Atheist literature - recommend me a book

equivariant · 22-10-2014 10:13am #1

Assuming that one has read a fair chunk of the standard new atheist lit (Dawkins, Dennet, etc..), where to next?

For example, Susan Jacoby is someone I have never read - is this a terrible omission/admission? I would be particurlarly interested in recommendations for pre 20th century atheist literature, but anything that is good and a bit non mainstream would be great.

robindch · 22-10-2014 10:58am

Pre-20th century? Well, Gibbon's Decline and Fall is monumental and fascinating, but takes some effort to get into - I'd recommend getting an audiobook version in order to understand the delicious meter, then try the book itself, perhaps reading aloud, paying attention to commas and the subordinate clauses with which the text is liberally peppered.

Else, try printing out the first few pages of Chapter 15 which lacerates christianity with an irony which frequently verges upon the brutal:

http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap15.htm

Gibbon wrote:

A CANDID but rational inquiry into the progress and establishment of Christianity may be considered as a very essential part of the history of the Roman empire. While that great body was invaded by open violence, or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the Capitol. [...] But this inquiry, however useful or entertaining, is attended with two peculiar difficulties. The scanty and suspicious materials of ecclesiastical history seldom enable us to dispel the dark cloud that hangs over the first age of the church. The great law of impartiality too often obliges us to reveal the imperfections of the uninspired teachers and believers of the Gospel; [...] The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.

As are the three chapters which Gibbon devotes to the Emperor Julian:

http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap22.htm
http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap23.htm
http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap24.htm

Gibbon wrote:

While the Romans languished under the ignominious tyranny of eunuchs and bishops, the praises of Julian were repeated with transport in every part of the empire [...] The philosopher expressed a very reasonable wish that the disciple of Plato might have reposed amidst the groves of the Academy, while the soldier exclaimed, in bolder accents, that the ashes of Julian should have been mingled with those of Caesar, in the field of Mars, and among the ancient monuments of Roman virtue. The history of princes does not very frequently renew the example of a similar competition.

Michael OBrien · 22-10-2014 5:19pm

I found one of the best authors against 19th Century apologetics was Robert Ingersoll. You can also download his writings in audio book format too, for free, from librivox.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/156323.Robert_G_Ingersoll

equivariant · 22-10-2014 5:33pm

Actually, it was Ingersoll that prompted me to start this thread. I came across him recently and it occurred to me that there must be many other pre 20th century atheist writers that would be interesting toread

wretcheddomain · 23-10-2014 1:18am

The Holy Bible

Peregrinus · 23-10-2014 3:00am

Not pre-20th century, but still well before the "New Atheism"; Bertrand Russell published Why I am not a Christian in 1927.

Tom Paine wrote The Age of Reason between 1794 and 1807, but that's more anti-church than anti-theist.

And Shelley published The Necessity of Atheism in 1811. It's not, to be honest, a great text - he was only 19 when he wrote it, and it shows - and it's not much read today. It's chiefly remembered because it got him expelled from Oxford University, which indirectly led to him leaving the country and spending the rest of his life, as Blackadder so elequently puts it, "wandering around Italy in a big shirt trying to get laid".

Akrasia · 23-10-2014 10:50am

Again, not pre 20th century and not specifically about atheism, but 'Homage to Catalonia' by George Orwell is one of my favourite books and it touches on some of the politics and religion of the spanish civil war (and the emergence of fascism in the early 20th century)

Again, not pre-20th century and not specifically about atheism, but Upton Sinclair's book 'The Profits of Religion' is worth a read (bearing in mind that this is pre-soviet union so communist idealism ought not be tainted by the associations of today).
He is more famous for his book 'The Jungle' which is an excellent read. It was published in 1906 and it deals with the working conditions in the Meat packing industry in America. Sinclair was more or less an atheist who had a strong social conscience and wrote about political and economic inequality in early capitalist America

Misty Moon · 27-10-2014 1:17pm

A friend gave me a present of a book last year that I haven't yet gotten around to reading but which is supposed to be excellent. In English it's called Wicked Company: Freethinkers and Friendship in pre-Revolutionary Paris. The author is Philipp Blom. Here's the blurb:
"From the 1750s to the 1770s, the Paris salon of Baron d'Holbach was an epicenter of debate, intellectual daring and revolutionary ideas, uniting around one table vivid personalities from Denis Diderot, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, the radical ex-priest Guillaume Raynal, the Italian Count Beccaria and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who later turned against his friends.

It was a moment of astonishing racicalism in European thought, so uncompromising and bold that it was viciously opposed by rival philosophers such as Voltaire and the turncoat Rousseau, and finally suppressed by Robespierre and his Revolutionary henchmen.

In Wicked Company, acclaimed historian Philipp Blom retraces the fortunes and characters of this exceptional group of friends and brings to life their startling ideas, largely forgotten by historians. Brilliant minds full of wit, courage and humanity, their thinking created a different and radical French Enlightenment based on atheism, passion, empathy and a compellingly insightful perspective on society. Their ideas force us to confront the debates about our own society and its future with new eyes."

Atheist literature - recommend me a book

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