num_pages: 336
description: The historical achievements of religious belief have been large and well chronicled. But what about the accomplishments of those who have challenged religion? Traveling from classical Greece to twenty-first century America Imagine Theres No Heaven explores the role of disbelief in shaping Western civilization. At each juncture common themes emerge: by questioning the role of gods in the heavens or the role of a God in creating man on earth nonbelievers help move science forward. By challenging the divine right of monarchs and the strictures of holy books nonbelievers including Jean- Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot help expand human liberties and influence the early founding of the United States. Revolutions in science in politics in philosophy in art and in psychology have been led on multiple occasions by those who are free of the constraints of religious life. Mitchell Stephens tells the often-courageous tales of historys most important atheists like Denis Diderot and Salman Rushdie. Stephens makes a strong and original case for their importance not only to todays New Atheist movement but to the way many of usbelievers and nonbelieversnow think and live.
language: English
title: Imagine There's No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World
publisher: St. Martin's Press