Imagine There's No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World

Stephens (A History of News), a historian and professor of journalism at New York University, proposes that some major advancements in science, politics, and mathematics were enabled by disbelief in gods. Drawing on evidence which includes tablet writings dating as far back as 415 B.C.E., as well as documents suggesting that the denouncement of gods, doubt in the supernatural, and denial of an afterlife were not uncommon, Stephens points out that atheism %E2%80%94whether skepticism, cynicism, or anacreonism%E2%80%94is not a recent development. Many great minds of the modern era, such as Newton, Mill, and Darwin, among others, shared doubts and denials about god. Fueled by irreligious dis- and non-belief, rationalism, natural explanations, and common sense, these thinkers chipped away at the faiths of many, causing questioning and prompting changes and increased learning first in Athens, then Europe, and eventually worldwide. Unclear, though, is the connection of their disbelief in god to the uncovering of the laws of physics, the writing of On Liberty, and the theory of evolution. Though surely not providing any definite answers, Stephens provides an intriguing take on a topic that has sparked much discussion and will surely spark more to come. (Feb.)