Spreading the Word on the Power of Atheism

[cbayer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/us/spreading-the-word-on-the-power-of-atheism.html

MARCH 14, 2014


S.T. Joshi, a Seattle writer, has written or edited more than 200 books, and part of his work focuses on atheism and agnosticism. Credit Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times

By MARK OPPENHEIMER

SEATTLE — The atheist writer S. T. Joshi, 55, born in India, raised in Indiana and now living in Seattle, has written or edited more than 200 books, including a novel of detective fiction, a bibliography of writings about Gore Vidal and numerous works about H. L. Mencken.

He edits four periodicals, including Lovecraft Annual, the major review of scholarship about the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft; The American Rationalist, a journal for unbelievers; and The Weird Fiction Review, which is what it sounds like. He once spent years scanning into his computer — and typing what could not be scanned — every word ever written by Ambrose Bierce, about six million total.

And this month Mr. Joshi got a call from a friend who works for Barnes & Noble, asking if he could edit a new edition of “The King in Yellow,” the 1895 collection of supernatural stories by Robert W. Chambers. It seems that the book was a major inspiration for “True Detective,” the popular HBO series. “I am one of maybe three people in the world who knows anything about Robert W. Chambers,” Mr. Joshi said, by way of explanation. His new edition will be out in April.

One of the strange, wonderful facts about many atheists is their eccentricity and intellectual omnivorousness. Christopher Hitchens, author of “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” (2007), was a literary critic, a journalist in several war zones and a biographer of George Orwell. Sam Harris, who wrote “The End of Faith” (2004), also writes about free will and about lying; his next book promises to expand on his case for psychedelic drugs. Several professional magicians, like James Randi and the illusionists Penn and Teller, work to promote atheism on the side.

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[skepticscott]

1. So why is it "strange" and "wonderful"

that a lot of atheists welcome a wide and eclectic range of knowledge and intellectual stimulation? It sounds rather like he regards them as a slightly inferior species, from which one wouldn't expect that, as one would from believers.

His characterization of atheists as "quirky, freelance amateurs" in making a case against god, is also somewhat condescending.

[rug]

2. An interesting quirky guy but there's nothing in there about "the Power of Atheism".

[cbayer]

3. I think they were referring to the increasing prominence of atheist

writers and thinkers.

I liked this guy's take on agnosticism.

[rug]

4. Maybe.