Even as the number of unbelievers continues to rise, religion in America still gets unwarrantably good press. Unfortunately, the central religious concept of the “sacred” proves, upon closer inspection, to be fictitious. This book surveys the various traditional “fortresses” of the sacred and finds them all empty and indefensible.

This book is a broad survey of our 'sacred texts,' both Holy Writ and secular masterpieces, whose canonical status often exempt them from hardnosed, commonsense criticism. A frank look at this literature is necessary and reveals a stunning combination of bias and blindness toward women.

This new work sees pessimism not as a kind of depressed moodiness or self-indulgent negativity, but as the inevitable result of any fair-minded survey of the world we actually live in.

In today's world, we are witnessing both the spread of a hopeful secular humanism and the persistence of cultural traditions that mindlessly glorify humans and are paving the path to environmental collapse. In Dim and Dimmer, Peter Heinegg tackles the question: “Can the ‘New Enlightenment’ already dawning save the day?”.

The destructive tension between human needs and environmental conservation arises from flaws in our political and economic structures. Oppression of people and devastation of nature go hand in hand, and the root of both these evils is the denial of otherness. The ecology movement is basically a movement of liberation, and is in league, de jure and de facto, with other liberation movements, since it seeks to promote the rights ofthe nonhuman world. In this context, subjugation of the Other is (...) immoral in all forms and ultimately suicidal. Recognition of the value of nonhuman nature doesn’t preclude a rational use of it, but requires something analogous to the primitive custom of apologizing to the spirits of prey, i.e., a mixture of religious respect and common sense. Awareness of the beauty and power of nature, like awareness ofthe injured rights of our fellow humans, creates a revolutionary moral imperative to change the life of our society. (shrink)

The destructive tension between human needs and environmental conservation arises from flaws in our political and economic structures. Oppression of people and devastation of nature go hand in hand, and the root of both these evils is the denial of otherness. The ecology movement is basically a movement of liberation, and is in league, de jure and de facto, with other liberation movements, since it seeks to promote the rights ofthe nonhuman world. In this context, subjugation of the Other is (...) immoral in all forms and ultimately suicidal. Recognition of the value of nonhuman nature doesn’t preclude a rational use of it, but requires something analogous to the primitive custom of apologizing to the spirits of prey, i.e., a mixture of religious respect and common sense. Awareness of the beauty and power of nature, like awareness ofthe injured rights of our fellow humans, creates a revolutionary moral imperative to change the life of our society. (shrink)

This book is a satirical-analytical view of monotheism in our time. Building on the work of both the great traditional unbelievers - Hume, Mill, Nietzsche, and Freud, among others -and contemporary critics - Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Ibn Warraq, etc. - Heinegg exposes the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The conviction that death means everlasting extinction, with no possibility of an afterlife, is described by Heinegg as "mortalism." In this unique anthology, he has collected more than 50 selections of poetry and prose that reflect this view.

Like war and politics, philosophy is too important to be left to professionals. Oh Wait_Now I Get It illustrates this basic truth by tackling a broad spectrum of issues, which include: history, religion, government, sex, family, and death. In fact, the entire contemporary cultural scene from the perspective of a thoughtful amateur philosopher is brought forth within this book. Recalling Neitzsche's dictum that all philosophy is also confession, Professor Peter Heinegg begins with some autobiographical pieces on his background, which include (...) seven years in Jesuit seminaries and doctoral studies at Harvard. He then offers approximately three-dozen brief, pointed, and witty essays that focus on present-day issues, but draw upon a lifetime of reading, teaching, and writing about the great literary and philosophical classics. (shrink)