Just Finished Reading: Atheism – A Very Short Introduction by Julian Baggini.

This is a very good (though admittedly very short) introduction to the idea of Atheism. The author sets out not to attack theism but to build a positive case for scepticism in relation to the idea that a God (or multiple Gods) exist. He sets out in very clear terms just what atheism is (and is not) and gives it a very solid base in the wider belief of Naturalism – the idea that all phenomena have natural causes rather than supernatural ones. He does a more than adequate job of answering many of the questions theists put to atheists and whilst not (in my opinion) a perfect book on the subject it is a high-quality one. I would recommend this to atheists who might be unsure of the philosophical grounding of their beliefs as well as to theists who might gain a greater appreciation of where we are ‘coming from’ in our beliefs.

I picked this little volume (a mere 111 pages) on impulse whilst recently buying some of its companion volumes on politics and philosophy. The ‘Very Short Introduction’ series seemed just the thing to clue me into some of the core subjects I’ll be studying later in the year though rather inevitable I started an off-topic book first! You’ll be hearing more about books in this series soon (I’m reading two others ATM) and I hope that they’re all as interesting as this one – though I admit I am struggling with the one on Karl Marx a bit [grin].