In Defence of Atheism
Subtitle: the Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam
Publisher: Profile
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 298
ISBN-13: 9781847656377; 9781852429935
Subjects: Atheism; Religion; Controversial literature; Monotheism; Christianity; Theocracy
Description: In the twenty-first century, religion is making a comeback, bringing in its wake extremism of all kinds. From Christian anti-abortion campaigns to suicide bombers claiming the righteousness of Islam, we are witnessing a resurgence of fundamentalism. Michel Onfray's response to the threat of a post-modern theocracy is to lay down the principles of an authentic atheism: exposing the fiction that is God, he proposes instead a new philosophy of reason that celebrates life and humanity. In Defence of Atheism demonstrates that organised religion is motivated by worldly, historical and political powe.
Notes: 3. Yellow stars and Muslim tattoos.
Table of contents: title: Cover Page; Title page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; Preface; Introduction; Part One: Atheology; I. Odyssey of the Freethinkers; 1. God is still breathing; 2. Seeking a name for freethinkers; 3. The fruits of antiphilosophy; 4. Theology and its fetishes; 5. Naming infamy; II. Atheism and the Escape from Nihilism; 1. The invention of atheism; 2. Planned obscurity; 3. Philosophical earthquake; 4. Teaching the case for atheism; 5. Plate tectonics; III. Toward an Atheology; 1. Spectrum of nihilism; 2. A Judeo-Christian epistemology; 3. Vestiges of empire; 4. Garden-grown torture.; title: 5. On Christian ignorance6. Christian atheism; 7. A postmodern atheism; 8. Atheist Manifesto takes on three challenges; Part Two: Monotheisms; I. The Tyranny of Afterlives; 1. Monotheism's somber vision; 2. Down with intelligence!; 3. Litany of taboos; 4. Obsession with purity; 5. Respecting the body; II. Bonfires of the Intelligence; 1. Producing the holy books; 2. The book's bias against books; 3. Hatred of science; 4. Negation of matter; 5. Bakeshop ontology; 6. Epicurus: not an enthusiast for Hosts; 7. Forever missing the boat; III. Seeking the Opposite of the Real.; title: 1. Inventing the afterlife2. Birds of Paradise; 3. Seeking the opposite of the real; 4. Solving the woman problem; 5. Celebration of castration; 6. Down with foreskins!; 7. God loves the maimed; Part Three: Christianity; I. The Construction of Jesus; 1. Enter the forgers; 2. Hysteria crystallized; 3. Catalysis of the miraculous; 4. Construction outside history; 5. Tissues of contradictions; II. The Pauline Contamination; 1. Ravings of a hysteric; 2. Infecting the world with neuroses; 3. A weakling's revenge; 4. In praise of slavery; 5. At war with intelligence.; title: III. The Christian Totalitarian State1. Hysteria (continued); 2. Constantine's coup d'état; 3. From victims to victimizers; 4. In the name of law; 5. Vandalism, autos-da-fé, and the culture of death; Part Four: Theocracy; I. Selective Exploitation of the Texts; 1. Historical extraterritoriality; 2. Twenty-seven centuries in the making; 3. Monotheistic grab bag; 4. Cherry-picking the scriptures; 5. The whip and the other cheek; 6. Hitler, Saint John's disciple; 7. Allah's problems with logic; 8. Roster of contradictions; 9. Everything and its opposite; 10. Contextualization and sophistry.; title: II. In the Service of the Death Fixation2. The Jewish invention of holy war; 3. God, Caesar & Co.; 4. Christian anti-Semitism; 5. The Vatican admired Adolf Hitler; 6. Hitler admired the Vatican; 7. Christianity and National Socialism: points in common; 8. Wars, fascisms, and other pursuits; 9. Jesus at Hiroshima; 10. Love of one's neighbor (continued); 11. Colonialism, genocide, ethnocide; 12. Repressions and the death fixation; 1. Selective bones of contention; III. Toward a Post-Christian Secular Order; 1. Muslim thirst for blood; 2. The local as universal.