Atheist Awakening

Author : Richard P. Cimino
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199986320
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Atheist Awakening written by Richard P. Cimino and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "According to Cimino and Smith, the new upsurge of atheists is a reaction to the revival of religious fervor in American politics since 1980. Feeling overlooked and underrepresented in the public sphere, atheists have employed a wide variety of strategies--some evangelical, some based on identity politics--to defend and assert themselves against their ideological opponents. These strategies include building and maintaining communities, despite the absence of the kinds of shared rituals, texts, and laws that help to sustain organized religions. Drawing on in-depth interviews with self-identified atheist, secularist, and humanist leaders and activists, as well as extensive observations and analysis of secular gatherings and media, Cimino and Smith illustrate how atheists organize and align themselves toward common goals, and how media--particularly web-based media--have proven invaluable in connecting atheists to one another and in creating a powerful virtual community. Cimino and Smith suggest that secularists rely not only on the Internet for community-building, but on their own new forms of ritual."--Publisher's Web site.

Author : Richard Cimino
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199392927
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Atheist Awakening written by Richard Cimino and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys over the last twenty years have seen an ever-growing number of Americans disclaim religious affiliations and instead check the "none" box. In the first sociological exploration of organized secularism in America, Richard Cimino and Christopher Smith show how one segment of these "nones" have created a new, cohesive atheist identity through activism and the creation of communities. According to Cimino and Smith, the new upsurge of atheists is a reaction to the revival of religious fervor in American politics since 1980. Feeling overlooked and underrepresented in the public sphere, atheists have employed a wide variety of strategies-some evangelical, some based on identity politics-to defend and assert themselves against their ideological opponents. These strategies include building and maintaining communities, despite the absence of the kinds of shared rituals, texts, and laws that help to sustain organized religions. Drawing on in-depth interviews with self-identified atheist, secularist, and humanist leaders and activists, as well as extensive observations and analysis of secular gatherings and media, Cimino and Smith illustrate how atheists organize and align themselves toward common goals, and how media-particularly web-based media-have proven invaluable in connecting atheists to one another and in creating a powerful virtual community. Cimino and Smith suggest that secularists rely not only on the Internet for community-building, but on their own new forms of ritual. This groundbreaking study will be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the growing atheist movement in America.

Author : Sam Harris
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451636032
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Waking Up written by Sam Harris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s latest New York Times bestseller is a guide to meditation as a rational practice informed by neuroscience and psychology. From Sam Harris, neuroscientist and author of numerous New York Times bestselling books, Waking Up is for the twenty percent of Americans who follow no religion but who suspect that important truths can be found in the experiences of such figures as Jesus, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history. Throughout this book, Harris argues that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow, and that how we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the quality of our lives. Waking Up is part memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris—a scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic—could write it.

