Do you think of atheists as immoral pessimists who live their lives without meaning, purpose, or values? Think again! 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.

Atheology is the intellectual effort to understand atheism, defend the reasonableness of unbelief, and support nonbelievers in their encounters with religion. This book presents a historical overview of the development of atheology from ancient thought to the present day. It offers in-depth examinations of four distinctive schools of atheological thought: rationalist atheology, scientific atheology, moral atheology, and civic atheology. John R. Shook shows how a familiarity with atheology’s complex histories, forms, and strategies illuminates the contentious features of today’s atheist and secularist movements, which are just as capable of contesting each other as opposing religion. The result is a book that provides a disciplined and philosophically rigorous examination of atheism’s intellectual strategies for reasoning with theology. Systematic Atheology is an important contribution to the philosophy of religion, religious studies, secular studies, and the sociology and psychology of nonreligion.

Atheism Explained explores the claims made both for and against the existence of God. On the pro side: that the wonders of the world can only be explained by an intelligent creator; that the universe had to start somewhere; telepathy, out-of-body experiences, and other paranormal phenomena demonstrate the existence of a spirit world; and that those who experience God directly provide evidence as real as any physical finding. After disputing these arguments through calm, careful criticism, author David Ramsay Steele presents the reasons why God cannot exist: monstrous, appalling evils; the impossibility of omniscience; and the senseless concept that God is a thinking mind without a brain. He also explores controversial topics such as Intelligent Design, the power of prayer, religion without God, and whether a belief in God makes people happier and healthier. Steele’s rational, easy-to-understand prose helps readers form their own conclusions about this eternally thorny topic.

Caught between the beauty of his grandchildren and grief over a friend's death, Frank Schaeffer finds himself simultaneously believing and not believing in God--an atheist who prays. Schaeffer wrestles with faith and disbelief, sharing his innermost thoughts. He writes as an imperfect son, husband and grandfather whose love for his family, art and life trumps the ugly theologies of an angry God and the atheist vision of a cold, meaningless universe.

Atheism is a subject that draws a lot of controversy into today's society. People are now starting to doubt the existence of God because of all the advancements in modern science and technology that explain many of life's questions. With that being said, there is still a lot of confusion out there about atheism and what its belief system actually is. The only thing that people seem to know is that it is the disbelief in God, but it actually goes much deeper than that. In fact, there are different types of atheists who don't all act the same way about their disbelief. Some of them are open to new scientific evidence that proves them wrong while others are simply determined to not believe in God no matter what. In this book you will not only learn about the general concept of atheism and its effect on the world, but you will also learn about the different types of atheists as well. Religious followers tend to think of atheists as "devil worshippers" and other nonsensical things. The reality is atheists are just people who believe is something that is not supernatural or superhuman. The religious community only holds their "devil" belief about atheists because it contradicts their own religion. But what the religious community fails to realize is that there are many different religions and faiths in the world that all have their own belief system. The actions a person commits in one religion will be offensive to some other religion in the world. Therefore, there is no way to make people of all faiths happy and satisfied. There will always be some group of people out there who gets offended by what you belief and what you do. So if you want to be an atheist then no one should feel afraid to be open about it. Atheism won't even take much time out of your day because there are no churches or group organizations to go to worship atheist beliefs. Another reason this book was written was because atheists travel a very lonely road. Sure there are some forums on the internet where you can chat with other atheists, but in your regular life there is nowhere you can go to meet up with other atheists. After all, how many atheists do you know in your regular life? You could probably count the number on one hand. Fortunately, anyone can celebrate being an atheist by simply waking up in the morning and asking themselves what is real to them and what is not. If they are still convinced that God is not real then they will be satisfied with that belief and go about their day. This book on Atheism is not meant to ridicule or put down anyone else's faith. Instead, it was written to actually help people of all faiths to better understand atheism and the viewpoints of atheists around the world. The world is very diverse as it pertains to people's religious beliefs. Many of the wars taking place around the world are formed from the basis of these beliefs. Hopefully, this book will show people of all religions that there is another belief system out there that does not indoctrinate or persecute anyone. Contents: -Preface -My experience with god -What is atheism -Types of atheism -Atheist philosophies -Why god is evil -Morality vs. religion -Do you need religion to be nice -Atheist criticisms of religion -Proof that there is no god -Religious people are less intelligent than atheists -Nonsense from the bible -Reasons for being an atheist! Why choose atheism -Atheism in the USA -Conclusion

“[A] lucid and thoughtful book... In a spirit of reconciliation, Crane proposes to paint a more accurate picture of religion for his fellow unbelievers.” —James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review Contemporary debate about religion seems to be going nowhere. Atheists persist with their arguments, many plausible and some unanswerable, but these make no impact on religious believers. Defenders of religion find atheists equally unwilling to cede ground. The Meaning of Belief offers a way out of this stalemate. An atheist himself, Tim Crane writes that there is a fundamental flaw with most atheists’ basic approach: religion is not what they think it is. Atheists tend to treat religion as a kind of primitive cosmology, as the sort of explanation of the universe that science offers. They conclude that religious believers are irrational, superstitious, and bigoted. But this view of religion is almost entirely inaccurate. Crane offers an alternative account based on two ideas. The first is the idea of a religious impulse: the sense people have of something transcending the world of ordinary experience, even if it cannot be explicitly articulated. The second is the idea of identification: the fact that religion involves belonging to a specific social group and participating in practices that reinforce the bonds of belonging. Once these ideas are properly understood, the inadequacy of atheists’ conventional conception of religion emerges. The Meaning of Belief does not assess the truth or falsehood of religion. Rather, it looks at the meaning of religious belief and offers a way of understanding it that both makes sense of current debate and also suggests what more intellectually responsible and practically effective attitudes atheists might take to the phenomenon of religion.

In this book Michael Martin provides logical reasons for being an atheist. Carefully examining the current debate in Anglo-American analytic philosophy regarding God's existence, Martin presents a comprehensive critique of the arguments for the existence of God and a defense of arguments against the existence of God, showing in detail their relevance to atheism. Claiming that atheism is a rational position while theistic beliefs are not, he relies both on logic and evidence and confines his efforts to showing the irrationality of belief in a personal supreme being who is omniscient, omnipotent, perfect, and the creator of heaven and earth. The author's approach is two-fold. By presenting and criticizing arguments that have been advanced in favor of belief, he makes a case for "negative atheism." By offering arguments against atheism and defending it from these attacks, he presents a case for "positive atheism." Along the way, he confronts the views of numerous philosophers—among them Anselm, Aquinas, Plantinga, Hick, and Swinburne—and refutes both classical and contemporary arguments that have been advanced through the history of this debate. In his conclusion, Martin considers what would and would not follow if his main arguments were widely accepted, and he defines and distinguishes atheism from other "isms" and movements. Building on the work of religious skeptics and atheists of the past and present, he justifies his reconstruction of this philosophical dispute by citing some of the most interesting and important arguments for atheism and criticisms of arguments for the existence of God that have appeared in recent journal articles and have yet to be systematically addressed. Author note: Michael Martin is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University and author of several books, including The Legal Philosophy of H.L.A. Hart: A Critical Appraisal and The Case Against Christianity (both from Temple).