From the provocative author of Straw Dogs comes an incisive,
surprising intervention in the political and scientific debate over
religion and atheism
When you explore older atheisms, you will find that some of your
firmest convictions―secular or religious―are highly questionable. If
this prospect disturbs you, what you are looking for may be freedom from
thought.
For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a shrill,
narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood
"science." John Gray's stimulating and enjoyable new book, Seven Types
of Atheism, describes the complex, dynamic world of older atheisms, a
tradition that is, he writes, in many ways intertwined with and as rich
as religion itself.
Along a spectrum that ranges from the convictions of "God-haters" like
the Marquis de Sade to the mysticism of Arthur Schopenhauer, from
Bertrand Russell's search for truth in mathematics to secular political
religions like Jacobinism and Nazism, Gray explores the various ways
great minds have attempted to understand the questions of salvation,
purpose, progress, and evil. The result is a book that sheds an
extraordinary light on what it is to be human.
