David Ramsay Steele

From Philosopedia

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David Ramsay Steele (day/month/year - )

Steele was born in (city) (state) to (occupation and name of father and mother and siblings if any).

He was educated at (schools including any degrees).

Although brought up a Christian, Steele in his introduction to Atheism Explained writes,

• I became an atheist by the age of thirteen. For a few years, it seemed axiomatic that I ought to do my bit to help convert the world to atheism. Then I became more interested in social and political questions.

• Over the years since then, the whole issue of atheism gradually sank into comparative insignificance. It seemed clear to me, and still seems obvious today, that there is no God. But it has also gradually become apparent that this issue has less practical urgency than I used to imagine.

• Most people who say that they believe in God live their lives pretty much as they would if they did not believe in God. They are nominal theists with secular outlooks and secular lifestyles. They would judge it to be at best a lapse of taste if any mention of God were to intrude into their everyday lives.

Steele lists the following religions that do not believe in the God of classical theism:

• Buddhism - has traditionally held that the universe has existed and will exist forever;

• Chinese traditional religion - the views of nearly one-fifth of the world's population are largely an amalgam of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism and do not hold that deceased ancestors are still conscious;

• Christian Atheism - the "death of God" theology of the 1960s is expressed in Don Cupitt's Taking Leave of God - followers work within traditional denominations including the Unitarian Universalist;

• Confucianism - emphasizes right conduct and has a vague reference to "heaven" that is nothing like the central part of "God" in the Abrahamic faiths;

• Daoism - "the way" in this traditional Chinese outlook has no concept of worship or salvation, holding that violent action produces more problems than it solves;

• Falun Gong - is a new religion with about 100,000,000 followers who are concerned with raising their consciousness, improving their health, and behaving morally;

• Jainism - does not reject the word "God" but defines it in terms of abstract qualities, not as a conscious agent;

• Shinto - the traditional folk-religion of Japan has little in the way of a distinctive morality;

• Unitarian Universalists - although once considered Christian, a recent survey shows labels respondents preferred (they could use several) were Humanist (54%); Agnostic (33%); Earth-centered (31%); Atheist (18%); Buddhist (16.5%); Christian (13.1%); and Pagan (13.1%).

Steele currently is Editorial Director of Open Court Publishing Company and lives in Illinois.

Works

The Passion of Ayn Rand (1986)

Great Economic Thinkers: Karl Marx - Das Kapital, from Capitalist Exploitation

to Communist Revolution (sound recording, 1988)

From Marx to Mises: Post-Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Economic Calculation

(1992)

Three Minute Therapy: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (with Michael

R. Edelstein, 1997)

From Marx to Mises: Post Capitalist Society and the Challenge of Calculation (1999)

Alice in Wonderland: A Review of The Passion of Ayn Rand (PDF by Barbara Branden

(2001)

Genius - In their Own Words: The Intellectual Journeys of Seven Great 20th-Century

Thinkers (editor, 2002)

Essays include A. J. Ayer on what led to his logical positivist manifesto Language, Truth, and Logic, and Martin Buber on the origins of his view of existence. Other contributors include Albert Einstein, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Bertrand Russell, and Jean-Paul Sartre.

"The Mystery of Fascism: Mussolini - as he would like to have been remembered"

(Libertarian Alliance," 2003)

The Atkins Diet and Philosophy (contributor, 2005)

Karl Marx: Das Kapital (Audio CD, 2006)

The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief (contributor, 2007)

Atheism Explained: From Folly To Philosophy (2008)

Which of the following apply? atheists, Unitarians, freethinkers, agnostics, Ethical Culturists, Christian Atheists, secular humanists, humanities humanists, etc.?