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Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism
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| Part No: | 1569755671 |
| Manufacturer: | Ulysses Press |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.5 / 5.0 |
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- ISBN13: 9781569755679
- Condition: New
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Clear, concise, and persuasive, Atheist Universe details exactly why God is unnecessary to explain the universe and life's diversity, organization, and beauty. The author thoroughly rebuts every argument that claims to "prove" God's existence arguments based on logic, common sense, philosophy, ethics, history and science. Atheist Universe avoids the esoteric language used by philosophers and presents its scientific evidence in simple lay terms, making it a richly entertaining and easy-to-read introduction to atheism. A comprehensive primer, it addresses all the historical and scientific questions, including: Is there proof that God does not exist? What evidence is there of Jesus' resurrection? Can creation science reconcile scripture with the latest scientific discoveries? Atheist Universe also answers ethical issues such as: What is the meaning of life without God? It's a spellbinding inquiry that ultimately arrives at a controversial and well-documented conclusion.
| Thought-Provoking (for Believers) and Entertaining (for Everyone Else) | 2010-08-31 | 5 / 5 |
| This is a comprehensive book, written in a casual tone, to help put things into perspective for believers and non-believers alike. While old-time free-thinkers might not find much new here in terms of material, it's still a good narrative of another free-thinker's views on the matter of religion none-the-less (in case you find yourself feeling alone and perhaps going crazy at times trying to reason against those of hysteria).
Some other similar good books I'd recommend here are: "How We Know What Isn't So" by Gilovich, "Jesus Interrupted" by Ehrman, and "50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God" by Guy P. Harrison. |
| Excellent Counter Arguments for Fundamentalism | 2010-07-27 | 4 / 5 |
| As a fairly recent de-convert from Christianity, I gravitate toward blogs, books and other media that address the arguments for and against religious belief. I've read several books by notable authors such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, which helped me on the road to de-conversion. I blog regularly about atheism and religion on my site, [...].
I recently finished yet another book about Atheism; Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Fundamentalist Christianity by David Mills. I hadn't heard of David Mills prior to reading the book, thus had little idea of what to expect from this work.
I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. David takes a no-nonsense approach to the subject of Fundamentalist Christianity, Creation "Science" and the Intelligent Design Movement. He states the argument that is given in support of these ideas, and proceeds to deconstruct the argument using logical reasoning.
He tackles the anthropic principle which assumes that they universe was created with humans in mind, rather than humans evolving to fit the environment. He also delves into the first cause argument, which states that everything in existence had to have a cause, thus the universe had to have a creator, as opposed to the notion that the universe does not necessarily have a beginning or an end.
Everything from evolution to morality is discussed by David, in a way that even someone who is wholly unfamiliar with scientific principles can understand.
I highly recommend this book to any believer with one foot out of the door of Fundamentalism, or a non-believer who engages in debate and discussion about Christianity and its relationship with science and the origins of the universe.
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| A `C' Grade Atheist Polemic | 2010-07-26 | 1 / 5 |
| From reading the blurb that this was a `simple, straightforward and logical rebuttal to God's existence', I was initially excited by thought of a robust challenge to my faith. But how sorely disappointed I was to become!
The first chapter is a purported transcript of an interview between the author and a creationist.
Nowhere are any details given of the interview, which lead me to believe that it is fraudulent. It is constructed in such a way that the interviewer comes across as a scientific ignoramus, and Mills as a quick witted scientific genius that annihilates the religious bigotry of the asinine Christian interviewer. The whole `interview' seems just far too scripted to be genuine.
It is clear to me that the whole 40 monotonous pages (I'm not exaggerating either, 40 pages of a fabricated interview!) are nothing more than a dishonest ploy to portray himself the `crème de la crème' of the anti-religious atheists, quick witted and devastatingly shrewd and incisive.
Mills then moves on to defending atheism against charges of `atheistic inspired crimes'. He makes the bold assertion that it is "indisputable" that more deaths have occurred in the name of religion historically, than from atheism.
But the only way that he can justify this patently false claim is by totally ignoring vast deaths over the last century alone which were caused by anti-religious dictators such as Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao ect, which number well over 100 million deaths.
