Books - Suggestions?

ScatteredThoughts

I decided to rummage through my Amazon wish list last night, and decided that it was time to order a couple of books related to Atheism. So far, I have never been one to seek formal support of my atheism; the wonders of science, diversity of existing religions, and the idea of First Cause have all been enough to make me disregard the notion of a Christian God.

There are a couple of books which I intend to order today:

Reasonable Atheism: A Moral Case For Respectful Disbelief - Scott F. Aikin
http://www.amazon.com/Reasonable-Atheism-Moral-Respectful-Disbelief/dp/1616143835/

Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age - A C Grayling
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Humanist-Ethics-Secular-Age/dp/0195168909


Both seem like books which are geared towards thoughtful and non-combative ways of supporting atheist viewpoints. I do intend to dive into the works of Hitchens and Dawkins at some point, but feel these may be a better start for me.

Do any of you have any recommendations for other books which you thought were particularly good?


Thanks

soldier4242

Getting the obvious ones out of the way.

The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins
The Moral Landscape- Sam Harris
God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens

I also enjoyed:
God No! - Penn Jillette
The God Virus - Darrel Ray

perfekta

Getting the obvious ones out of the way.

The God Delusion- Richard Dawkins
The Moral Landscape- Sam Harris
God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens

I also enjoyed:
God No! - Penn Jillette
The God Virus - Darrel Ray

Seconding The God Delusion.

megggsss

I plan to read

DeConverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason - Seth Andrews

msleanlegs

I'm halfway through Dan Barker's "Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist" and would recommend it. So far, it's been an enjoyable, thought-provoking book.

toutmonpossible

I bought The Portable Atheist by Christopher Hitchens. I'm considering buying Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor.

ScatteredThoughts

Thanks for the great suggestions! I have purchased more than I intended, while still adding to my wish list.

Annie_ga

I love my Raising Freethinkers by Dale McGowan and am looking forward to his new Atheism for Dummies. Good luck!

BinaryPulsar

I love my Raising Freethinkers by Dale McGowan and am looking forward to his new Atheism for Dummies. Good luck!

I second this!!

BinaryPulsar

I also like: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker

BinaryPulsar

And I like: Confession of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor

BinaryPulsar

Some other authors that I like are: Dale McGowan, Steven Pinker, Sam Harris (I read The Moral Landscape), Daniel Dennet, Paul J. Zak, Antonio Damasio, Alain de Botton.

I know you already purchased your books. The library is always good. And a lot of these authors have talks on TED or Big Think or other places.

BinaryPulsar

I'm considering buying Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor.

I have this one. It's good. Confession of a Buddhist Atheist by the same author was better.

ScatteredThoughts

Some other authors that I like are: Dale McGowan, Steven Pinker, Sam Harris (I read The Moral Landscape), Daniel Dennet, Paul J. Zak, Antonio Damasio, Alain de Botton.

I know you already purchased your books. The library is always good. And a lot of these authors have talks on TED or Big Think or other places.

No problem. More suggestions are still welcome. They will go in the wish list for future purchase.

Thanks for all of the recommendations!

BinaryPulsar

I did not particularly like the chapter on child abuse in The God Delusion. It was pretty absurd. Richard Dawkins had one experience of uncomfortable touching as a child and thinks that makes him some kind of expert on what the majority of sexual abuse is like. He claims that Religion itself is worse than sexual child abuse. That's a pretty inane statement to make and absurd to even choose to make such a comparison. Obviously it depends on the circumstances of the religion and of the sexual abuse. He thinks that it's wrong all the people that have come forward to report the vast amount of sexual abuse that occurred within the Catholic church, and thinks people should just leave the priests alone and allow them to live out the rest of their lives in peace since many of the crimes happened long ago (but it was the silence and control and fear that kept the children silent for so long, and allowed the abuse to continue, so he is wrong about that). Anyhow, I've discussed it with other Atheist friends online that love Richard Dawkins and when I shared an article that he wrote elaborating on it, everyone agreed he was way off the deep end when he discusses that topic. So, he is good for evolutionary biology and atheism, but a bit of a ding bat when discussing child abuse.

ScatteredThoughts

I love my Raising Freethinkers by Dale McGowan and am looking forward to his new Atheism for Dummies. Good luck!

