ATCAG online for free

[George H. Smith]

It has recently come to my attention that the full text of Atheism: The Case Against God is available online for free.

Go here .

I had no trouble using this link in an email, but I encountered a few problems getting it to work here. If any of you have trouble, please let me know.

Ghs

[Starbuckle]

Thank you, George. I bought a copy of your book in the early 80s and gave it to a religious friend of mine who, so far as I can tell from statements of his on the web and the publicity for a movie he recently produced about the Scopes trial, was altogether uninfluenced by it.

If you were revising the book today, would you change any of its major judgments or conclusions?

Edited April 19, 2011 by Starbuckle

[anthony]

Thank you, George. I bought a copy of your book in the early 80s and gave it to a religious friend of mine who, so far as I can tell from statements of his on the web and the publicity for a movie he recently produced about the Scopes trial, was altogether uninfluenced by it.

Hah! Horse and water.

George, thank you. After only reading the Introduction and Contents, I already think this is a far greater work than The God Delusion.

(My only reference to gauge it by, so I apologize for the comparison.) But I guessed as much before, anyway.

It interests me that you have not read Dawkins book, btw.

Tony

[9thdoctor]

It has recently come to my attention that the full text of Atheism: The Case Against God is available online for free.

Is it out of copyright? What's the deal here?

[George H. Smith]

It has recently come to my attention that the full text of Atheism: The Case Against God is available online for free.

Is it out of copyright? What's the deal here?

No, ATCAG is not out of copyright. It's possible that some secular group got permission to post the book online, but I doubt it. In any case, the situation is fine with me.

Ghs

[PDS]

I refuse to read it sans purple cover.

[George H. Smith]

I refuse to read it sans purple cover.

The Nash people let me use an office to write the last chapter of ATCAG. I shared it with the young art director who designed the cover. He showed me different color schemes, and I expressed my preference for purple, white, and gold, since those were my high school colors.

Here is a bit of trivia about the cover. Most of the original hardcovers of ATCAG (4500 copies) were sold in prepublication by Academic Associates, the book service in Hollywood run by Bob Berole and Barbara Branden. AA used to feature their best selling book on the cover of the catalogue. The first time ATCAG was featured, no cover design had been finalized, so a preliminary version was quickly put together. This cover differs considerably from the final version. (I used to have a complete run of the AA catalogues, to which I contributed many reviews, but I lost them years ago.)

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

Thank you, George. I bought a copy of your book in the early 80s and gave it to a religious friend of mine who, so far as I can tell from statements of his on the web and the publicity for a movie he recently produced about the Scopes trial, was altogether uninfluenced by it.

If you were revising the book today, would you change any of its major judgments or conclusions?

I wouldn't change any major philosophical judgments or conclusions, but I would deal differently with some of the historical issues.

Also, the style of the book would be much different if I were to write it today. Some years ago I was asked by Paul Kurtz if I would be interested in writing a revised version. I declined, stating that I would probably strip the book of its youthful enthusiasm -- I wrote most of it at age 23 -- so it is probably better left as it, despite some excesses here and there.

Ghs

[George H. Smith]

In 1984, on the tenth anniversary of the publication of ATCAG, I gave a talk at the L.A. Press Club in which I criticized my book and indicated some of the things I would change. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a transcript of that talk, unless it is lurking in my files somewhere.

I also talked about the three major strands of thought that influenced my writing of the book. These were the freethought tradition, Objectivism, and standard academic treatments of proofs for the existence of God.

Beginning in the my second year of high school, I undertook an intensive reading program of freethought literature a full two years before I read anything by Rand. Overall, the freethought tradition had the greatest single influence on ATCAG. The historical perspectives are right out of the pages of Joseph McCabe, J.M. Robertson, W.E.H. Lecky, and other "rationalist" historians. My discussions of biblical prophecies, contradictions, etc., are also typical of freethought literature. (Academic philosophers typically view this stuff as too lowbrow to merit serious attention.) Even much of the polemicism in ATCAG is closer in style to Thomas Paine and other freethinkers than it is to Rand.

Ghs

[Robert Campbell]

The Nash people let me use an office to write the last chapter of ATCAG. I shared it with the young art director who designed the cover. He showed me different color schemes, and I expressed my preference for purple, white, and gold, since those were my high school colors.

Purple and gold were my high school colors.

I don't think I'd pick them to put on the front of a book, but I've gotten used to the ATCAG cover.

Robert Campbell

[Peter]

Thanks for the link George.

When I first read your book I was deeply impressed. And I still am.

I think freinds of my daughters made off with ATCAG and Barbara Branden's book. If I could find my copy of ATCAG I would quote it more, to help me refute your current arguments : o )

I remember reading it in my lazy boy chair many years ago (30?) and quoting it to my wife who was to my left.

Peter