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Whistle Stopper - The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
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List Price: $17.50
Our Price: $9.90
Your Save: $ 7.60 ( 43% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 211.8
EAN: 9780306816086
ISBN: 0306816083
Label: Da Capo Press
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 528
Publication Date: 2007-11-05
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Studio: Da Capo Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Reading
Comment: It's nice to read the viewpoints of different authors. I never tire of reading how intelligent people view religion. I do, however, tire of dogmatic imbeciles like Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson etc. who blather on about "what the bible says." Maybe that should read those books someday and understand that no civilized society should look to them as anything more than literary entertainment.
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Summary: Not So Portable Yet Extraordinary
Comment: This book is a nice collection of essays, letters and excerpts from other writings from a number of different non-believing and freethinking authors throughout history.
The introduction by Hitchens does a nice (and poignant as always) job at framing the chronologically arranged collection of pieces. Along with contemporary writers such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet and Salman Rushdie, other 'jewels' are collected from times past: from Benedict de Spinoza and Thomas Hobbes, to H.P. Lovecraft, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, George Orwell and many more.
Most of the segments are accessible reads. Some offer interesting insight, like Thomas Hobbes and Bertrand Russell. Some show the sharpest wit, such as Mark Twain and George Eliot, and a couple (in my opinion) were on the boring side, most notably Karl Marx's introduction to Hegel's Critique of Pure Reason.
The book closes with Salman Rushdie's remarkable letter to a new-born baby written for the UN-sponsored book, "A Letter to Six Billion People". All in all, a great (and long!) read.
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Summary: The works of some great thinkers about unbelief
Comment: It sometimes takes courage and conviction to do your own thinking, especially about matters religious, and the selections here present thought and arguments through the ages about unbelief and imaginary friends, about the cruelties forced upon others by people who think that they will gain a diety's favor by murdering or torturing others. All believers are enablers. Nice people, huh? These murderers and torturers are the believers, not the unbelievers. Believers also try to make unbelievers uncomfortable. I for one will no longer tolerate that.
The burden of proof is always upon the believer. "Faith" is no argument. It's a belief not based on fact. Children believe things on faith. Not thinking, responsible adults.
My copy of this book is by now dog-eared and highlighted. Some authors are better than others and some are easier to read, but I feel I am in good company with these authors for all they have learned in life and for their ability to think for themselves. For their courage and conviction I salute all who have gone before and fought their oppressors. Their path was harder than mine.
I don't need to believe in an ego induced afterlife. Fear of death is the motivator for religion, nothing more, nothing less. The ego, over and over and over again.
Buy this book and let it be your friend. Let it rid you of guilt and free you of your imagined sins against an imagined "lord" and jealous "god." Enjoy the only life you ever will have. On death you will be in the same "place" you were "at" before you were born.
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Summary: The Portable Atheist
Comment: Being a fan of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet, and other authors/thinkers pertaining to this "genre", I have no choice but to offer Kudos. There are many views from various characters throughout world history to our present time included in this compilation of quotes, notations, and essays etc.etc. This book should be included in any collection of voices representing freethought and even as a reference for any research along these same lines.
Thank You, Don Ward
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Summary: Fine group of god-demolishers represented here!
Comment: First off, there are plenty of famous atheists not here, but given the space, Hitchens has gathered a motley, inspiring, humorous, and always brilliant band of iconoclasts (though I do not recall if Nietszche himself was included)..Going way back to the ancients, hitting the stride with Hume, and including Boswell's interview with Hume as he lay dying ( a piece not to be missed), moving on to Darwin, Russell, and of course Dawkins, and contemporary polemicists, even an excerpt from Updike, you really cannot miss here. Brit Novelist Ian McKeowen shows up with a look at "end days" movements, a speech he gave at Stanford. Perhaps some rational ideas, science, and genius brains may admit some light to the make-believers out there, and we can only hope so!
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Editorial Reviews:
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From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages--with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices--past and present--that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you’ll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known. And they’re all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens--“political and literary journalist extraordinaire” (Los Angeles Times)--can. Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.
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