UNBELIEVERS
An Emotional History of Doubt
Alec Ryrie
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2019
Copyright © Alec Ryrie 2019
Cover design by Jack Smyth
Cover images © Shutterstock
Alec Ryrie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780008299811
Ebook Edition © October 2019 ISBN: 9780008299835
Version: 2019-09-23
for Victoria, my believer
‘Most of us, I suspect … make an instinctive decision, then build up an infrastructure of reasoning to justify it. And call the result common sense.’
Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Contents
Dedication
Epigraph
Impostors, Drunkards and Flat-Earthers
Physicians, ‘Naturians’ and ‘Nulla Fidians’
2. The Reformation and the Battle for Credulity
Between Superstition and Impiety
‘Doubt Wisely’: From Innocence to Experience
Incest, Thunder and Wishful Thinking