The Portable Atheist
From Religions Wiki
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer is a 2007 book edited by Christopher Hitchens. It is a collection of writings concerning atheism and philosophy written by many authors including Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, with introductions for each selection written by Hitchens himself.
Covering a wide range of counter-apologetic arguments, these selections also show that there truly is nothing new under the sun when it comes to these questions. Religion could have been put out of our misery a long time ago if it weren't for it's abuses of power. Even the oldest work selected from contains more clear thinking than current creationism.
Contents
- Introduction by Christopher Hitchens
- Chapter 1: Selections from De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) (1st century BCE) by Lucretius
- Chapter 2: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (ca 1100 CE) by Omar Khayyám
- Chapter 3: Of Religion, from Leviathan (1651) by Thomas Hobbes
- Chapter 4: Selection from Theologico-Political Treatise (1670) by Benedict De Spinoza
- Chapter 5: The Natural History of Religion (1757); Of Miracles, from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) by David Hume
- Chapter 6: An Account of My Last Interview with David Hume, Esq. (1777) by James Boswell
- Chapter 7: Extract from A Refutation of Deism (1814) by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Chapter 8: Moral Influences in My Early Youth, from Autobiography (1873) by John Stuart Mill
- Chapter 9: Introduction from Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1843) by Karl Marx
- Chapter 10: Evangelical Teaching (1855) by George Eliot
- Chapter 11: Selection from Autobiography (1887) by Charles Darwin
- Chapter 12: An Agnostic's Apology (1893) by Leslie Stephen
- Chapter 13: Miracle, from Le Jardin d’Épicure (The Garden of Epicurus) (1895) by Anatole France
- Chapter 14: Thoughts of God, from Fables of Man; Bible Teaching and Religious Practice, from Europe and Elsewhere and A Pen Warmed Up in Hell by Mark Twain
- Chapter 15: Author's Note to The Shadow Line (1917) by Joseph Conrad
- Chapters 16-47: Work-in-progress