Mills then precedes to looses all credibility when he makes a whole series of utterly ridiculous claims that would leave most sane people scratching their heads.
He starts with actually claiming that Galileo was almost put to death for inventing the telescope and discovering the moons of Jupiter!
He bizarrely claims to intimately know the pain and suffering that blacks, gays and Hispanics experience from racial and homophobic prejudice because of his atheism!
In a hilarious attempt at desperately distancing himself from anything religious, He seriously states that atheists actually celebrate winter solstice, not Christmas!
He even claims that computers have a conscience and are thus conscious of events!
After stressing the fact that nothing could have existed prior to the Big Bang he then contradicts himself three pages later by saying that "mass-energy...existed prior to the Big Bang"! He shows no qualm whatsoever in blatantly contradicting himself when it suits him rather than admitting that his utopia of an "Atheist Universe" has deep flaws.
Mills reaches the penultimate of absurdities when he tables his argument that internet porn, in all it's vast and various disgusting perversions, is perfectly acceptable for not just adolescent boys and girls, but, believe it or not, even little children! He seriously believes that because young children are sexually inactive that there is absolutely no harm in them watching porn!
I find it incredible that this man even got this book published, let alone got a blurb form Dawkins calling it an "admirable work"! I seriously doubt that Dawkins was sober when he made that comment!
When discussing the existence of God, Mills correctly points out that the rules of logic place the burden of proof on the affirmative position; that God does exist.
But when the tables are turned so that a position instead burdens him with having to provide the proof, he just totally dodges the question.
Such as when the question is asked of his position; `if there is no creator god, then why and how is there something rather than nothing'.
Why does all this matter, energy, space and time exist if there is no God to create it?
Clearly the burden of proof is upon Mills to answer. But Mills decides that the burden is to large to explain, so instead he violates his own rule of logic and claims that the negative position, nonexistence, has the burden, and he has nothing to explain after all!
This is the second major back-flip that he has skilfully preformed.
On the issue of the existence of evil he states that God is certainly responsible for all evil because he foresaw all things before He created the universe, yet still created.
But this is like offspring blaming their parents for conceiving them knowing that they would do wrong later in their life.
The fact is that those who do wrong are always to blame for their own actions.
Anyway, even knowing of all the evil that has impacted on our own lives, would we really have been happier if we had never existed? I for one would rather this flawed life than none at all.
As bad as this book gets, Mills does make a good point occasionally. On one such rare occasion he points out that improbable events which are hailed as miracles can not be considered evidence for the existence of God if the converse bad improbable events are not considered evidence against God's existence. A rare good point I thought.
Mills follows the long tradition by militant atheists of garnering the most absurd claims from the least qualified creationists and extrapolating these to cover the most qualified creationists. He forces the ignorant words of some redneck southern pastor into the mouth of a distinguished professor of science.
If Mills was serious about tackling creationism he would consult the most authoritative and widely read creationist literature and cite them extensively. Either Mills is an extraordinarily lazy researcher, or his is hell-bent on wholesale deceit.
But his most egregious crime was his total failure to consult or reference any creationist source, at all. The extant of the sophism is so bad that not only does he fabricate answers, he also goes the extra mile to fabricate the questions as well!!!
I was reluctant to rate this book at all, I felt that it wasn't even deserving of half a star. But his criticism of the Intelligent Design movement was quite good and saved him from total embarrassment.
1 ½ stars
For a more comprehensive review plus page referenced notes, go to my website:
[...] |
| | This book puts into print all the logical arguments against Creationism and exposes the flawed reasoning used by the Religious Right. |
| Logic...broke down and easy to understand | 2010-06-29 | 5 / 5 |
| | This book can help anyone understand the illogical thinking that is behind much of the ideas and thoughts within the christian world. Mills uses logic, with easy to understand explanations, to debunk any argument that a person of faith can come up with to defend their beliefs in a non-existant god. He does so in a way that shows the hypocrisy and subjective blindness that affects those that would try to use logic and science to explain any being as complex and unlikely as a god. |
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