Author : Ray Catania
Publisher : Limitless Publications LLC
ISBN 13 : 173700951X
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Atheist and The Afterlife – An Autobiography written by Ray Catania and published by Limitless Publications LLC. This book was released on 2020-12-31 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a true story that could change your life ... and death. What would happen if an atheist visited the afterlife? A spiritual awakening like no other. *Winner of the Gold Medal in Readers’ Views, Reader Choice Awards 2022/2023 Best Classics - Religion/Spirituality *Winner of the Bronze Medal in Readers’ Favorite, International Book Awards 2022 Best Non-Fiction Spiritual/Supernatural *Named to the Top 100 Best Notable Indie Books of 2022 by Shelf Unbound *Named a Semi-Finalist in the 2022 Publishers Weekly, BookLife Prize Awards Follow one man's lifelong, extreme, transformation in this multifaceted memoir, which brings you through a life filled with trauma, death, denial, personal development, paranormal experiences, mediumship, spiritual gifts, true love, and triumph in his ultimate search for enlightenment. Embark on a journey as he transforms from an unswerving atheist into one who is certain of an afterlife. The book includes the details of his experiencing death firsthand (NDE) in which he describes his death as the best day of his life. This event sparked a journey spanning many years of researching the science of life, death, the afterlife, energy, consciousness, quantum physics, and pursuing the development of his intuitive abilities. A skill that he says anyone can develop and utilize for their own personal wellbeing. As each paranormal event unfolds, you will be able to follow them in real time. Each story is taken directly from Ray's personal journal and written with humility, sarcasm, and humor. Although the subject matter may be quite serious and a little gritty at times, it is the author's wish that, those who can relate to having these types of traumatic experiences, learn that regardless of your past, nothing can stop you from achieving your goals in the future and accomplishing everything you set out to do. This book takes you from the very beginning of this realization and through the events that transpired, for him to learn and accept the laws of the universe, and the fact that they were undeniably real. Although the book discusses metaphysical and paranormal activity, this story at its core is about the pursuit of happiness, love, and enlightenment when the odds are stacked against you, of having any of that. We wish you peace, love, and light throughout your journey. Based on real-life accounts of the author. -This book contains sensitive subject matter that may not be suitable for all ages and contains a list of triggers that you should review before reading this book. -The books in the "Awakening Series" by Limitless Publications, authored by Ray Catania, are not intended to be Religious in any way, nor do they support or denounce any forms of organized religion, overall.

Author : Isaac Kramnick
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393254976
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life written by Isaac Kramnick and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-08-21 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects religious liberty, why doesn’t it protect atheists? God occupies our nation’s consciousness, even defining to many what it means to be American. Nonbelievers have often had second-class legal status and have had to fight for their rights as citizens. As R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick demonstrate in their sharp and convincing work, avowed atheists were derided since the founding of the nation. Even Thomas Paine fell into disfavor and his role as a patriot forgotten. Popular Republican Robert Ingersoll could not be elected in the nineteenth century due to his atheism, and the suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton was shunned when she questioned biblical precepts about women’s roles. Moore and Kramnick lay out this fascinating history and the legal cases that have questioned religious supremacy. It took until 1961 for the Supreme Court to ban religious tests for state officials, despite Article 6 of the Constitution. Still, every one of the fifty states continues to have God in its constitution. The authors discuss these cases and more current ones, such as Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which address whether personal religious beliefs supersede secular ones. In Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic, the authors also explore the dramatic rise of an "atheist awakening" and the role of organizations intent on holding the country to the secular principles it was founded upon.

Author : Richard J. Meagher
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1498558585
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Atheists in American Politics written by Richard J. Meagher and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-02-05 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, one of the first to take atheism seriously as a social movement, Richard J. Meagher examines the political history of American atheism and freethought. Meagher demonstrates how changes in resources, opportunities, and movement identity help explain the political mobilization of atheists in America.

Author : Liam Jerrold Fraser
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108649688
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Atheism, Fundamentalism and the Protestant Reformation written by Liam Jerrold Fraser and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-19 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study of new atheism and religious fundamentalism, this book advances two provocative - and surprising - arguments. Liam Jerrold Fraser argues that atheism and Protestant fundamentalism in Britain and America share a common historical origin in the English Reformation, and the crisis of authority inaugurated by the Reformers. This common origin generated two presuppositions crucial for both movements: a literalist understanding of scripture, and a disruptive understanding of divine activity in nature. Through an analysis of contemporary new atheist and Protestant fundamentalist texts, Fraser shows that these presuppositions continue to structure both groups, and support a range of shared biblical, scientific, and theological beliefs. Their common historical and intellectual structure ensures that new atheism and Protestant fundamentalism - while on the surface irreconcilably opposed - share a secret sympathy with one another, yet one which leaves them unstable, inconsistent, and unsustainable.

