VOICES OF DISBELIEF

My next book will be an edited collection, put together by Udo Schuklenk and myself, provisionally entitled Voices of Disbelief.

Udo is an eminent German-born philosopher, now based in Canada, who usually specialises in philosophical bioethics. Both of us are concerned by the inordinate influence that religious dogma continues to exercise in the public sphere, even in supposedly secular and pluralistic societies, and despite religion's poor record in supporting its various truth claims and pronouncements about how we should live our lives.

The book has grown from Udo's idea to put together a collection of confessions or explanations of their lack of religious belief, written by a wide range of people. In late 2007 and early 2008, we wrote to a large number of prominent atheists, humanists, and religious sceptics, seeking their support for the idea. Many of them replied enthusiastically. As a result, Voices of Disbelief will appear from Blackwell Publishing in 2009. Blackwell is a major academic publisher based in Oxford (and now part of Wiley-Blackwell, which has the muscle for global distribution).

Voices of Disbelief will contain a large number (50 to 60) essays by prominent authors, philosophers, journalists, and others who reject belief in religious dogma, including the existence of the Abrahamic God. These will be new essays by contributors aged from their 20s to their 80s, from all over the world.

I'll update this page with more information as the project develops.

—Russell Blackford, April 2008.