Unbelievers: The Evolution of Modern Atheism

by S.T. Joshi

Atheism, once a minority view, is now openly embraced by an increasing number of scientists, philosophers, politicians, and celebrities. How did this formerly closeted secular perspective gain its current prominence as a philosophically viable and challenging worldview? In this succinct history of modern atheism, a prolific author, editor, and scholar traces the development of atheist, agnostic, and secularist thought over the past century and a half. Beginning in the nineteenth century, when intellectuals first openly voiced skepticism about long-standing Christian beliefs, Joshi considers the impact of several leading Thomas Henry Huxley ("Darwin's Bulldog"), Leslie Stephen, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Mark Twain. Each of these writers, in different ways, made searing criticisms of such religious conceptions as the immortality of the soul, the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, and the existence of God, at a time when such notions were largely taken for granted. Next, the author examines prominent atheist thinkers of the early twentieth attorney Clarence Darrow, journalist H. L. Mencken, philosopher Bertrand Russell, and horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Around the same time as Darrow and Mencken were involved in the celebrated Scopes trial in America, which resulted in a triumph for the theory of evolution, Bertrand Russell in England was becoming well known as a forthright atheist. And Lovecraft was championing atheism in his novels and tales. Turning to recent decades, the author considers the uproar caused by outspoken atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and the controversial 1962 "school prayer" Supreme Court decision. Finally, he evaluates the work of best-selling authors Gore Vidal, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. In each case, he carefully dissects the views of the writers in question and points out both the strengths and fallacies or ambiguities in their arguments. This excellent intellectual history will be a welcome addition to the libraries of readers of both secular and religious orientations seeking a greater understanding of contemporary atheism.

Genres: Atheism, Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Spirituality, Science

271 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

About the author

Sunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works.

His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others.

Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press.

In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007.

Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price.

In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time.

Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the subtitle, I expected to read about the history of atheist rhetoric, political activism, and media coverage. I thought The Unbelievers would trace the legacies and competing interpretations of particular writers, arguments, or events over time. This book has none of that. Though allotted their own chapters, historical figures such as Mill, Twain, and Lovecraft are almost never linked in any meaningful way (if at all) to subsequent writers and events. Mencken and Darrow are obvious exceptions for the simple reason that it's practically impossible to discuss Mencken's religiosity without reference to the Scopes Trial.

The scope of Joshi's portraits is very inconsistent. Some chapters focus on such minutiae of their subject's writing that they feel like literary criticism (Lovecraft), while others read like biography (O'Hair). Some focus almost exclusively on the substance of their subject's message (Hitchens), and others on how the arguments were - or should have been - received by critics (Harris).

In his handling of the New Atheists, Joshi rehashes old criticisms of Dawkins' and Harris' books. Aside from a few sentences questioning the ability of New Atheism to make converts of the religious, Joshi offers no overarching observations or critiques of the movement.

Joshi is a good writer and each chapter could serve as an interesting magazine article, but nothing cumulates in this book. Without linking the thinkers or tracing their legacies in even a simple way, this book cannot be considered a work of intellectual history. Contrary to the subtitle, this is atheism without evolution.

[Steve Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

S.T. Joshi is a good writer, and his book is a bit of a challenge. I found myself on occasion running to the dictionary, which I appreciate.

He isn't particularly effusive about all the atheists and agnostics he presents in this work. Indeed, he doesn't hesitate to level honest criticism at what he perceives to be their errors. He's particularly hard on Sam Harris. That said, his criticisms are carefully considered and have some real weight.

I recommend it.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting comments on the 1800s, but for recent info, read the originals: The End of Faith, The God Delusion, and of course, God Is Not Great.

[Rhiannon Root · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m beyond disappointed S.T. Joshi’s “The Unbelievers: The evolution of modern atheism.” There was so much potential here and Joshi just squandered all of it.

Finally, I found a book about this subject by an author of color. Finally, I had a modern history. Ha! Nope. It’s not good.

The structure of this book is questionable – Joshi writes brief biographies of whom he feels are prominent atheists throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. While this isn’t the worst choice ever, it certainly is lazy and does eliminate a lot of opportunity for developing a narrative.

It gets worse.

All of the atheists Joshi chooses to profile are white people. Almost all of them, with the exception of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, are men. If any of these people are members of the LGBTQ community or had a disability, it’s never mentioned. And nearly all of them are British.

This is simply inexcusable. Whether intentional or not, this plays into a huge, toxic stereotype about atheists and it’s NOT OK. I’m not here for this racist, exclusionary shit.

Murray O’Hair is the only woman mentioned and Joshi relentlessly snarks on her. He repeatedly calls her abrasive and insults her. He spends several pages talking about her marriages and her son. Joshi barely mentions anyone else’s personal relationships (hint, they’re all men!) Never mind that Murray O’Hair was instrumental in a Supreme Court case that enforced the separation of church and state by getting mandatory prayers out of public schools.