Purchased Raising Freethinkers just now.

Is this the edition of Atheism For Dummies to which you were referring?

http://www.amazon.com/Atheism-For-Dummies-Religion-Spirituality/dp/111850920X

ScatteredThoughts

I did not particularly like the chapter on child abuse in The God Delusion. It was pretty absurd. Richard Dawkins had one experience of uncomfortable touching as a child and thinks that makes him some kind of expert on what the majority of sexual abuse is like. He claims that Religion itself is worse than sexual child abuse. That's a pretty inane statement to make and absurd to even choose to make such a comparison. Obviously it depends on the circumstances of the religion and of the sexual abuse. He thinks that it's wrong all the people that have come forward to report the vast amount of sexual abuse that occurred within the Catholic church, and thinks people should just leave the priests alone and allow them to live out the rest of their lives in peace since many of the crimes happened long ago (but it was the silence and control and fear that kept the children silent for so long, and allowed the abuse to continue, so he is wrong about that). Anyhow, I've discussed it with other Atheist friends online that love Richard Dawkins and when I shared an article that he wrote elaborating on it, everyone agreed he was way off the deep end when he discusses that topic. So, he is good for evolutionary biology and atheism, but a bit of a ding bat when discussing child abuse.

This surprises me, and it seems rather unfortunate that he would take such a stance on that issue. If anything, I would have thought it more opportunity to vilify members of the church for abuse of power.

BinaryPulsar

I did not particularly like the chapter on child abuse in The God Delusion. It was pretty absurd. Richard Dawkins had one experience of uncomfortable touching as a child and thinks that makes him some kind of expert on what the majority of sexual abuse is like. He claims that Religion itself is worse than sexual child abuse. That's a pretty inane statement to make and absurd to even choose to make such a comparison. Obviously it depends on the circumstances of the religion and of the sexual abuse. He thinks that it's wrong all the people that have come forward to report the vast amount of sexual abuse that occurred within the Catholic church, and thinks people should just leave the priests alone and allow them to live out the rest of their lives in peace since many of the crimes happened long ago (but it was the silence and control and fear that kept the children silent for so long, and allowed the abuse to continue, so he is wrong about that). Anyhow, I've discussed it with other Atheist friends online that love Richard Dawkins and when I shared an article that he wrote elaborating on it, everyone agreed he was way off the deep end when he discusses that topic. So, he is good for evolutionary biology and atheism, but a bit of a ding bat when discussing child abuse.

This surprises me, and it seems rather unfortunate that he would take such a stance on that issue. If anything, I would have thought it more opportunity to vilify members of the church for abuse of power.

Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens took a strong stance speaking out about the sexual abuse in the Catholic church and I think eventually they got Richard Dawkins on board with them. Perhaps Richard Dawkins was just ignorant on the issue (clearly lacking some empathy in that area), and maybe he was still struggling with his own issues more than he realized. And he was maybe also mixing up his feelings about false accusations along with real abuse cases (which are two separate issues).

BinaryPulsar

I love my Raising Freethinkers by Dale McGowan and am looking forward to his new Atheism for Dummies. Good luck!

Purchased Raising Freethinkers just now.

Is this the edition of Atheism For Dummies to which you were referring?

http://www.amazon.com/Atheism-For-Dummies-Religion-Spirituality/dp/111850920X

Yeah, that's it!

theCarlton

The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins is a nice one to have on hand if you find yourself in the position of having to explain things to children or adults who think like children. It dismantles and explains many strong religious beliefs and questions often posed by people of various faiths. It answers common questions in general. Most of these, you already know the answers to (If we descended from apes, why are there still apes? What were we before apes, etc.) It's beautifully illustrated. It's textbook style. Just nice to have on the coffee table for guests

BinaryPulsar

I really like recommending books. I made two lists that relate. One is a list of science books and the other is a list of non-theist Buddhist type of books (some of which were helpful to me, since my family was/is in a type of cult).

The science book list: http://www.amazon.com/Books-for-expanding-your-concept-of-reality/lm/R6ZL7X74UZCT2/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full

The other list: http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Loving-Kindness-non-theist/lm/2X1W2DU3U25QC/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full

I often add to the lists, when I read more books.