Welcome to Litsy!

This book was full of interesting things that sent me down some Internet wormholes, but that's also the book's weakness. The sheer amount of stuff covered is mind-boggling. A little more focused, limited scope would make this more readable. Full review: http://tinyletter.com/BibliophilesNotes/letters/book-review-the-age-of-atheists-...

"From Hitler's point of view, probably his greatest achievement was in nullifying the oppositional power of the church--had it so minded--could have mustered. This is worth underlining: at a time when religious faith was most needed, it failed to rise to the challenge. Too little is made of this."

???

"...the book was read 'by all those who made the least pretensions to intellectual development.' Which may explain why none of Rosenberg's fellow defendants at Nuremberg would confess to having read it."

....is that some intellectual shade thrown at the Nazis???

This book is sending me down so many internet wormholes looking for more information. So far, my biggest issue with this book is just the sheer amount of stuff in it.

"The Vienna Circle no longer attacked propositions about the soul, God, the Absolute, the after-life, historical destiny, national spirit, or transcendent values, as being false or unduly speculative. Instead it maintained that insofar as they were unverifiable, they were literally meaningless."

"As far as morals go, some of the wildest boys I know are Catholics. And the brightest boys--I mean the ones who think and read a lot, don't seem to believe in much of anything anymore."

"His insight was to see that, on the contrary, any self may include within it a number of inconsistent selves, which do not necessarily act in harmony. This is an idea that ran through-out the twentieth century in all manner of disciplines, as we shall see. It is, for many, a most liberating doctrine, especially in a world without God."

My library request came in on this beautiful (almost!) spring day.