Society

Warren Bonett (ed.): The Australian Book of Atheism

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Author: Timothy Roberts

by Timothy Roberts •

March 2011, no. 329

Society

Warren Bonett (ed.): The Australian Book of Atheism

by Timothy Roberts •

March 2011, no. 329

On the attack

Timothy Roberts

The Australian Book of Atheism
edited by Warren Bonett
Scribe, $35 pb, 442 pp, 9781921640766

Once mainly associated with shrill killjoys and desiccated reductionists, atheism has recently received a jolt of adrenaline from Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and others. Yet while these writers delight in exposing religion’s philosophical deficiencies, their tone is predominantly negative. Fortunately, The Australian Book of Atheism goes beyond simply rehashing the New Atheists’ explanations of Why God Doesn’t Exist. Divided into ‘Overview’, ‘Personal’, ‘Education’, ‘Social and Cultural’, ‘Politics’, ‘Philosophy’, and ‘Religion and the Brain’, this collection offers a more nuanced picture of atheism than does the recent crop of celebrity-authored blockbusters.

Timothy Roberts

By this contributor

Timothy Roberts is a Melbourne-based writer whose current interests include Victorian literature, evolutionary biology and Roman history. His essays, reviews and articles have been published in The Age, College Literature, The Australian Rationalist, The New Matilda and The European Legacy, among many others. He is also the author of four student guides to classic and modern works of literature. Much of his writing can be found on his website.