Animal Liberation and Atheism

Religious arguments for animal rights and liberation are fairly common in the literature on the animal question and the animal condition. Meanwhile, arguments considering animal liberation from a deliberately secular perspective are virtually nonexistent. In Animal Liberation and Atheism: Dismantling the Procrustean Bed, Kim Socha initiates the conversation by exploring how the concept of religion is inherently antithetical to animal liberation. She also challenges secularists to view the world differently, free from religion's cultural baggage. Finally, Animal Liberation and Atheism is a call for everyone to consider developing a system of ethics disengaged from anthropocentric and speciesist mythologies so that needless violence against all beings and the environment may diminish.

Advance Praise for Animal Liberation and Atheism

"In this cogently argued treatise Socha demonstrates that science and reason, not religion and faith, are the primary drivers of moral progress. Socha lays out the arguments for animal rights so well that I predict you will abandon your speciesism by the end." -Michael Shermer, author of The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Bend Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

"A remarkable text, one which affirms Kim Socha's deserved reputation as one of the most important and original scholar-activists ... Written with admirable rigour, eloquence, and verve."-Richard J. White, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

"This is an important book ... Socha takes to task many atheist heroes for their missteps and evasions of the ethical ideals of veganism."-Jason Torpy, President of the Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers

"A powerful, enormously important, and truly ambitious book that goes to the heart of the tensions between organized religion and animal liberation." -David Naguib Pellow, University of Minnesota

"If you are willing to read this thoughtful and well-documented book with an open mind ... then I guarantee you will never think of food consumption in the same way again." -annalise fonza, Ph.D., Independent writer, educator, blogger

"A critical reflection on vegan practice and atheism which does great service to both. It constitutes the first explicit attempt to consider a path toward a new vegan atheology." -Richard Twine, author of Animals as Biotechnology: Ethics, Sustainability and Critical Animal Studies