Seven Types of Atheism

By: John Gray

Narrated by: James Langton

From the provocative author of Straw Dogs comes an incisive, surprising intervention in the political and scientific debate over religion and atheism

When you explore older atheisms, you will find that some of your firmest convictions - secular or religious - are highly questionable. If this prospect disturbs you, what you are looking for may be freedom from thought.

For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a shrill, narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood “science.” John Gray’s stimulating and enjoyable new book, Seven Types of Atheism, describes the complex, dynamic world of older atheisms, a tradition that is, he writes, in many ways intertwined with and as rich as religion itself.

Along a spectrum that ranges from the convictions of “God-haters” like the Marquis de Sade to the mysticism of Arthur Schopenhauer, from Bertrand Russell’s search for truth in mathematics to secular political religions like Jacobinism and Nazism, Gray explores the various ways great minds have attempted to understand the questions of salvation, purpose, progress, and evil. The result is a book that sheds an extraordinary light on what it is to be human.

©2018 John Gray (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Random biographies without much intellectual depth

The title suggests philosophical rigor but the substance was more cursory examinations of atheistic proponents. Very little exploration of their thought. Very well narrated and still somewhat interesting, but misleading title.