Further Reading and References
Marx’s comments about religion as opium were fi rst published in
Contribution to Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843).
Thomas Aquinas considers the problem of the ‘waters above the
heavens’ in his Summa Theologica, Book I, question 68.
Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on the corruptions of Christianity are in
his letter to Dr Benjamin Rush, from Washington, on 21 April 1803.
Auguste Comte’s philosophy is explained in his General View of
Positivism, translated by J.H. Bridges and published by Robert Speller
and Sons (1957). The quote is taken from Chapter 1.
For more on Heidegger’s views on art and unveiling see the essay ‘The
Origin of the Work of Art’ in Basic Writings, edited by David Farrell
Krell, published by Routledge (1993).
Wittgenstein’s philosophy of propositions forms the basis of his Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus published by Routledge Classics (2001).
Mark Rothko’s comments are reported in a commentary on the Rothko
room at Tate Modern in London, and originate in a statement
he made at a MOMA symposium ‘How to Combine Architecture,
Painting and Sculpture’ in 1951.
The Big Bangs: The Story of Five Discoveries that Changed Musical History by
Howard Goodall is published by Vintage (2001).
The line from Wallace Stevens comes from the poem ‘The Man With
The Blue Guitar’. His Collected Poems are published by Faber and Faber
(2006).
Peter Singer explores the notion of transcendent causes in How are we to
live? published by Oxford University Press (1997), with the discussion
of transcendent causes coming on page 253ff.
The Faith to Doubt: Glimpses of Buddhist Uncertainty by Stephen Batchelor
is published by Parallax Press (1990).
Augustine’s comments are in his Confessions, Chapter 10 – the trans-
lation by R.S. Pine-Coffi n is published by Penguin (1961) – and I’m
indebted in the discussion of this dynamic of his spirituality to Denys
Turner and his book The Darkness of God published by Cambridge
University Press (1995).
The quote from Anthony Price is from his Love and Friendship in Plato
and Aristotle published by Clarendon Press (1997), on page 42.
5. Bad Faith: Religion as Certainty
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction, by Julian Baggini, is published by
Oxford University Press (2003): see page 106 for the quote. In What’s
It All About? Philosophy and the Meaning of Life, published by Granta
(2004), he offers an atheist’s take on the ‘big questions’.