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Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays
The renowned lawyer Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) was also an impassioned defender of intellectual freedom, individual liberties, and social justice. In these wide-ranging essays, Darrow attacks beliefs in the inerrancy of the Bible, the immortality of the soul, miracles, and heaven as being completely at odds with human experience and science. The life best lived, Darrow contends, is one that is ruled by reason, uncluttered by dogmatism, and aided by compassion for our fellow human beings. Essays include: "Why I Am an Agnostic," "The Myth of the Soul," "Absurdities of the Bible," "Voltaire," and "The Skeleton in the Closet."
109 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1899
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About the author
Clarence Darrow
204books61followersin 1857, Clarence Darrow, later dubbed "Attorney for the Damned" and "the Great Defender," was born. For a time he lived in an Ohio home that had served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. His father was known as the "village infidel." Darrow attended the University of Michigan Law School for one year, then passed the bar in 1878 and moved to Chicago. There he joined protests against the trumped-up charges against four radicals accused in the Haymarket Riot case. Darrow became corporate counsel to the City of Chicago, then counsel for the North Western Railway. He quit this lucrative post when he could no longer defend their treatment of injured workers, then went on to defend without pay Socialist striker Eugene V. Debs. In 1907, Darrow successfully defended labor activist "Big Bill" Haywood, charged with assassinating a former governor. His passionate denunciation of the death penalty prompted him to defend the famous killers, Loeb and Leopold, who received life sentences in 1924.
His most celebrated case was the Scopes Trial, defending teacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tenn., who was charged with the crime of teaching evolution in the public schools. Darrow's brilliant cross-examination of prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan lives on in legal history. During the trial, Darrow said: "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means." Darrow wrote many freethought articles and edited a freethought collection. His two appealing autobiographies are The Story of My Life (1932), containing his plainspoken views on religion, and Farmington (1932). He also wrote Resist Not Evil (1902), An Eye for An Eye (1905), and Crime, Its Causes and Treatments (1925). His freethought writings are collected into Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays. He told The New York Times, "Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either" (April 19, 1936). D. 1938.
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His most celebrated case was the Scopes Trial, defending teacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tenn., who was charged with the crime of teaching evolution in the public schools. Darrow's brilliant cross-examination of prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan lives on in legal history. During the trial, Darrow said: "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means." Darrow wrote many freethought articles and edited a freethought collection. His two appealing autobiographies are The Story of My Life (1932), containing his plainspoken views on religion, and Farmington (1932). He also wrote Resist Not Evil (1902), An Eye for An Eye (1905), and Crime, Its Causes and Treatments (1925). His freethought writings are collected into Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays. He told The New York Times, "Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either" (April 19, 1936). D. 1938.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 9, 2013
Remarkable book. Quoting two passages:
"Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document? We know that they were written by human beings who had no knowledge of science, little knowledge of life, and were influenced by the barbarous morality of primitive times, and were grossly ignorant of most things that men know today...
Science is responsible for the building of railroads and bridges, of steamships, of telegraph lines, of cities, towns, large buildings and small, plumbing and sanitation, of the food supply, and the countless thousands of useful things that we now deem necessary to life. Without skepticism and doubt, none of these things could have been given to the world."
"Can any rational person believe that the Bible is anything but a human document? We know that they were written by human beings who had no knowledge of science, little knowledge of life, and were influenced by the barbarous morality of primitive times, and were grossly ignorant of most things that men know today...
Science is responsible for the building of railroads and bridges, of steamships, of telegraph lines, of cities, towns, large buildings and small, plumbing and sanitation, of the food supply, and the countless thousands of useful things that we now deem necessary to life. Without skepticism and doubt, none of these things could have been given to the world."
May 9, 2016
There are a lot of good points in the book but honestly i didn't like the way that the author attacked other theologies , instead of dragging it believers with reason and logic , it was more emotional than a scientific explanation the way he disapproved the existence of god , and i guess after all the book wasn't a perfect intro to
agnosticism .
agnosticism .
April 29, 2024
One of the stupidest things I’ve ever read! I’m an atheist, not merely an agnostic, when it pertains to the existence of “natural laws”, but a devout believer when it pertains to Darrow’s colossal egoism and abject ignorance.
Shelved as '200-299-religion'
January 17, 2020211.7
April 10, 2008
I probably call this more of a rant than an essay, but I enjoyed it. It doesn't offer anything a non-believer doesn't already know, but it's a nice, easy, validating read. The edition I read also had a nice bio on Voltaire (appropriate for the tone of this essay.)
June 13, 2010
The brilliant and humane trial lawyer, famous from the Scopes Monkey trial, sets out the thoughts behind his beliefs.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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