NOTE: This post was written by a onetime Atheism is Dead (True Freethinker’s predecessor) contributor named Josh.
I am a book aficionado. I have a large collection that encircles the room vaguely ordered by topic and author, numerically proportioned by my interest in the topic (who would have guessed?). Along with my “real” job, I work part-time at a bookstore. While not as romantic as it sounds, I do get an inside track to many forthcoming books of relative importance to the topics kicked around here that I would not have otherwise come into contact with before publication. That being said, I’m providing a small list of titles that y’all want to keep a watchful eye on. I may make this a reoccurring entry depending on my vigilance and your interest. So here we go…
Future of Atheism: Alister McGrath and Daniel Dennett in Dialogue
Love ’em or hate ’em, McGrath and Dennett are two of the most gentlemanly participants in the recent flurry of religious debate. Dennett is an established philosopher, having added significant ideas to philosophy of mind, language and evolution.
McGrath is beginning to make a name for himself as well. He has debated Hitchens and Dawkins, and outside of apologetics has blazed a trail through some sticky areas in theology.
Now, this book is a transcript of a debate that has already taken place, but for the 99.99% of us who aren’t familiar with this meeting ought to find this book a great addition to their library.
The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism by Edward Feser
This book is tentatively making me curious. I had read his stuff on the great libertarian F.A. Hayek way before I knew about this book. I enjoy his writing style, but this appears to be his initiatory foray into the world of atheism. We can be a little skeptical of him until we get our hands on it, but I will remind you that the next great entry in this debate is always around the corner. I am reminded of how little most Americans knew of Christopher Hitchens before that little screed of his hit the bookshelves, and Feser seems witty, enthusiastic and greatest of all, philosophically trained. The little blurb by Beckwith is annoyingly tantalizing–
“There have been largely two types of critics of the `New Atheism.’ One type grants the empiricism of the atheists and then tries to show that belief in God is consistent with it. This approach gives away the store by removing God from the realm of the knowable. The second also grants the atheists’ empiricism, but argues that it leads to the detection of design in the universe and thus the existence of God. This approach gives away the store as well, by limiting knowledge to the empirically detectable. Professor Feser offers us a third approach, one that is far more effective in defeating the New Atheism. He provides persuasive arguments that show that God is knowable and that what is knowable is larger than the set of that which is empirically detectable. This is a tour de force that should be in the library of every thinking citizen, believer or unbeliever.”
Society Without God by Phil Zuckerman
Normally these kinds of books slide under my nose without the least bit of a whiff from me. A few things stick out, however. It is published by NYU Press which tends to put out absolutely fantastic work. I heard from an insider that their peer-review is devastating, so we ought to at least see unreligion dressed up in a scholarly uniform. Next, this appears to be the only popular level book that delves into the “other” atheistic countries. We all hear loads about theocracies in Iran and America, and atheists in China and Russia, but what of the Danes?
This book will end up being an apology for atheistic socialism/liberalism which I guarantee will oversimplify matters economic and social, but look for this to be a sleeper in the atheists repertoire.
The Character of Consciousness by David Chalmers
Ok, for those of you not in the know, Chalmers is the fellow that changed the way we talk about consciousness. He baptized the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”, wrote a wildly successful book…and then didn’t write anything for twelve years. He gave us life-changing zingers like:
The process of natural selection cannot distinguish between me and my zombie twin.
Anyway, I really have no idea what this book is going to be about, but his last book gave many of us the motivation to delve into consciousness studies and say maybe consciousness WAS designed.
Even so, David Chalmers, come back soon.
The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology Ed. by Craig and Moreland
Here it is, the golden grail. This promises to be the ultimate resource of theistic arguments in one volume. The roster is an all-star team of young, emerging scientific and philosophical stars. Let me plug two of the essays that will come in the package- the Argument from Reason by Vic Reppert and the Leibnizian Cosmological Argument by Alexander Pruss. These are thought-provoking arguments that have flown under the radar is standard volumes on philosophy of religion.
Craig really has found the best of the best here. I can’t think of better defenders of any of these arguments save the Ontological Argument. It would’ve been nice to see Plantinga writing on it, but it seems that he is getting to old for this kind of thing and he has found a spiritied disciple. I trust Craig’s judgment. Listen to Craig’s description of the book here, and add that thing to your wish list (200$ price tag notwithstanding [since Josh wrote this you can get used ones for $130 or so]).
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