Debates on the Meaning of Life, Evolution and Spiritualism

by Frank Harris

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 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 personal immortality versus finitude and death as the fate of humankind; evolution versus creationism; and rational skepticism 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.

168 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Frank Harris was an editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to America early in life, working in a variety of unskilled jobs before attending the University of Kansas to read law. He eventually became a citizen there. After graduation he quickly tired of his legal career and returned to Europe in 1882.

He travelled on continental Europe before settling in London to pursue a career in journalism. Though he attracted much attention during his life for his irascible, aggressive personality, editorship of famous periodicals, and friendship with the talented and famous, he is remembered mainly for his multiple-volume memoir My Life and Loves, which was banned in countries around the world for its sexual explicitness.