Organisers: WW Norton & AtheismUK.

Chris Street is organising this talk on behalf of AtheismUK.

http://www.atheismuk.com/

Date & Time: Saturday 25th February 2012, 2-3.00 pm. Strictly limited availability. Leave your name and phone number in the comments section below, to reserve your seat.

Entry fee: Free entry, donations appreciated.

Prof. Alex Rosenberg (wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Rose...)  is chair of the Philosophy department at Duke University and co-director of Duke Center for Philosophy of Biology. Alex has written 12 books about the philosophy of biology and economics. He describes himself as a 'Naturalist'.http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...

Alex Rosenberg is visiting the UK to talk about his new book 'The Atheist's Guide to Reality - Enjoying Life without Illusions', published by WW Norton. http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx...

'takes the sin of scientism as the ultimate virtue. Alex Rosenberg has sheared the nature of things down to the bedrock, and exposed our common vanity'. EO Wilson

'presents a brave and compelling treatise on why you should accept the universe for what it is, rather than what you would wish it to be. The Atheists Guide to Reality, like the best scholarship and science, removes you from your comfort zone and that is the only way to gain new and better perspectives on our place in the cosmos' Lawrence Krauss

 'Rosenberg's philosophical temperament is a dead ringer for David Hume's, and his wit isn't far behind either'. Rebecca Goldstein

'This eccentric, funny treatise on "scientism,"...takes a perverse delight in "nice nihilism." Rosenberg doesn't believe in free will, morality, or secular humanism ...this dismemberment of mainstream worldviews abounds with clever barbs and dry one-liners.' Village Voice

We can't avoid the persistent questions about the meaning of life-and the nature of reality. Philosopher Alex Rosenberg maintains that science is the only thing that can really answer them all of them. His bracing and ultimately upbeat book takes physics seriously as the complete description of reality and accepts all its consequences. He shows how physics makes Darwinian natural selection the only way life can emerge, and how that deprives nature of purpose, and human action of meaning, while it exposes conscious illusions such as free will and the self. The science that makes us nonbelievers provides the insight into the real difference between right and wrong, the nature of the mind, even the direction of human history. The Atheist's Guide to Reality draws powerful implications for the ethical and political issues that roil contemporary life. The result is nice nihilism, a surprisingly sanguine perspective atheists can happily embrace.

Read Alex Rothenberg talking about The Atheists Guide to Reality' at Indyweek.com 

http://www.indyweek.com/artery/archives/201...

Nice Nihilism By Richard Marshall (detailed review of TAGR) http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/nice-nihilis...

The publishers WW Norton have booked a room in Conway Hall http://www.conwayhall.org.uk/ in Central London (2 minute walk from Holborn Tube station). Strictly limited availability. Leave your name here to reserve your seat.