(Side note: It’s totally legal to pray in a public space, like a public school, what’s not legal is a teacher or authority figure mandating that students pray from a religious tradition. Teachers can also teach about a particular religion, but they can’t present said material as literally true or preach it.)

Back to Murray O’Hair, this woman who endured harassment and other awful things, was also the victim of a brutal robbery and murder.

And so was her family. Yeah, and Joshi still fucking insults her.
Keep in mind, Joshi never calls out Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens on their bad behavior and repeatedly makes excuses for them.

I’m not here for this misogynistic shit.

Worse yet, throughout the book, Joshi insists that in order to argue effectively against religion you need some sort of hardcore background in philosophy or science.
No. Just fucking no.

This feeds into an elitist atheist stereotype is simply untrue. Most of the people I know who ended up rejecting religious tradition did so around puberty. And no, none of them had any special sort of training to know that religion wasn’t the right path for their lives.

For all these reasons, I have to give this book a failing grade.

[Walt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most commentators have already pointed out that this book is rather a collection of thumbnail biographies of famous people whose writings could be interpreted as atheistic or agnostic. As a general reader, I remain unconvinced that each person was an atheist. Possibly it is due to my lack of direct familiarity with their writings. But some of the chapters in Joshi's book seem forced. When discussing Mark Twain, Joshi acknowledges that the writings he is citing were written shortly after Twain lost his wife and one daughter. Naturally, his view on God and the Afterlife are a little skewed.

It is clear that Joshi has read extensively on the topic. I am convinced that Joshi is knowledgeable on Atheist literature and philosophy in general. I can only comment based on a fleeting background from college and emotion.

The chapter on John Stuart Mill was informative to the extent that Joshi attributes to Mill a quote to the effect that 'from time to time, religion must be tested by the rigors of science.' However, elsewhere in the book, Joshi notes that mysticism (religion) is emotional, and therefore, difficult to measure or penetrate with the rigors of science. What Joshi has clearly shown is that many authors, Mill, Darwin, and Mencken especially, were not so critical of religion per se; but rather religious people (deists?), like William Jennings Bryan, forcing their emotional views onto others. Joshi clearly sees himself, and noted atheists Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris pushing back by forcing their scientific views onto religion. For Joshi, it is clear that these are mutually exclusive positions. A scientists cannot be scientific and religious. He remains baffled at how some scientists can continue to believe religious creed.

Not until Madalyn O'Hair do the authors covered in Joshi's book become unabashedly atheist. At this point in the book, Joshi's approach turns away from trying to force authors into his position, and begins a more detailed literary criticism of the authors and their critics. In this style, too, I am uncomfortable. He spends time discussing Hitchins' book on Mother Theresa describing her benefactors and questionable bank accounts. In one passage, Joshi or Hitchins writes 'If anyone visited Calcutta in the 1980s, death and population control hardly appear to be the most urgent needs.' However, in my basic knowledge of the issue, I recall people dying alone beside the road, because there were trucks that would drive by and collect the dead. So, yes, I think Mother Theresa's death houses were an urgent need. Consequently, I am reinforced in doubting that Joshi uses the strongest criticisms leveled against slate of authors.

However, he is an impressive writer. There are indications of how atheistic literature expanded since the early nineteenth century. Although the book is organized chronologically, there are no real indications of the authors referencing each other. In his conclusion, Joshi notes that Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchins tackle very different aspects of religion, and therefore, one should read each of them. It sounds as though each of them is extremely egotistical - Hitchens seems to have been.

I will close with one last observation. Joshi stresses the battle between religion and science. He deprecates religion as being emotional and full of contradictions. However, one of his select authors is just as guilty. Christopher Hitchens' support for the Iraq War was irrational and based on emotion. Joshi himself noted the controversy of Hitchen's inexplicable and resolute belief in the just cause of the war in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence. The more people pushed Hitchens to repudiate his support, the more emotional he became in defending his position. Perhaps the greatest lesson of this book is to not force ideas onto people.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting. Stronger in some sections than others; the treatments of Leslie Stephens and T.H. Huxley are standouts, and the essay on Sam Harris is so critical that one is left wondering why Joshi bothered including Harris at all, and his weak justification feels like a cop-out. Absolutely riddled with distracting grammatical errors (misspellings, missing words, etc.), so it's rather amusing when he criticizes Madalyn Murray O'Hair's error-filled prose. The essays also get more argumentative as the book goes on, with the author intruding more and more with his own ideas, which proves distracting, as well. Overall, though, a very interesting book, and one that I am glad I have read.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative, mostly fair-minded, enjoyable read. First time I've read about some of these famous atheists. Great to read about their ideas within their historical and cultural contexts. Becomes a bit unnecessarily derogatory of Christians at the end but, overall, a good overview. I can't assess the historical accuracy of the information. But author comes across as very knowledgable and credible. Definitely worth a read.

[Cameron Bower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad read I liked reading it. I found the motivations mention behind the atheists that openly apposed religion or fought against it interesting. For example Richard Dawkins trying to keeping religion out of science and Sam Harris starting writing "The end of faith" after the horrible religious atrocity that happened on September 11.