Author : Ethan G. Quillen
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315278359
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Atheist Exceptionalism written by Ethan G. Quillen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-20 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Due to its Constitution, and particularly to that Constitution’s First Amendment, the relationship between religion and politics in the United States is rather unusual. This is especially the case concerning the manner with which religious terminology is defined via the discourse adopted by the United States Supreme Court, and the larger American judicial system. Focusing on the religious term of Atheism, this book presents both the discourse itself, in the form of case decisions, as well as an analysis of that discourse. The work thus provides an essential introduction and discussion of both Atheism as a concept and the influence that judicial decisions have on the way we perceive the meaning of religious terminology in a national context. As a singular source on the Supreme, Circuit, and District Court cases concerning Atheism and its judicial definition, the book offers convenient access to this discourse for researchers and students. The discursive analysis further provides an original theoretical insight into how the term ‘Atheism’ has been judicially defined. As such, it will be a valuable resource for scholars of religion and law, as well as those interested in the definition and study of Atheism.

Author : Lori G. Beaman
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319096028
Total Pages : 219 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Atheist Identities - Spaces and Social Contexts written by Lori G. Beaman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-12-04 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this book not only examine the variety of atheist expression and experience in the Western context, they also explore how local, national and international settings may contribute to the shaping of atheist identities. By addressing identity at these different levels, the book explores how individuals construct their own atheist—or non-religious—identity, how they construct community and how identity factors into atheist interaction at the social or institutional levels. The book offers an interdisciplinary comparative approach to the analysis of issues relating to atheism, such as demography, community engagement, gender politics, stigmatism and legal action. It covers such themes as: secularization; the social context of atheism in various Western countries; the shifting of atheist identities based on different cultural and national contexts; the role of atheism in multicultural settings; how the framework of “reasonable accommodation” applies to atheism; interactions and relationships between atheism and religion and how atheism is represented for political and legal purposes. Featuring contributions by international scholars at the cutting edge of atheism studies, this volume offers unique insights into the relationship between atheism and identity. It will serve as a useful resource for academics, journalists, policy makers and general readers interested in secular and religious studies, identity construction and identity politics as well as atheism in general.

Author : Stephen P. Weldon
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421438593
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism written by Stephen P. Weldon and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how prominent liberal intellectuals reshaped American religious and secular institutions to promote a more democratic, science-centered society. Recent polls show that a quarter of Americans claim to have no religious affiliation, identifying instead as atheists, agnostics, or "nothing in particular." A century ago, a small group of American intellectuals who dubbed themselves humanists tread this same path, turning to science as a major source of spiritual sustenance. In The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism, Stephen P. Weldon tells the fascinating story of this group as it developed over the twentieth century, following the fortunes of a few generations of radical ministers, academic philosophers, and prominent scientists who sought to replace traditional religion with a modern, liberal, scientific outlook. Weldon explores humanism through the networks of friendships and institutional relationships that underlay it, from philosophers preaching in synagogues and ministers editing articles of Nobel laureates to magicians invoking the scientific method. Examining the development of an increasingly antagonistic engagement between religious conservatives and the secular culture of the academy, Weldon explains how this conflict has shaped the discussion of science and religion in American culture. He also uncovers a less known—but equally influential—story about the conflict within humanism itself between two very different visions of science: an aspirational, democratic outlook held by the followers of John Dewey on the one hand, and a skeptical, combative view influenced by logical positivism on the other. Putting America's distinctive science talk into historical perspective, Weldon shows how events such as the Pugwash movement for nuclear disarmament, the ongoing evolution controversies, the debunking of pseudo-science, and the selection of scientists and popularizers like Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov as humanist figureheads all fit a distinctly American ethos. Weldon maintains that this secular ethos gained much of its influence by tapping into the idealism found in the American radical religious tradition that includes the deism of Thomas Paine, nineteenth-century rationalism and free thought, Protestant modernism, and most important, Unitarianism. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and a thorough study of the main humanist publications, The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism reveals a new level of detail about the personal and institutional forces that have shaped major trends in American secular culture. Significantly, the book shows why special attention to American liberal religiosity remains critical to a clear understanding of the scientific spirit in American culture.