Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful New Work, November 23, 2000
Once again we are fortunate enough to have a new book from the formidable George H. Smith, one of the greatest free-thinkers of our day. Both of his previous works were excellent, and "Why Atheism?" does not dissapoint. Smith marshals his great learning and wit to deal with a number of important issues surrounding atheism, religious belief, history, ethics, and philosophy. Although he is treading on largely familiar ground, there is little overlap between this effort and his earlier volumes. Smith begins by discussing the credibility and methodology of atheism, and continues on to examine the relationship of belief with doubt, knowledge, and free will. A great deal of attention is devoted to the history of ideas and those who developed them. Such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, Benedict Spinoza, and Arthur Schopenhauer, to name a few, are discussed at length. In addition to a chaper paying tribute to the philosophers of the seventeenth century, two others are devoted to a fascinating survey of the roots of modern ideas of atheism and secularism. Objectivists and others interested in Ayn Rand's philosophy should be particularly interesting in his discussion of Rand's theory of knowledge. Drawing on the work of Rand's supposed "successor" Leonard Peikoff, Smith rejects the Objectivist theory of contextual certainty in favor of a more traditional variant of correspondence theory. While each chapter is highly stimulating and informative, I particularly enjoyed those which dealt with the lifestyle of the philosopher, the Ontological argument for God's existence, and the atheistical view of death. The penultimate chapter as well, in which Smith discusses several "irreverent" aspects of the concept of God, was highly entertaining, despite, but perhaps because of, the response that it will inspire from the theistic reader. The book is written in a clear, logical, and lucid prose that is no doubt a reflection of Smith's great talent for communication. While the discussion is kept at a consistently sophisticated level, the intelligent reader should have no trouble keeping up. All in all, "Why Atheism?" is a wonderful book, well worth the attention of anyone interested in the nature, history, and philosophy of nonbelief.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice Sequel on Atheism., August 3, 2001
I was first introduced to the author Mr. George H. Smith way back when he was Editor & Chief of Reason Magazine. I purchased his first book called, "Atheism: The Case Against God." It was brilliantly written. May I suggest perchasing this book first. In Why Atheism, Smith, often refers back to philosophies in his first book Atheism: The Case Against God, however, luckly, even though he expects you to have read that book, he still enlightens the reader to his old text, via a short review. The impression I got from Why Atheism was that Smith still had a few things to say about justification of being an Atheist. Why Atheism's concept was very straight forward. Smith wanted to give Atheists a leg to stand on while combating the endless war of being moral even though you're an atheist. Theists believe, through religious propaganda, that all atheists have no morals. This is not true in any way shape or form. Smith explains that the burden of proof is on the theist to prove that God exists. It's not the burden of proof for the atheist to prove that God does not exist. Smith breaks everything down very nicely for the reader. He explains that we must first give God some meaning or definition. In other words, we must first understand what exactly is God. Then if the theist cannot explain what God is, then how can he or she expect the atheist to understand what the theist is talking about. Smith goes on and explains how to view death as an atheist, hwo to live a good life as an atheist, and most improtantly how to use reason as a means to live your life. I say well done Smith! I'm also going to purchase his last book called, "Atheism, Ayn Rand, and other Heresies. Probably as soon as I'm done writing this review. Buy the book, he's ahead of his time...Regards Fellow Atheists....Another book worth reading is Atheism: A Philosophical Justification By Mr. Micheal Martin.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Roots of Modern Atheism, January 15, 2001
The book starts out on a fun tone, establishing the rules of the game, going over material that has been covered many places but is there just in case the reader is new to non-belief. For instance, Smith treats at considerable length the difference between positive, impossible to prove atheism ("There is no God") and negative, standard atheism ("I don't believe in God") in order to counter the common attack that atheism is logically impossible. It is this sort of discussion that brings out the conversational strength of Smith's writing.The bulk of the book is philosophy and history of philosophy. Fascinating, fun and well-developed, but its depth took me by surprise and was sometimes, for this reader, sluggish reading that dwelled on minutae too often. He discusses what it means to have "faith," how "faith" differs from knowledge, and the processes that define how, what, and why we should believe. He does this in a measured pace that goes from the Greeks through Aquinas, Augustine, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, and, of course, Hume. Through this he develops the "History of Modern Atheism." As a previous reviewer mentioned, the second-to-last chapter may be the funnest, called "Irreverent questions about God." (Is God an atheist? --He doesn't believe in a power higher than himself. He doesn't believe in a "first cause" that made him.) It is fun, at least a little, because of the angry responses that it will evoke from a theist. The style of easy sections, short chapters, and the lengthy explanatory notes for the interested reader at the chapters' end (rather than in the text itself), make it an easy read that you can finish in a couple of days. If you are looking for a philosophical and historical trek celebrating how far we've come in the realm of free-thought, this book is a good one. Be careful, though, if you are looking for developed arguments for atheism or reasons to consider atheism (as the title might just suggest), try Smith's former book (Atheism: The Case Against God) instead.
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