(posted on my blog: davenichols.net)

David Mills offers a fairly straight-forward atheistic argument against religiousity, pseudoscience, and judgmental moralism. A decent collection of atheist arguments, Atheist Universe presents a largely vanilla narrative to all but the most novice readers.

Mills presents his arguments in a bit of an odd fashion, jumping from subject to subject with little bridgework. While his arguments are sound, the writing is not terribly engaging or interesting. To anyone not experienced in reading the common atheist arguments, Universe may offer a nice introduction to many of the common thoughts. However, to anyone who has read most any popular work on the subject, there is little new here. Again, a decent introduction and survey of modern atheist arguments, but don't expect anything groundbreaking. Three and one-half stars. ( )

If one is reading extensively in the debates between atheists and believers, including the evolution / ID debate, this book is worth reading, but it's not one of the first that I'd recommend.

The book opens with an introduction dealing with the issue of whether daring to write such a book is an outrage. It then proceeds to a section of quotations from people who have criticized religion, and an interview with the author.

Some of the arguments, like the varying genealogies of Jesus are excellent. Others, like the appearance of age in the earth, miss the point a bit. Some Christians hold that God created the world to look older than it is. Arguing plate tectonics is not a terribly logical response, since they could simply argue that as God created the appearance of fossils, he also created the appearance of continental drift. His arguments against God creating such an illusion are a better argument.

Mills oddly enough ends with a chapter defending Internet porn. Its relationship to the rest of the book eludes me. It annoys me when people muddy their point be bringing in other issues. It narrows the appeal of an argument to require that people also believe in something that is very tangential. Is Mills trying to say that anyone who doesn't approve of Internet porn can't be an atheist or believe in evolution?

I am myself an atheistic believer in evolution, and I found this very off-putting. I also wish that Mills had maintained a slightly less sneering tone: I don't like smugness in atheists any more than I like it in believers.

I understand that a new, improved edition is being released. ( )

As an atheist, this book quickly became my "bible," and I learned quite a bit from reading it. I have a shelf full of atheist/agnostic books, but this one is one of my favorites. It is a good read for people that are already atheists, and a selling point for those that sit on the fence. ( )

David Mills takes on the farce that is religion and bashes every pro-religion argument. He is as vehement as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. He is also discusses how to raise critically thinking, atheistic children, as he is one of the few atheistic homeschoolers. ( )

Excellent and enthralling read for anyone looking to better their knowledge of basic Creationist arguments, and the debunks attached. ( )