Religious statesman Rajan Zed co-authors a book on Atheism

In a remarkable inter-faith gesture, distinguished religious statesman Rajan Zed has co-authored the book “Atheism in 150 Words” with renowned writer and atheist thinker Anthony Shafton, which is now available on Amazon.com.

The paperback “Atheism in 150 Words: Reflections on God(s), Society, Nature, and Life,” priced at $16.95, is 215 pages long, and was published on August 28, 2026.

Atheist thinker Shafton considers atheism a position of faith. Shafton believes that religion and atheism both address ultimate questions and serve comparable spiritual needs.

Religious statesman Zed, who is committed to interfaith and worldview dialogue and pluralism, feels that genuine understanding requires engaging respectfully not only with those who share one’s beliefs, but also with those who fundamentally disagree. Dialogue across worldviews—even radically opposed ones—strengthens tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and reduces the demonization of “others” in an increasingly pluralistic world.

Besides United States Senate and US House-of-Representatives in Washington DC, Rajan Zed has read opening-prayers in various State Senates, State Houses of Representatives, County Commissions, City/Town Councils all-over USA, covering 365 legislative bodies in 47 US states, one US territory and Canada. Bestowed with “World Interfaith Leader Award,” he is on the Advisory Board of Interfaith Peace Project, Senior Fellow and Religious Advisor of Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, etc. He has been panelist for “On Faith,” prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced by The Washington Post; and he has been producing weekly interfaith panel “Faith Forum” in a USA Today group newspaper, which brings various religions/denominations together, since February 2011.

Anthony Shafton has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in Philosophy, and a master’s degree from Stanford in Creative Writing. In addition to Atheism in 150 Words, he has published five nonfiction books: Conditions of Awareness: Subjective Factors in the Social Adaptations of Man and Other Primates; Dream Reader: Contemporary Approaches to the Understanding of Dream; Dream-Singers: The African American Way with Dreams; The Nevada They Knew: Robert Caples and Walter Van Tilburg Clark; and A Nevada Life: Richard Guy Walton. He has also published a novel, The Apostate Heriger (published in France as Le Moine Apostat). He is currently at work on a book about the evolution of consciousness.