Latest Humanist Press Ebook Includes Online Reader Commentary, Linked Videos

For immediate release



Contact:

Humanist Press: Brian Magee, 202-238-9088 ex. 105, Mobile: (202) 681-2425 bmagee@americanhumanist.org

Luis Granados, Author: luis@luisgranados.com

(Washington, DC – July 31, 2012) – The power that comes from religious authority has been at the center of all human societies from time immemorial–but those claims of sovereignty have been disputed for just as long. In Damned Good Company: Twenty Rebels Who Bucked the God Experts, author Luis Granados explores twenty cases, from Socrates to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, of brave challenges against those claiming a special authority from God.

Damned Good Company is a book about people, not about God. People who have preached about God, taken money for sharing what they say they know about God, and ordered others about to enforce what they claim to be God’s will–and a small band of heroes who stood up to them.

In short, Damned Good Company is a Profiles in Courage for humanists.

Some of the twenty heroes of Damned Good Company are well-known: Erasmus, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Clarence Darrow, Atatürk, Nehru, Steve Biko. Others are not: people like Han Yü, banished from the 9th century Chinese court for questioning the worship of the Buddha’s finger, and Lucy Harris, who came within an inch of deflating Mormonism before it got off the ground.

Each hero is contrasted with a villain of his or her time and place: either a God expert like Martin Luther or Joseph Smith or a cynical politician like Mussolini, who never believed in God but exploited religion shamelessly to advance his political ambition.

The stories in Damned Good Company will inspire those today who want to stand up to the Christian Right, the Muslim fanatics, the oppressiveness of Catholic and Jewish orthodoxy, the rising Hindu Taliban, and everyone else who claims a God-given right to tell the rest of us what to do.

This enhanced ebook has been extensively researched, with over 1,100 footnotes. It takes full advantage of state-of-the-art features with over 100 photographs, online reader comments, linked videos, and hundreds of useful web links.

Damned Good Company is available from HumanistPress.com and all major online ebook retailers.

A chapter excerpt can be found here: http://wdn.ipublishcentral.net/american_humanist_association/viewinside/37848926609202

Brief video summaries of each chapter can be found here: https://vimeo.com/album/2002877

A book launch party will take place on Sept. 20, 2012, 7-9 pm, at The Hill Center, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20003.

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Humanist Press is the publishing house of the American Humanist Association, providing material for the humanist/freethought/atheist market since 1995. The American Humanist Association (www.americanhumanist.org) advocates for the rights and viewpoints of humanists and atheists in the United States. Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., its work is extended through more than 150 local chapters and affiliates across America.

Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity.