50 VOICES OF DISBELIEF

edited by Russell Blackford and Udo Schuklenk

My next book will be an edited collection, put together by Udo Schuklenk and myself. This was provisionally entitled Voices of Disbelief, and will be published in September 2009 with a final title 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists.

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 approached a large number of prominent atheists, humanists, and religious sceptics, seeking their support for the idea. Many of them replied enthusiastically. We've been working with them ever since.

As a result, 50 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).

50 Voices of Disbelief will contain fifty 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. We think it's a wonderful line-up.

Here's a full roll-call of the contents in order of appearance in the book:


Introduction: Now More Important than Ever – Voices of Reason — Russell Blackford and Udo Schuklenk

Unbelievable! — Russell Blackford

My “Bye Bull” Story — Margaret Downey

How benevolent is God? – An argument from suffering to atheism — Nicholas Everitt

A Deal-breaker — Ophelia Benson

Why Am I a Nonbeliever? – I Wonder... — J. L. Schellenberg

Wicked or Dead? Reflections on the moral character and existential status of God — John Harris

Religious Belief and Self-Deception — Adθle Mercier

The Coming of Disbelief — J.J.C. Smart

What I Believe —Graham Oppy

Too Good to Be True, Too Obscure to Explain: The Cognitive Shortcomings of Belief in God — Thomas W. Clark

How to Think About God: Theism, Atheism, and Science — Michael Shermer

A Magician Looks at Religion — James Randi

Confessions of a Kindergarten Leper — Emma Tom

Beyond Disbelief — Philip Kitcher

An ambivalent nonbelief — Taner Edis

Why Not? — Sean M. Carroll

Godless Cosmology — Victor J. Stenger

Unanswered Prayers — Christine Overall

Beyond Faith and Opinion — Damien Broderick

Could it be pretty obvious there’s no God? — Stephen Law

Atheist, obviously — Julian Baggini

Why I am Not a Believer — A.C. Grayling

Evil and Me — Gregory Benford

Who’s Unhappy? — Lori Lipman Brown

Reasons to be Faithless — Sheila A.M. McLean

Three Stages of Disbelief — Julian Savulescu

Born Again, Briefly — Greg Egan

Cold Comfort — Ross Upshur

The Accidental Exorcist — Austin Dacey

Atheist Out of the Foxhole — Joe Haldeman

The Unconditional Love of Reality — Dale McGowan

Antinomies — Jack Dann

Giving up ghosts and gods — Susan Blackmore

Some thoughts on why I am an atheist — Tamas Pataki

No Gods, Please! — Laura Purdy

Welcome Me Back to the World of the Thinking — Kelly O'Connor

Kicking Religion Goodbye … — Peter Adegoke

On credenda — Miguel Kottow

“Not even start to ignore those questions!” A voice of disbelief in a different key — Frieder Otto Wolf

Imagine No Religion — Edgar Dahl

Humanism as Religion: An Indian Alternative — Sumitra Padmanabhan

Why I am NOT a theist — Prabir Ghosh

When the Hezbollah came to my school — Maryam Namazie

Evolutionary Noise, not Signal from Above — Athena Andreadis

Gods Inside — Michael R. Rose and John P. Phelan

Why Morality Doesn’t Need Religion — Peter Singer and Marc Hauser

Doctor Who and the Legacy of Rationalism — Sean Williams

My non-religious life: A journey from superstition to rationalism — Peter Tatchell

Helping People to Think Critically About Their Religious Beliefs — Michael Tooley

Human Self-Determination, Biomedical Progress, and God — Udo Schuklenk

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

—Russell Blackford, April 2008 (last update March 2009).