A meditation on the importance of atheism in the modern world - and its inadequacies and contradictions - by one of Britain`s leading philosophers

For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a narrow derision of religion in the name of an often very vaguely understood `science`. John Gray`s stimulating and extremely enjoyable new book describes the rich, complex world of the atheist tradition, a tradition which he sees as in many ways as rich as that of religion itself, as well as being deeply intertwined with what is so often crudely viewed as its `opposite`.

The result is a book that sheds an extraordinary and varied light on what it is to be human and on the thinkers who have, at different times and places, battled to understand this issue.

John Gray`s major books include Straw Dogs, Black Mass and The Silence of Animals. A second edition of his essays, Gray`s Anatomy, was published in 2016. He now principally writes for the New Statesman.