Product Description

Atheism is often considered to be a negative, dark, and pessimistic belief which is characterised by a rejection of values and purpose and a fierce opposition to religion. Atheism: A Very Short Introduction sets out to dispel the myths that surround atheism and show how a life without religious belief can be positive, meaningful, and moral. It also confronts the failure of officially atheist states in the Twentieth Century. The book presents an intellectual case for atheism that rests as much upon positive arguments for its truth as on negative arguments against religion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #375278 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Review
`lively and readable...ideal for a popular audience...his very short introduction, which packs into a hundred pages a wealth of insight and argument, is itself a wonderful commitment to the rational thought which he defends' Richard Norman, New Humanist

About the Author

Julian Baggini is editor and co-founder of The Philosophers' Magazine.

Customer Reviews

A breath of fresh air
Julian Baggini's Very Short Introduction to Atheism was published just before the current "New Atheism" movement launched by Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens took off. The New Atheism has made a name for itself for two reasons: first, because its objections to theism are based primarily on an appeal to science (or what critics would call "scientism"); second, because of its polemical, frequently shrill, style. There's little appeal to philosophy (Harris is the partial exception to this), and none at all to theology (outside of simplistic fundamentalist faux-theology) made by the New Atheists.

Baggini doesn't display any more familiarity with theology than his New Atheist successors,* but he does know his philosophy, and his defense of atheism is tightly argued, soundly reasoned, and compellingly presented. He's more concerned with making a positive case for atheism than in trashing theism, and to that end he tries to show that atheism is ultimately grounded in a naturalism that values rational assessment of evidence and best explanations (abduction). Science may be one model, but it isn't the only model--thus Baggini avoids the scientistic criticism leveled against the New Atheists. Baggini also devotes a good deal of space to arguing that ethics is entirely possible without belief in God--he defends a deliberately flexible model that takes the best of virtue ethics, Kantian universalism, and utilitarian consequentialism--and that life can be purposeful even in a universe devoid of God or life after death.

Baggini's little book is really a prime model of what defences of atheism ought to be. He refuses to indulge in ad hominems or polemics, and his argumentation has the tight and refreshing compactness of the best of the philosophical analytic tradition. But Baggini is also obviously influenced by the existential tradition, and appeals to it especially in his discussions of godless ethics and godless purposefulness.

Highly recommended.
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* To his credit, though, he doesn't pretend, as do the New Atheists, that fundamentalist rantings are identical to theology. Thus he avoids the strawmanning that they frequently fall into.

All the point are there
Good introduction, most of the point can be found on the web but it's good to see them all together in a little book.

decent introduction
Ultimately, Baggini seems more interested in defending atheists as people than in explaining why they don't believe. Baggini defends atheism against charges that it is immoral, amoral and meaningless. But he doesn't really get into arguments for atheism, other than a few comments about reason vs. superstition. For example, I would have liked to see a bit more on "god of the gaps" and the slow, steady debunking of most of the "truths" of the Bible.