What Is Atheism?: A Short Introduction

An early entry in the atheist pantheon - early by the standards of most of today's pundits, that is, since it came out in the 1990s. The author is a philosopher, but before you run screaming for the hills, rest assured he writes accessibly, without a lot of jargon. He makes his arguments clearly, without larding on a lot of syllogisms or "equations" like so many philosophers do today. Some of the arguments he makes are weak, especially ones against the golden rule. There are things you can argue against, but the constant positing of masochism to argue against doing unto others is getting tired, to say the least. It isn't a great argument, so just drop it, please? Other than that, most of it was pretty standard fare, better argued than show more many of the atheist books, but still, it will probably fail to convince anyone not already convinced. These are standard arguments, many of them around for centuries, and so nothing particularly new. The best part is his philosophical justification of why atheism, why not just agnosticism? He does a good job on that. show less