The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Hardcover)

~ Tom Flynn (Editor), Richard Dawkins (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a most valuable addition to all existing encyclopedias of religion because it offers the calmly argued perspective of contemporary freethinkers, atheists and secular humanists." -- -International Review of Biblical Studies, Vol. 54, 2007-08

Product Description

Successor to the highly acclaimed Encyclopedia of Unbelief (1985), edited by the late Gordon Stein, the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America’s fastest growing minority: those who live without religion. All-new articles by the field’s foremost scholars describe and explain every aspect of atheism, agnosticism, secular humanism, secularism, and religious skepticism. Topics include morality without religion, unbelief in the historicity of Jesus, critiques of intelligent design theory, unbelief and sexual values, and summaries of the state of unbelief around the world. More than 130 respected scholars and activists worldwide served on the editorial advisory board and over 100 authoritative contributors have written in excess of 500 entries.

In addition to covering developments since the publication of the original edition, the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief includes a larger number of biographical entries and much-expanded coverage of the linkages between unbelief and social reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, including the labor movement, woman suffrage, anarchism, sex radicalism, and second-wave feminism.

The distinguished contributors—philosophers, scientists, scholars, and Nobel Prize laureates—include Robert Alley, Joe Barnhart, David Berman, Sir Hermann Bondi, Vern L. Bullough, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Dennett, Paul Edwards, Barbara Ehrenreich, Antony Flew, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Peter Hare, Van Harvey, Susan Jacoby, Paul Kurtz, Richard Leakey, Gerd Lüdemann, Michael Martin, Martin E. Marty, Kai Nielsen, Steven Pinker, Robert M. Price, Richard Rorty, John R. Searle, Peter Singer, Ibn Warraq, Steven Weinberg, George A. Wells, David Tribe, Sherwin Wine, and many others.

With a foreword by evolutionary biologist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins, this unparalleled reference work provides comprehensive knowledge about unbelief in its many varieties and manifestations.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 897 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (October 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591023912
• ISBN-13: 978-1591023913
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #683,562 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The "New" in the Title is Misleading , October 18, 2007

By	Santi Tafarella (california) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At minimum, an encyclopedia should: (1) convey accurate information; and (2) be written by contributors who are authorities in their fields. On these two scores, this encyclopedia succeeds. But I must confess my ambivalence for this volume. There is a great deal missing here that ought not to be, and there is a good deal of material included that is of questionable value. For example, somehow an "Encyclopedia of Unbelief" has managed to miss completely the great British poet, Phillip Larkin, and yet manages to give a full entry to Steve Allen, a mediocre American entertainer who happened to be an atheist. Also, Ayn Rand merits an entry (and rightly so), but she was surely not a novelist of the literary caliber of George Eliot. And yet Eliot fails to win an entry of her own (she is mentioned, briefly, in the article on British Literature and Unbelief). Likewise, Emily Dickinson gets only the briefest mention in the "American Literature and Unbelief" article, but receives no in-depth treatment. I'm sorry, but George Eliot and Emily Dickinson deserve far more space in such an encyclopedia than Steve Allen.

In terms of energy and entertainment value, the editor also made what I would regard as some fatal decisions. He decided not to include stand-alone entries concerning still-living non-believers, and he decided not to include internet references or contemporary atheist groups. This constitutes just pure timidity and laziness on his part. The effect of this is to give the volume the feeling of having been written in the 1980s, and not the 21st century. It thus gives off a dusty, historical, and non-contemporary feel. It is stupifying to open up a book purporting itself to be a "new" encyclopedia of unbelief, and being unable to find an entry for, say, "the flying spaghetti monster," or "richard dawkins." And even though there is an article on atheist periodicals, there is nothing on atheists on the internet. And even though you can find articles on literature and non-belief, somehow you can look far and wide for anything on film or contemporary pop culture and unbelief. in other words, this 21st century "new" encylopedia has missed the dominant art medium of our times (film), the dominant communication vehicle of our times (the internet), and the dominant cultural phenomenon of our times (capitalist pop culture). Non-belief is represented in all these spaces in ways interesting for academic study, and yet they are not included in a purportedly contemporary encyclopedia. My advice to the editor of future volumes: don't just listen to, or solicit articles from, academics over fifty. Spice it up. How about an entry by or about that fire-breathing atheist, Camille Paglia? She'd set some old geezers' knickers aflame if you set her loose on an entry titled, "sex and non-belief."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wide-ranging and illuminating, January 23, 2008

By	P. S. Braterman "Chemistry Professor" (Glasgow, Scotland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a contributor (article: Life, Origins of, and Unbelief) I may be biased, but I find this densely packed volume a surprisingly rich resource on topics as diverse as history, literature, science, biography, and even theology. Browsing through this volume, I have discovered among many other things an African-American literature going back to the 1770s, a witty and critical evaluation of David Hume (which I think David Hume himself would have enjoyed), a meticulously evenhanded account of ways in which believers can handle the problem of evil, a history of secular Judaism, and an analysis of the ever-popular myth of "deathbed conversion" that attaches itself to prominent unbelievers.

I am in two minds about the decision not to give direct references to web sites (although some are mentioned in the text). Such references may be convenient, but the resources referred to may disappear, or, worse, deteriorate in quality, and the articles themselves are of course a rich source of search terms.

At its current price, this impressively produced volume is probably beyond the reach of most readers, but would be a valuable addition to any library, and I look forward to the appearance of a paperback edition directed at the individual purchaser.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Encyclopedia worth of the name, January 22, 2008

By	Kenneth Burchell "Historian/Antiquarian scholar" (Pacific Northwest, North America) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book will prove highly useful to serious students and researchers as well as just those who want to learn more about the history of freethought. Omitted from the more critical reviews here on Amazon is the very important fact that each entry in this work is accompanied by an informed and very useful bibliography ie. other sources to pursue. While the one or two critics here have some useful points, no single-volume work can ever hope to be either comprehensive or exhaustive, nor does this volume claim to be.

However, while intellectual honesty requires that I disclose my own contribution to this book in the form of the entry on Thomas Paine, it is equally important to add that in close to 25 years of research, public history, and writing in the field of freethought history, democratic reform, and (yes) that most glorious agitator, Tom Paine, I know of no single work on its subject that even approaches THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNBELIEF for usefulness and scholarly integrity.

Yes, I have a copy at ready hand on the shelf and yes, I use it. And no, I did not, nor will I ever, receive so much as a penny for my contribution to it or for this review. With best wishes to you all.