Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

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   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

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   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

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   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

BEFORE the world’s second oldest atheist magazine, The Freethinker, collapsed into soft-centred, vacuous mess just over a year ago when it abandoned its raison d’etre—aggressively ripping religion to shreds—Professor John Radford was one of its most erudite and respected contributors.

When I edited G.W. Foote‘s magazine, founded in 1881, for almost 25 years—a job I cherished until I was summarily sacked last year—I looked forward to receiving well-written, thought-provoking contributions from Radford, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of East London.

My departure from The Freethinker broke the strong connection I had with Radford, and I believed that, due to his age, he had perhaps stopped writing.

So it came as a welcome surprise when he informed me recently that he had published Religion: Its character, causes and cure: thoughts in my nineties.

Radford’s description of his book on Amazon ends thus:

There can be no real question but that all religions and religious beliefs are entirely human creations. Research increasingly shows how and why they come about, and persist, or not, as I explain in detail.

Research also shows that there are better guides to human progress and happiness. By and large, the most successful societies by numerous measures are also the least religious, and vice versa.

In the present century we humans are facing more serious problems, largely of our own making, than ever before. All the evidence and reasoning of which I am aware.show indubitably that in facing these problems religions can at most provide some comfort. They will contribute nothing whatever to their solution.

Solutions will come, if at all, through developing the capacities of individuals to think and act independently, rationally and humanely, relying on facts rather than fantasies.

Proof, as it were needed that, that religions are the foundation upon which the bloodiest conflicts in human history are based, is clearly shown in the escalating Israel-Gaza war which threatens dire repercussions throughout the region and beyond.

Radford said in an email to me today:

Amid the chaos in the Near East, I haven’t seen anyone blame the obvious cause: God. After all God gave the disputed land to the Hebrews, as their ‘promised land’ thousands of years ago. We know that’s true because it’s in the Bible.

Much later, when most of the Hebrews, now Jews, had left, God, wearing his Islamic hat, gave it to the Arabs. Possibly God was a bit forgetful, understandable given his age, or just playing one of his merry little pranks, like slaughtering innumerable innocent children in natural disasters. Anyhow they’ve been killing each other over it ever since.

In the long-gone days when The Freethinker was an invaluable forum for freethinking, I might have expanded this as a contribution.

• The Kindle version of his book retails at £7.81.

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