A wide ranging collection of essays, poems and selections from larger works arranged chronologically, starting with a selection from Lucretius' De Rerum Natura and ending with part of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's How and why I became an Infidel. Even the seasoned atheist is likely to find something "new" here: there is an excellent introduction by Chris Hitchens, a reminder that there is nothing new under the sun with the writings of Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, David Hume and John Stuart Mill, a discussion of the TV evangelist equivalents of her time by Mary Ann Evans, the thoughts of Charles Darwin from his autobiography, the unusually vitriolic comments of Samuel Clemens, an entertaining list of Einstein's attempts to deny his belief in the supernatural (many wanted the "smartest man" to be religious), and more from Emma Goldman, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Ian McEwan and Philip Larkin. I found Martin Gardner's history of the idea of the wandering Jew, Sam Harris' discussion of the persecution of witches and antisemitism and Ibn Warraq's discussion of the Koran and Sharia law to be unusually interesting. All the selections can't be equally strong, but my only negative comment would be that I had the opportunity to be reminded how extraordinarily opaque the writing of Karl Marx is. ( )

Some of these essays were great. I may have to read the books where they came from. Ii especially liked Bertrand Russell. ( )

An academic collection; interesting but dry ( )

This book is a collection of writings by influencial writers of the past, selected for their "non-believer" content - not a clear, concise, or consistent approach on the subject. Many of the writers are from the past, and their language and style is of their era. I found it to be a jumble of ideas which often were lost on me. ( )

Religion is boring whether you are listening to an advocate or an atheist. There were only a few essays that were fascinating. Listening to Stephen Fry on a religious programme in the UK answering the question "what would you say to God if you found yourself in heaven when you die". It was the most fabulous reply. So, it is a book for people who really want to read on the subject, who are not anal about reading every word in every book. If you are willing to skip and skim, there are nuggets. ( )