Overview

Dr. D. M. Brooks arguments in favor of atheism, rooted in the history of religion, are thoughtful, thorough and worth attention from believers and non-believers alike. In the initial chapters, Brooks commences with a history of religious beliefs and their evolution from the paganism of yore. After identifying a series of common traits held by faiths, he moves onto the Biblical canon and the Koran. Examining the prophets, Brooks identifies a range of commonalities and proposes that Mohammed, Jesus and Moses were likely sufferers of either mental or physical disorders, which acted to cement their belief in a higher deity and its guidance. The chapters following Brooks' historical summary of religion's foremost figures and texts sees Brooks successively deal with aspects of religion, comparing them to other aspects of human activity. How religious belief compares against science, medicine, astronomy, geography, chemistry and physics, together with philology - the study of ancient languages - is sequentially discussed. Broadening his discussion still further, Brooks moves onto witchcraft, before discussing whether religion truly corresponds to morality and ethical behavior. This analysis is followed by a comprehensive mapping of Christianity's place in protracted wars and conflict, and its role in relation to the practice of slavery. The final stages of the book examines how religion interacts with the forces of labor and socialism. Organised faith's relationships with women, and a number of mankind's greatest philosophers, are noted. Brookes concludes his thesis by summarizing his previous arguments in support of his view that atheism is ultimately of the greatest necessity. The Necessity of Atheism was first published in 1933 - as such, some of the factual references (for example to the age of the Earth), have been refined owing to technological progress. However, as a summary of atheistic arguments this book remains a highly relevant and unified source.

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