Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist - Simple Thoughts About Reason, Gods and Faith follows in the footsteps of recent best-sellers such as Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great, Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, and Sam Harris' The End of Faith.
NOTE TO PROSPECTIVE BUYERS: The
REVISED AND EXPANDED version of the book-as pictured here with the red starburst on the cover-is the 2019 edition. Unfortunately, Amazon uses the same picture for the side-sellers, even those offering only the 2010 edition. Order from the main listing to be sure you're getting the new one.
Whereas Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris have written mainly about the rational basis, the WHY of atheism, this book looks at the HOW - how it feels, how it works, from the inside. Coming from a writer who grew up in Texas and worked as a real cowboy and draft horse teamster (the cover picture even shows the author riding a bull!), as well as a carpenter, roofer and truck driver, the book is based on decades of examining the process in his own mind as he moved from Christianity to atheism. Putting it simply, here are some of the things an atheist might think, and the way he or she might think them.
More than once called a master of metaphor in the blogosphere, author Hank Fox tackles the subject of atheism with subtle humor and a friendly, informal tone, in two dozen chapters with names like
Sundae Worship, The Parable of the M&Ms, Batman Almighty, The Wellspring of the Gods, Sucking Up to the Virgin Mary, The Evidence of True Things, The Headwaters of Reality, Hello Mr. Death, and
Saying Goodbye to Gods.
Largely aimed at young adults, especially those from religious backgrounds and new to thinking about atheism and freethought, this book will also provide ammunition for those of a more intellectual bent faced with the necessity of explaining atheism in simple terms to friends and relatives.
Best of all, the book focuses not just on the negatives of religion, but on the positives of atheism - the freedom and mental clarity for individuals, but also the hopeful future for our entire world as we proceed with a social revolution already in progress.
A former draft horse teamster and cowboy, Hank Fox has been kicked, stepped on, knocked down, bitten, and bucked off by horses. (Fortunately, there were those other times when he got along with horses just fine, and even stayed in the saddle.) Growing up in Texas with a bunch of rodeo cowboys and rednecks, roping calves and quarter horses, his early blue collar work history included driving a dump truck and soda delivery truck, working as a framing carpenter, and work as a roofer and roofing company foreman. Later he served as a mule packer, ranch hand and wilderness horseback ride guide in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. He drove hay wagons and sleighs professionally for 8 years, hitchhiked around the United States more than 26,000 miles, and even once hopped a ride on a freight train. Older now, he does a lot of his work indoors - but claims he can still saddle a horse and find his way in the wilderness, hitch up a team and get a wagon safely there and back, work cattle in the chute, hook up a two-horse trailer and tow it down the highway, and maybe even diamond-hitch a pack on a mule for a wilderness trip. Raised in a household with a Jehovah's Witness father and a Southern Baptist mom, he started to have doubts about religion by the time he was 13. It took him 20 years to figure it all out, but he ended being a confirmed atheist, and later even an antitheist - which he describes as, "Not only do I not believe in supernatural superbeings, but I don't think you should either." A lifelong writer and journal-keeper, he started jotting down his thoughts and ideas on religion and atheism in private, later graduated to blogging, and eventually began to imagine writing a book on the subject. That book became "Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist: Simple Thoughts About Reason, Gods & Faith." Today he lives on what was once a farm and egg ranch in Upstate New York, only a short walk from a clear stream, with red foxes, wild turkeys and deer for neighbors. He makes his living through writing and, still true to his blue collar roots, rather annoyingly menial work in a supermarket bakery.
