British philosopher and former professor of European Thought, John Gray is the author of nearly a dozen books, but is perhaps best known for 2007's Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (FSG), in which he argued that humans ought to strip ourselves of the “dangerous” illusion that we are different from other animals.
Gray's new book, Seven Types of Atheism (FSG, Oct.), takes that argument a step further by maintaining that many strands of atheism replace traditional religion with a worship of the human being. Though godless, much of what is called "atheist" is actually religious, says Gray. He asserts that the only difference between traditional atheism and religion is that instead of the worship of a monotheistic God, atheists find faith in humanity and its ability to improve as a species, and uses uprisings of the working class and technology as examples. But first, Gray establishes the different schools of thought among atheists in the book.
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