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Palgrave Macmillan

After Atheism

Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life

  • Book
  • © 2007

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Authors:
  1. Mark Vernon
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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 1-12

  3. Socrates’ Quest: the Beginning of Wisdom

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 13-38

  4. Cosmologists and Darwinists: the Limits of Science

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 39-56

  5. Visions of Reality: Science and Wonder

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 57-83

  6. Bad Faith: Religion as Certainty

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 85-110

  7. Christian Agnosticism: Learned Ignorance

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 111-137

  8. Following Socrates: a Way of Life

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 139-163

  9. How to Be an Agnostic: an Aphoristic A–Z

    • Mark Vernon
    Pages 165-188

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 189-198
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Keywords

About this book

If science has replaced God, is life necessarily meaningless? This book argues that the advances of science and the retreat of religion in secular society does not have to mean a life without spirituality.

Reviews

'Between religion and atheism is a third way into which Vernon takes his readers. It is a challenging, cogently argued perspective.' - Good Book Guide

'For twenty years I have been waiting for a book that exposes the empty certainties of religious fundamentalism and its secular twin: scientific triumphalism. Mark Vernon has delivered that and much, much more.' - Mark Dowd, broadcaster and film-maker

'He defends ambiguity and undecidability with an almost Evangelical zeal. And because he writes with such a delicate blend of deft coolness on the one hand, and fervour on the other, many are likely to be both enchanted and persuaded by his apologetics. - Martyn Percy, Church Times

'The strength of the book...is in challenging false certainties, whether pseudo-scientific or pseudo-religious.' - Dolan Cummings, The Institute of Ideas

'This book is more than a well-reasoned argument for agnosticism; it is a timely reminder of the recognition of human limits, in all areas, and a suggestion that the possibility of living within the mystery that is the world can be a good thing.' - Robert L. Smith, Jr., International Journal of Public Theology

About the author

Mark Vernon began his professional life as a priest in the Church of England, left an atheist, and is now a searching agnostic on such things. He is a writer and journalist, other titles including After Atheism and Wellbeing, part of the Art of Living series he edits. He writes regularly for the Guardian and the TLS, is on the faculty at The School of Life in London, and is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck College, London. He has degrees in physics and theology, and a PhD in philosophy.

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