Need a good book list
Posted on: November 18, 2008 - 4:46pm
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Need a good book list
I need a list of books in which i might find reasons why people choose atheism, that would also be likely to be found in local libray. And please, dont tell me on here what those reasons may be. I need the books for a research paper and 3 printed sources are required.
Knowledge is power
Power leads to corruption
Corrution leads to crime
Crime doesn't pay
So if you study you'll go broke.
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Hard to find them in most libraries - the likeliest would be:
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Why I am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russel
The End of Fath by Sam Harris
other possibilities:
Almost anything by Robert Ingersoll, Losing Faith in Faith or Godless (new) by Dan Barker, The Born Again Skeptics Guide to The Bible by Ruth Hermence Green or Atheist Universe by David Mills
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
You might also try Sam Harris's other book as well, Letter to a Christian Nation.
Also, I'd recommend checking out
- Richard Carrier's Sense & Goodness Without God
- Atheist Universe by David Mills (as Matt did)
- Losing Faith in Faith by Dan Barker
- The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever (a collection of shorter pieces and excepts from other books assembled by Christopher Hitchens.)
the bible
aaah, im just playing... i know you cant find it in your local library
I also would like to recommend a few that have already been named:
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
The End of Faith by Sam Harris
Atheist Universe by David Mills
Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russel
However, atheists also believe religion is a man-made institution, which is something that the religious tend to reject, positing instead that religion is a divine gift or divinely inspired or what have you. There are plenty of arguments to be made to that end, some based on evidence, some only speculative; but if you want a glimpse into how atheists tend to view religion as very likely a natural phenomenon, you might want to check out Breaking The Spell by Daniel C. Dennett. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than speculation, because religions are so old that it will probably remain nearly impossible to know exactly how and when and for what purpose they initially came about; but the book makes very good cases for why religion could very well be one of man's inventions, like democracy was one of our inventions (even though we tend to talk about it in terms of "natural rights" and so on). So that book may or may not be useful to you.
But I would also like to comment on something you said in your initial post about why people "choose atheism".
I just want to make sure you're aware that some atheists grow up in a religious environment and actually do make a clear choice. They begin with religion and then later reject it. However, for many atheists, they grow up in a secular environment and simply never choose religion because they don't see the point and/or don't believe it has any merit or truth to it.
This is an important point that I'd urge you to include, if you weren't considering it already. For some atheists, atheism felt like a choice. For other atheists, atheism was the result of NOT making a choice; i.e. not choosing theism.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
The ones I put as the top 3 were as much about likely aviability in a library as quality - if he was getting them on Amazon I'd have replaced "Why I am not.." with "Atheist Universe. " Unless you are in a major city you will likely have a difficult time finding Atheist books in a library.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
I liked MattShizzle's recommendation of Bertrand Russell and I would like to add Robert Ingersoll as well. There are many good online resources by both at the following website:
http://www.nonbeliever.org/
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
Another vote for Bertrand Russel here.
Also, you should add "How We Believe" by Michael Shermer to the list. It is basically an exploration of how religion might have come about in the first place.
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I'm not sure if it has a section on atheism per se, but check out Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. Even if it doesn't discuss atheism itself (again, not sure), it certainly contains many *reasons* why people become atheists. Other books by Sagan may be appropriate, too.
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"Flim-Flam" By James Randi.
It's not directly about atheism, but it is a very good look at skeptical thinking, and therefore applies.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Thanks for the imput i will try to get the titles suggested. Archeopteryx u bring up a very fair point and i will be sure to include that in my paper, with all credit due, of course.
Knowledge is power
Power leads to corruption
Corrution leads to crime
Crime doesn't pay
So if you study you'll go broke.
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut.
I absolutely LOVED The God Delusion, more so than any other atheist book I've read simply because it's so conscience-raising, as Dawkins calls it. I read it on the beach while everyone else read cheesy romances
1984, Catch-22 and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are fun reads for atheists as well.
*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*
"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby