How to Be an Atheist

Why Many Skeptics Aren't Skeptical Enough

By: Mitch Stokes

Narrated by: Chris Abell

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Atheists talk a lot about the importance of skepticism. But the truth is, they're not nearly skeptical enough.

While atheists champion the importance of a critical stance toward religion, they often fail to take that same stance toward their own beliefs. This double standard results in grandiose claims about the certainty of their unbelief―which is logically inconsistent at best and intellectually dishonest at worst. Turning atheists’ skepticism around on their own naturalist worldview, philosopher Mitch Stokes critically examines two things that such skeptics hold dear―science and morality―and reveals deep inconsistencies among their most cherished beliefs, inconsistencies that threaten to undo atheism itself.

©2016 Mitch Stokes (P)2022 One Audiobooks

A careful examination of naturalist assumptions

While the author is a Christian, I appreciated his careful examination of the different perspectives held by various atheist thinkers as well as different theists. I did not make a careful count, but it seemed to me he quoted more perspectives from atheist thinkers than theist ones, and examined them honestly.

Stokes carefully steps through the logical implications of different views on science and the practice of science (e.g logical positivism, naturalism and materialism, scientific instrumentalism and scientific realism, how evolutionary psychology and biology attempt to tackle moral concerns and experience, Hume's Fork). While the book is ultimately a critique of naturalist, materialist, and physical reductionist assumptions, it is a respectful critique and raises issues worth thinking about. While it is certainly attention grabbing, I don't believe the title is meant to imply this is an instruction manual for being an atheist (it is certainly not) but rather emphasizes examining what conclusions are entailed by holding to naturalistic and physically reductionist assumptions, as evidenced by the subtitle, A great many western atheist thinkers and writers of the last several centuries have held and continue to hold these assumptions, and anyone similarly committed must wrestle with implications raised in this book, implications other atheist thinkers have themselves raised, even if disagreeing with some of the perspectives of the author.

This is some dense material, and I recommend going though it carefully and giving each chapter some thought, but I felt the author did a good job building his critique from more general epistemological stances and ontological perspectives to specific implications of our assumptions about the nature of the world. The author's dry humor and occasional wordplay was also helpful in maintaining attention. While there is some apologetic material (a defense of theism) as the author shares his own perspective, the bulk of the book is not so much an argument for theism as a reasonable critique of the arguments against theism, similar in spirit to the agnostic David Berlinski's "The Devil's Delusion" while in my opinion "How to Be an Atheist" has a much more respectful tone and careful methodology.

I found the narrator easy to listen to, and I appreciated the slight shift of voice the narrator used when reading quotations. It was subtle, but the change helped me know when a quotation was being read instead of the author's words. Recommended for critical thinkers of all stripes.