Debates on the Meaning of Life

Does life have a meaning? Is evolution true? Do spirits exist? These are the issues argued in the three lively debates transcribed in this volume. The featured speakers include: Frank Harris, outspoken journalist, biographer, novelist, and playwright; rationalist Percy Ward; anti-evolutionist George McCready Price; Joseph McCabe, ex-priest and the world’s greatest scholar ; and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and defender of spiritualism. All the issues covered in these classic exchanges are still current and hotly debated: personal immortality versus finitude and death as the fate of humankind; evolution versus creationism; and rational scepticism versus belief in the paranormal. All the combatants make forceful cases for their own side of the issue; each debate will engage and delight the reader.