there is no point!)

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

castigating religions for doing things that not all do...

And some non-religious philosophies indulge in too. I appreciate the difficulty. I do, however, feel that any teaching based on concepts that can't be examined via the scientific method is a potentially misleading way to view or deal with the world, and it's difficult to talk about such things without relying on umbrella terms like "religions" or "rationalism". I hope you'll understand that I'm not criticising you personally for being a Buddhist, nor the entire Buddhist philosophy.

[thanatosphere.livejournal.com]

And not only religions, either. There are plenty of bigoted rationalists out there. Some people don't need a philosophy to justify their crazy opinions, unfortunately.

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

Sure are:-(

[maelorin]

well, at least, no coherent philosophy to justify being incoherent and irrational in opinion and actions.

even the most extreme nut-job espouses philosophies of a sort - however demented or broken it seems to others.

amusingly, the louder they yell, the more incoherent and inane their babbling, the more obvious becomes their underlying fear, self-loathing and/or anger. at what is the only tricky bit.