I apologize for it having taken this long, but I have important news to report: I’ve finished editing the complete rough draft of my book, and I think it’s now in a form ready for publication. If you’ve read any of the chapters so far and would like to see the complete draft, e-mail me or leave a comment in this thread.
In its current form, the book is approximately 78,000 words. This compares favorably with the current atheist bestsellers, while still being short enough to be read fairly quickly. (In my experience, religious believers are unlikely to even consider picking up a brick of a book.) There are ten chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue, which address the following topics:
Prologue: Unapologetic: Why write this book, and what I hope to accomplish
Chapter One: Fossil Fuels: The real-world danger posed by religious belief
Chapter Two: A Book of Blood: The argument from scriptural immorality
Chapter Three: All Possible Worlds: The argument from evil
Chapter Four: One More Burning Bush: The argument from reasonable nonbelief
Chapter Five: The Cosmic Shell Game: The argument from religious confusion
Chapter Six: Life Without Superstition: The virtues and benefits of being an atheist
Chapter Seven: Shattering Stereotypes: Debunking popular false conceptions of atheism
Chapter Eight: Universal Utilitarianism: A secular, rational basis for objective morality
Chapter Nine: Stardust: An atheist’s response to death
Chapter Ten: Into the Clear Air: The process of becoming an atheist; the effort to organize atheists politically
Epilogue: Looking Ahead: Is there hope for humanity to free itself from supernatural beliefs?
Most of these chapters are based on the essays of the same titles at Daylight Atheism or Ebon Musings. People who’ve read those essays will recognize the overall argument and layout of the chapter, though each one also has substantial new material that I’ve never previously published. In any case, I intend to make sure the original essays will always be freely available.
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