SECULARISM: THE HIDDEN ORIGINS OF DISBELIEF Mike King

Spirituality can prove a difficult subject these days. Everywhere, from popular media to the bookshelf to the dinner table, religions are derided or marginalised, and some authors seem to make a living by setting upon anyone who admits to a belief in God. It seems, says Mike King, that science and religion are fundamentally at odds and that a mutual respect is unacceptable to either in their parallel pursuit of 'truth'. Yet the majority of 'Enlightenment' authors engaged with both science and spirituality and did not lose their faith. In Secularism, Mike King examines the elements of religion, philosophy and science which have contributed to an almost total disavowal of spirituality by contemporary western intellectuals. He engages with a wide range of thinkers, including Pythagoras, Marx, Spinoza, Darwin and Nietzsche, and incorporates detailed studies of a variety of 'spiritual' leaders, to uncover why the western world no longer has any interest in devotion or accords it any respect.
320pp, 156mm x 234mm, Paperback, 2007