A Manual for Creating Atheists
A Manual for Creating Atheists
“Peter Boghossian’s techniques of friendly persuasion are not mine, and maybe I'd be more effective if they were. They are undoubtedly very persuasive—and very much needed.”
—Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion
About the Book
For thousands of years, the faithful have honed proselytizing strategies and talked people into believing the truth of one holy book or another. Indeed, the faithful often view converting others as an obligation of their faith--and are trained from an early age to spread their unique brand of religion. The result is a world broken in large part by unquestioned faith. As an urgently needed counter to this tried-and-true tradition of religious evangelism, A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith--but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than twenty years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value critical thinking, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace rationality and reason.
About the Author(s)
Peter Boghossian is a full-time faculty member in Portland State University’s philosophy department. He was thrown out of the doctoral program in the University of New Mexico’s philosophy department. Michael Shermer (foreword by) is founder of The Skeptics Society and publisher of Skeptic magazine.
Details
ISBN: 9781939578099
Format: paperback
SRP: $14.95
Page count: 280 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: November 2013
More Praise
“A book so great you can skip it and just read the footnotes. Pure genius.”
—Christopher Johnson, co-founder, The Onion“Up to now, most atheists have simply criticized religion in various ways, but the point is to dispel it. In A Manual For Creating Atheists, Peter Boghossian fills that gap, telling the reader how to become a “street epistemologist” with the skills to attack religion at its weakest point: its reliance on faith rather than evidence. This book is essential for nonbelievers who want to do more than just carp about religion, but want to weaken its odious grasp on the world.”
—Jerry Coyne, author, Why Evolution Is True“If I started reading A Manual for Creating Atheists as a Christian I would have been an atheist by the time I finished it. Peter Boghossian’s book is the perfect companion to Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. They should be bundled like an atheist software package to reprogram minds into employing reason instead of faith, science instead of superstition.”
—Michael Shermer, publisher, Skeptic magazine (from the foreword to A Manual for Creating Atheists)“Boghossian has provided an indispensable chart book for all of us who must navigate the rising sea of magical thinking that is inundating America today.”
—Victor Stenger, Ph.D., author, God: The Failed Hypothesis and God and the Atom
Related Titles
About the Book
Everybody is wrong about God, and the error is one of the most consequential ever made by humankind. No corner of the world has been untouched by religious violence or conflict. The problem is the very idea of theism, or belief in the existence of God, and, by extension, atheism, or nonbelief in the existence of God. Just as Nietzsche declared God dead more than a century ago, now is the time to declare atheism dead, too. As James A. Lindsay argues, theism has been so thoroughly and utterly discredited—philosophically, sociologically, and scientifically—that it no longer warrants serious consideration. With every argument for theism long since discredited, atheism has become little more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. Thus, engaging in interminable debate with religious believers about the existence of God has become exactly the wrong way for nonbelievers to try to deal with the misguided—and often dangerous—belief in a higher power. The key, Lindsay argues, is to stop that particular conversation. Demonstrating that whenever people say they believe in “God,” they are really telling us that they have certain psychological and social needs that they do not know how to meet, he directs the reader to more productive avenues of discussion and action. Only once nonbelievers understand this simple point, and drop the very label of atheist, will they be able to change the way we all think about, talk about, and act upon the troublesome notion called “God.”
About the Author(s)
James A. Lindsay holds degrees in physics and mathematics, with a doctorate in the latter. He has authored two previous books, including Dot, Dot, Dot: Infinity Plus God Equals Folly. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Peter Boghossian (foreword by) is author of A Manual for Creating Atheists.
Details
ISBN: 9781634310369
Format: paperback
SRP: $15.95
Page count: 224 pages
Trim size: 6 x 9
Pub date: December 2015