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    To Set Prometheus Free: Essays on Religion, Reason and Humanity
    Unavailable
    To Set Prometheus Free: Essays on Religion, Reason and Humanity
    Unavailable
    To Set Prometheus Free: Essays on Religion, Reason and Humanity
    Ebook86 pages1 hour

    To Set Prometheus Free: Essays on Religion, Reason and Humanity

    By A. C. Grayling

    2.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In 2007 Anthony Grayling wrote Against All Gods, a collection of polemical essays attacking religion. Now in To Set Prometheus Free he develops those themes more comprehensively, unpicking the claims and arguments of religious apologists, summarising the views of his fellow secularist (Bertrand Russell in particular detailing the controversy over 'Intelligent Design' and outlining his personal, naturalistic world-view.
    He robustly calls for humanity to choose deliverance from religion because, as he puts it, 'large portions of mankind remain in some degree in thrall to myths dating from an ignorant and illiterate past.'

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOberon Books
    Release dateJun 21, 2012
    ISBN9781849433600
    Unavailable
    To Set Prometheus Free: Essays on Religion, Reason and Humanity
    Author

    A. C. Grayling

    A. C. Grayling is the Founder and Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and its Professor of Philosophy. Among his many books are The God Argument, Democracy and Its Crisis, The History of Philosophy, The Good State and The Frontiers of Knowledge. He has been a regular contributor to The Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Independent on Sunday, Economist, New Statesman, Prospect and New European. He appears frequently on radio and TV, including Newsnight and CNN News. He lives in London.

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    Reviews for To Set Prometheus Free

    2.5/5

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    • 2/5
      Having some time back read 'the God Delusion' and found it disappointingly free of real arguments (rather than ad hominem rants and paper targets) along with a lack of any real understanding of epistemology, never mind metaphysics, I though a genuine philosopher - even if a rather irritating one - might give me something more to engage with. Alas no. More ad hominem rants and broad sweeping one sided generalisations and no attempt to engage with the arguments of theists. Ah well.Two points. The fact that there are good atheists and bad religious people does not actually contribute much to the question about the sources and the basis of morality.Second the claim that science started in a humanistic way with the Greeks, ground to a halt after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 4th century - which collapsed because it became Christian, and then did not emerge again until the enlightenment of the 16th century is both grossly simplistic and also simply not the case. Grayling claims that "The irruption into the classical world of the oriental superstition of Christianity interrupted the course of progress for a thousand years - the thousand years between the basilica of Maxentius in Rome and Brunelleschi's dome for Florence's cathedral, for until the latter was achieved, no-one knew how to repeat the architectural and engineering feat of the basilica" (23) Apart from anything else, this completely ignores the massive contribution of the medieval monastic orders made both to architecture and to agriculture. I could write much more - but instead I will invite any reader of this review to suggest a book which makes a good case for atheism which deals with questions such as freedom, meaning, goodness, love, beauty etc. without resorting to reductionism.The one chapter that is worth a read is the one on Bertrand Russell - but that is mainly because Russell himself is worth reading.
    • 3/5
      A nice little book of essays that discusses why it's perfectly okay to worship the spaghetti monster. Grayling - always good for a defense of rationality.