Read & Discuss "An Atheist's History of Belief"
Details
Read and discuss:
An Atheist's History of Belief: Understanding Our Most Extraordinary Invention
2015 (paperback edition)
by Matthew Kneale
Counterpoint Press
238 pages plus endnotes
https://a.co/d/0jkhWFSL
preview:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/An_Atheist_s_History_of_Belief/On9LEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
"The atheist’s poetic synopsis of the history of spirituality and religion from the Booker Prize Finalist author of English Passengers
What first prompted prehistoric man, sheltering in the shadows of deep caves, to call upon the realm of the spirits? And why has belief thrived since, shaping thousands of generations of shamans, pharaohs, Aztec priests and Mayan rulers, Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Nazis, and Scientologists?
As our dreams and nightmares have changed over the millennia, so have our beliefs. The gods we created have evolved and mutated with us through a narrative fraught with human sacrifice, political upheaval, and bloody wars.
Belief was man's most epic labor of invention. It has been our closest companion, and has followed mankind across the continents and through history."
source: Publisher
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In fairness to everyone attending who expects a meaningful discussion and a productive learning experience, you must have read this entire book (238 pages) in order to attend this meeting.
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About the Author
Matthew Kneale studied Modern History at Oxford University. He then spent a year in Japan where he began writing short stories. He is author of several novels, including English Passengers (2000) which won the Whitbread Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He currently lives in Rome.
Book Review
"The author succeeds not because he formulates sharper theories or ideas about non-belief, but because he barely mentions non-belief at all. Where other authors, like those apostles of atheism, Dawkins and Hitchens, have become bestsellers by condemning religion and haranguing its followers, Kneale takes a more gentle, reasoned approach.
He views religion as the invention of cultures seeking to assuage their various fears and insecurities. That’s not a new tack— scholars have long studied religion in the context of its inventors’ needs and aspirations. But novelist Kneale brings to this angle a storyteller’s, rather than an academic’s, touch. It’s a pleasant read, just not a very hardline atheistic one."
Publisher's Weekly
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781619022355
"A history of religious belief, written from an atheistic perspective--what else is new? And yet the author, a novelist with good knowledge of history, succeeds in framing the discussion in a fresh way. Described as "an atheist, but not a militant one", Kneale gives us an elegant and wide-ranging history of religion steeped in anthropology, modern psychology and the study of myths. The unifying device of the book is that of "invention": from inventing gods, to inventing paradise, deals with god, apocalypse and witchcraft, invention of the necessary relationships between the religion and the nation, and the invention of new ways to cope with advancing science and ever-evolving social structures.
Despite its purported "gentleness" the thesis is deeply subversive; at no point does the author give in to easy pablum of many religious professions. He treats religion as a fiction, a myth of rather high order, but does not shy away from recognition of its potential usefulness."