Word: atheists
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...combination of this secularist tract—and its appendix refuting 36 arguments for God’s existence—with Cass’s clear-eyed empathy for religious belief has turned him into an overnight celebrity, dubbed by Time Magazine as “the atheist with a soul...
...much more at home in the academic realm than in the religious gradually becomes clear. For all her novel’s ambition to portray and explain the modern religious experience, it is unable to shake sufficiently free of its author’s initial presumptions. Like many new atheist tracts, “36 Arguments for the Existence of God” paints the religion-and-reason question in Manichean terms. This sort of framing can highlight sharp distinctions in philosophies, but doesn’t begin to approach the varieties of religious experience—or illusion?...
...intellectual banter, witty academic satire and thoughtful portrayal of religious life and community—all of which make this a far more elegant and effective work than any new atheist polemic—“36 Arguments for the Existence of God” still simplifies its subject, and so falls short of meeting its own ambitious standards. A novel that considers rational religionists and non-materialists on their own terms, while maintaining its strong intellectual reservations, would make a worthy sequel to this excellent but incomplete entry into the genre...
...This safeguard has not stopped cultural and opposition figures from lining up to attack the new law as arcane and anachronistic. Leading the fray is the advocacy group Atheist Ireland, which in January defiantly published 25 blasphemous statements on its website by figures as diverse as atheist author Richard Dawkins and musicians Frank Zappa and Björk. "This is introducing medieval canon law into a modern pluralist republic," says the group's director, Michael Nugent. "There are other countries that do have blasphemy laws from bygone eras that are on the statute books but not enforced. Ireland...
...Complaining that he has been the victim of "a sophisticated campaign, mostly on the Internet," Ahern last month proposed holding a referendum on the law, insisting that this was always his "preferred choice." However, with no date set for any referendum, opponents are keeping up the pressure. In May, Atheist Ireland will organize a 25-day walk across the country to hold public meetings on the statute, while the Museum of Contemporary Art is planning further one-off anti-blasphemy law events, as well as an exhibition this summer entitled "These Artists Are Criminals." (See pictures of the world according...