I've read a lot of books about atheism and there are so many good ones out there.
And it seems like there are more
all the time now,
whether they're self-published or not, but there's a lot more books about atheism.
But these are the ones that I think
are not just meaningful to me but I think anyone reading them,
especially people who are not atheist yet,
these are the books that would really help them out.
Or maybe you're just a new atheist, literally a new atheist. These will help you out. So,
the first one is "Atheism for Dummies".
It was written by a friend of mine, Dale McGowan, and that's not the reason it's on the list.
It's here because
I think it's just a-- It goes through
the history of atheism
you know, historically, philosophically; what atheism is all about.
But it also talks about the modern atheism movement
and what are atheists interested in now besides just the God question.
So, I think it's a nice introduction
to everything you might need to know about atheism.
And it does it without being snarky; it does it without being--
You know, obviously the author is an atheist,
Dale is an atheist, but
he's not--
He wants you to read this book if you're religious. So, you can get an understanding of atheism.
It's not hostile to religion. So, I think this is a great
entry book into anyone who wants to know more
about atheism, not just the arguments for it,
but what people are thinking now. So, I really love this book
even though it's a
"For Dummies" book, I really think this packs a lot of great information in it.
So, that's that one.
This is "Breaking the Spell" by Daniel Dennett.
I absolutely love this book. When people talk about the Four Horsemen or The New Atheists,
Daniel Dennett is mentioned in the pack,
but this book gets probably less attention than Sam Harris' and Richard Dawkins' and Christopher Hitchens'.
And I don't understand why because I love this book and I love this writing.
He's not here-- Daniel is not here to argue against religion per se.
Even though, again, he's an atheist.
But "Breaking the Spell" is all about
why religion is so powerful
and why we might--
how we might be able to overcome that. It's kind of talking about
the belief in belief; the power that religion has.
Not necessarily who's right and who's wrong. And I think is
easy to read as someone who really
hates philosophy and doesn't really
get interested in those conversations.
This is a book about philosophy that I
absolutely love. So, this is the book you want to
read when it comes to, like, the new atheists books.
And now I'm going to contradict myself right there.
Look, a lot of people will say reading Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion"-- I mean, this is the best-selling
atheist book, I think, of all time.
And this is a good book. It's a nice way
to learn about atheism.
This is not actually my favorite Richard Dawkins' book, though.
And, you know, praise to "The God Delusion"; it's a nice book.
But if you're an atheist, this is not the one you want to read.
This is the book you want to read.
This is the first Richard Dawkins' book I ever read.
It's called "The Ancestor's Tale".
It's not even about atheism.
But it's all about evolution and how it works.
And this natural history of human life.
And I read this, I think, when I was in graduate school on my own.
And dude, it's a thick book, but
every page-- I'm reading through it
and it's the first time I think I was really exposed to evolution.
And I really understood what was happening as I was going through this.
And it's not that I was against evolution or I didn't accept it, but
this really helped me understand how powerful it was and how amazing it was.
And, you know, Dawkins makes, I think, a few kind of side comments about religion here and there.
But this is just about how amazing science is.
I'm actually kind of mad that Richard Dawkins started writing books about religion
because I don't really care, because I'm already an atheist.
I wish he would write more books like this because
this is just a fantastic book about science.
And if you read this book, you realize that all those things people
credit God for
you don't need to because there are natural explanations for everything. So, this book may end up
turning people into atheists
inadvertently.
But this is the Richard Dawkins' book you want to read. And it doesn't nearly get enough credit.
So, "The Ancestor's Tale".
I love this one.
This is relatively new. This is "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible".
Complete with a ribbon for your reading purposes.
And this is a book written by Steve Wells. You might have heard of the website Skeptic's Annotated Bible.
But basically this is
a giant bible with pages that look like the Bible you have at home.
But the best part is
all this stuff on the sides.
Those are all like annotations that say,
"Hey, look, here's the misogyny, here's the sexism, here's the violence".
"Here's another rape scene in the Bible."
And it's like,
"Oh, and here's a contradiction", here and there, and they'll point you to the page number where you might find the contradictory part.
When I was in high school, I actually-- A friend gave me a copy of her Bible
thinking I should read it.
And I remember going through it and labeling all these contradictions
that I would pick up online somewhere.
And by the end of it, I had this Bible with all this
little... What do you call it? Tabs, like sticking out of the book.
And I didn't realize this existed and now it's actually a hardback, you know, like leather bound book
that does all of that work for you. So,
if you need to read the bible, if you have to go to church somewhere,
this is the one you want to read. This is the book that should be in hotels everywhere.
It's just a fantastic resource and it's fun.
And interesting to look through.
And it's new, like I wish this had been around for a long time, but it's phenomenal.
So, "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible" by Steve Wells.
Actually I don't have a physical copy of the last one. And it's-- I'm cheating; it's not really a book.
But Julia Sweeney's, a one-woman show, "Letting Go of God"
which you can download from iTunes, or buy on Amazon,
it's a phenomenal play
about how she was raised Catholic, believed in Catholicism,
liked Catholicism and still does.
But she started letting go of it, and she became an atheist.
It's a beautiful show, like it's an emotional show. It's funny
and it does make a good point about
why she lost her faith in God and how that was
a really beautiful thing-- I think the subtitle is like, "My Beautiful Loss of Faith Story",
or something like that.
But I've listened to it when driving
like I've heard people do monologues from there.
And she's just one of those people that, you listen to her,
and all those stereotypes about angry atheists,
arrogant atheists, you know, militant atheists...
They all fall by the wayside because she is this nice,
gentle, kind woman who is talking about all this.
And she's so likable.
And it's like you listen to that and it's like, "Oh, I--"
"She's an atheist and there's nothing really wrong with her."
"I like her" and
that's the power of it.
Like if I had to give something to a religious person to hear,
that is one of the few things I would give to them.
To say, "Look, if you want to know what is like to be an atheist, or what I'm thinking,
listen to Julia Sweeney's CD"
because it's just fantastic and I think
Showtime or something made
a DVD of it. So, you can probably get that on Netflix too. But she's fantastic and so,
"Letting Go of God" is the fifth one.
If you have any recommendations for books that you think other people should read,
please leave them in the comments below.