First reader reviews for 50 Great Myths About Atheism are in

Our book is finally out, virtually at least. Since mid August 50 Great Myths About Atheism is available on amazon as a Kindle edition. The print version should be rolling out in Europe in early September, North America in early October etc. We are on, so to speak. The first reviews of the Kindle version have already appeared on the amazon.com site. Here's a flavour:

4.0 out of 5 star Ambitious, and mostly very satisfying Aug 25 2013

By J.A. Rousseau - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I spent a little time mulling over whether this should be a four- or a five-star review. In truth, I'd have liked to award a 4.5 star rating, because the book is perhaps slightly too ambitious, with the authors setting a standard that was always going to be difficult to full satisfy. The main concern I have can perhaps be summarized in saying that it's sometimes unclear who the audience of the book is intended to be, and the tone and content of various chapters ends up seeming slightly inconsistent as a result. Sometimes one gets the impression that the book is "arming" atheists against the caricatures of theists, and at other times, that theists are being addressed in an attempt to dispel their confusions. This gives rise to an unevenness in the level of detail, and also the tone, of various chapters.

As for the reasons why I'd want to award at least 4, and ideally 4.5 stars, the book is enormously instructive. For the patient reader, the level of detail in many of the chapters is superb, and even for "myths" that you're already very familiar with, you'll often find a citation or example you didn't yet know about. The book begins by asking you to consider what are quite tricky questions, even before proceeding with discussing the myths - namely in discussions of who "counts" as an atheist, and what should count as myths. In my view, this could be described as one of the more challenging elements of the book to write, in that there are all sorts of opportunities for readers to take issue even at that early stage, rejecting the authors' definitions, and choosing to adopt an uncharitable attitude to the rest of the book as a result.

However, Blackford and Schüklenk set the tone for the rest of the book in those introductory sections, explaining with great clarity and to good persuasive effect that certain questions can be set aside, or at least resolved to a sufficient extent to make the myths that are dealt with worth focusing on. As I say, that rhetorical and argumentative skill is then carried throughout the book, leaving the reader feeling both enlightened and entertained in the reading of it.

I'd highly recommend this book for (at least) two sets of readers: first, the honestly curious theist, who is suspicious of the easy dismissals that some of his or her kind deploy against atheists. Second, the atheist who wants to develop a thoughtful, well-reasoned set of defenses against some of the stereotypes that are assigned to atheists - not only by theists, but also in popular culture.

(Disclosure: I am personally acquainted with both of the authors, and one is a colleague of mine. I do not however regard that as having influenced my comments unduly.)

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as the editorial reviews said Aug 24 2013

By peter veitch - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Excellent thinking about this important topic. Some good ideas that are new to me. I have changed some views after reading this.

50 Great Myths About Atheism

Ha, and there it is, in all its glory, the cover of our upcoming 50 Great Myths About Atheism! You can't say that folks could easily overlook it in their local bookstore (where they still exist)!

The publisher is currently producing the page pdf's, so it'll be a few more months before it'll actually be out!

Wow! 9 Volume Ethics Encyclopedia finally out!

You can't but help think 'wow' when you actually hold the 9 beautiful volumes comprising the Wiley-Blackwell International Encyclopedia of Ethics in your hands. It simply is an amazing feat accomplished by an experienced hand at producing top-quality edited works, Hugh LaFollette. So, to get the disclaimers out of the way, I have three entries in this encyclopedia. I also edit journals for this publisher and I am contracted to produce a couple of books for Wiley-Blackwell.

Conflict of interest or no, you can't help but feel in awe of this reference work. The list of authors truly reads like a list of the Who is Who in academic ethics, ranging from David Archard, Marcia Baron, Roger Crisp, Norman Daniels over Dale Jamieson, Margaret Moore and Rosalind Hoursthouse to the likes of Philip Pettit, C. L. Ten, Rosemarie Tong and Michael Tooley and hundreds of others. It is not the case, by the way, that authors could just send their stuff in and after a cursory review they'd be accepted. I truly battled it out over one entry with Hugh and kind of lost, at last any consequentialist would see it that way. When I refused to add particular content that Hugh wanted referenced and that I genuinely thought wasn't worth citing, we found a way out of this impasse (classic stand-off between editor and author, I've been there on both sides more often than I care to remember).  A co-author was added, said co-author added the content Hugh was keen on, and everyone moved on with their lives. As I said, consequentialists would rightly note that I 'lost' this one.

As you would expect of such a work, it provides a comprehensive index both organized in alphabetical order as well as broader subject areas, as well as further readings following each entry. There is even a limited number of entries on 'Non-Western Ethics', the emphasis here being on limited. I was a bit surprised that no dedicated entries were to be found on secular approaches to ethics and their relationship to religious approaches to ethics. I should not pretend, of course, that I read all or even most of the entries, but at least the available indices didn't point me to anything dedicated to this complicated issue. There are a few entries on religion, but nothing on atheism, secularism or indeed humanism. To be fair, many entirely secular approaches to ethics (eg utilitarianism) are featuring prominently in the encyclopedia, so perhaps this isn't such a big deal after all. In any case, it's all too easy, with a work of this scope, to squibble over 'missing' content, or individual authors' take on a particular issue. Only small-minded reviewers would ponder for too long on such omissions or individual authors' takes on particular subject matters.

