This is an account of the world's greatest ‘intellectual virtuosos,' who are also humanity's greatest doubters and disbelievers, from the ancient Greek philosophers, Jesus, and the Eastern religions, to modern secular equivalents Marx, Freud and Darwin—and their attempts to reconcile the seeming meaninglessness of the universe with the human need for meaning,
Introduction: Doubt Is No Shadow: A Quiz and a Guide to the Question
Chapter 1: Whatever Happened to Zeus and Hera?, 600 BCE–1 CE: Greek Doubt
Chapter 2: Smacking the Temple, 600 BCE–1 CE: Doubt and the Ancient Jews
Chapter 3: What the Buddha Saw, 600 BCE–1 CE: Ancient Doubt in Asia
Chapter 4: When in Rome in Doubt, 50 BCE–200 CE: Empire of Reason
Chapter 5: Christian Doubt, Zen, Elisha, and Hypatia, 1–800 CE: Late-Classical Mix
Chapter 6: Medieval Doubt Loops-the-Loop, 800–1400: Muslims to Jews to Christians
Chapter 7: The Printing Press and the Age of Martyrs, 1400–1600: Renaissance and Inquisition
Chapter 8: Sunspots and White House Doubters, 1600–1800: Revolutions in the Authority of Reason
Chapter 9: Doubt’s Bid for a Better World, 1800–1900: Freethinking in the Age of Science and Reform
Chapter 10: Principles of Uncertainty, 1900–: The New Cosmopolitan
Conclusion: The Joy of Doubt: Ethics, Logic, Mood