Researchers and students in my own field of specialization, Bioethics, will find as contributors the names of many leading academics as well as those of many junior scholars. Hugh LaFollette and his team deserve the highest praise for this astounding product. I have no doubt that this encyclopedia will serve as the reference work both for established researchers as well as for students trying to get a quick overview of particular subjects for many years to come.

Of course, this is the 21st century, so the first hint that this project had come to fruition and that my entries were 'around' came with a google scholar alert telling me that something with my name on it had been published. The link embedded in said alert sent me straight to Wiley's website where an on-line version of the entry was available for download. That's a wonderful thing, of course, and something other encyclopedias offer, too. Wiley plans to up-date the individual on-line entries more frequently than it plans to publish future editions of the print copy. I must say that I am a tad bit puzzled about this. To me this seems to suggest that there could (well, that there will) be distinctly different entries on the same subject matter in the same encyclopedia, except that one will be in the print version, and another in the on-line version. In some ways this won't matter, because you can still choose which one to cite for your purposes. On the other hand, once the first set of revisions is filtering thru into the on-line version, there will be different products out there, under the same name. I'm not too keen on this, but I cannot see how this can be avoided. On the bright sight, as authors we will be able to boycott revisions of our on-line content if the publisher behaves sufficiently badly as to draw the wrath of the academic community on itself (just ask Elsevier). I, for instance, have not updated various entries in two Elsevier owned encyclopedias since the academic boycott of Elsevier got off the ground. It goes without saying that at that point in time things would get even more confusing as the print edition would have an entry from one author, while the on-line edition could well have an entry on the same topic from someone different. It'll be fun to watch how Wiley and its team of editors will deal with such an eventuality.

2013 here we come

I'm off to a good start into 2013, at least on the work-related fronts. Russell Blackford and I submitted in the dying days of 2012 the final copy of our up-coming 50 Great Myths about Atheism to Wiley-Blackwell, our publisher. I have also been working diligently with Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer on the 3rd edition of Bioethics - An Anthology, which should also be out some time this year. It's going to be an 800+ pages doorstopper. The question is what to do with the remainder of my sabbatical, roughly another 9 months worth of no teaching and administrative responsibilities at the university. I need to get going on a book project on Global Health Ethics, but there's also a tempting new introductory bioethics textbook to produce that's heavily oriented toward the inclusion and utilisation of on-line networking tools. Difficult call, but a decision has to be made. I have also written a piece that's forthcoming during the next few days in the Journal of medical ethics. Using the debate on infanticide I show how bioethics journal editors come under ever-increasing scrutiny by political campaigners and other pressure groups to publish whatever it is that these campaigners and organizations deem 'right', and that we cease and desist from publishing content they disapprove of. These are worrying developments. Keep your eyes open for the article. I understand that it will be an Open Access document, but if it isn't, ask me for the pdf and I shall post it your way. With Ricardo Smalling I have co-authored a paper that also coming out in the next few days, this one in the Journal of Medical Humanities. We are looking there at the impact religiously motivated anti-gay sentiments have on the professional (or not so professional) conduct of some health care professionals. Not terribly original is our suggestion that tighter regulations are required to protect queer patients from such health care personnel's unprofessional conduct. But it had to be said. We are also taking head-on the silly idea that conscience based objections to homosexuality should be a valid reason to treat queer patients different to other patients. Right now I am revising the entry on 'Utilitarianism' for the 4th edition of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics. I had written pretty much what I thought ought to be said and passed it by a number of colleagues. I received plenty  of very constructive feed-back in the middle of the holiday season (who says academics are lazy!). During the rest of this week I will revise what I got, and then submit to the editors of the encyclopedia.

2013 will see in Canada a number of exciting landmark cases being decided by the Supreme Court (well, by virtue of them coming to the Supreme Court they got to be landmark cases, of course). Among them a case where the family of a patient in persistent vegetative state wants the taxpayers to fork out 2,000 C$ per day for futile medical care vs doctors who think they'd have the last word on cessation of treatment. I am not in favour of either party here, so I am curious what the Court will make of it all. Then, of course, presumably by the middle of the year, the Court should issue a finding on the constitutionality of the criminal code prohibition of any form of assisted dying in the country. I suspect that a lot will hang on whether the judges on the Court can be persuaded by one side or the other that there is or isn't a slippery slope from decriminalizing assisted dying in some form or shape to the killing of people who do not wish to see their lives terminated.  I have seen no proof for the existence of such a slippery-slope, but who knows what the judges on the Court will make of the arguments and evidence presented to it. If you were to ask me for a prediction, I would guess that the Court will find that the absolute prohibition of assisted dying in all cases simply is too broad, and that it will open the door for decriminalization in a restricted number of clearly defined cases. But then, your guess is as good as mine.

2013 promises to be an exciting year for us bioethics and health policy wonks.