recommended books

bigben121

First off , if there is already a thread on this ,sorry mods can close this one.

I recently read the 'god delusion' and 'god is not great'. I very much enjoyed these books , and i was wondering if anyone has suggestions or other books to recommend? thanks

Improbable

Take a look at this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69449030

Roger Hassenforder

Improbable wrote: »

Take a look at this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69449030

Carl sagan. Demon haunted world

fitz0

Bertrand Russell's - 'Why I am Not a Christian'

Douglas Adams' - 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'

James Joyce - 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'

Hitchhikers is just a fantastic book that subtly satirizes the notion of a god. Portrait is a pretty harsh indictment of the repressive hold of the Catholic Church on Ireland in bygone days. Bertrand Russell is just all around superb.

Kivaro

Russell's 'Why I am not a Christian" is not really a book, but an essay, and can be easily downloaded in PDF format, or viewed online.

If you want a collection of Atheist writings, then Hitchens' 'Portable Atheist' is invaluable.

Without a doubt, my favorite and most enlightening book (pamphlet) is Thomas Paine's 'Age of Reason'. It is amazing that words from the 1700s could be so relevant today. Believing that his own mind was his own church:

“Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter.”

And he questions the very basis of Christianity:

“But the resurrection of a dead person from the grave, and his ascension through the air, is a thing very different, as to the evidence it admits of, to the invisible conception of a child in the womb. The resurrection and ascension, supposing them to have taken place, admitted of public and ocular demonstration, like that of the ascension of a balloon, or the sun at noon day, to all Jerusalem at least. A thing which everybody is required to believe, requires that the proof and evidence of it should be equal to all, and universal; and as the public visibility of this last related act was the only evidence that could give sanction to the former part, the whole of it falls to the ground, because that evidence never was given. Instead of this, a small number of persons, not more than eight or nine, are introduced as proxies for the whole world, to say they saw it, and all the rest of the world are called upon to believe it. But it appears that Thomas did not believe the resurrection; and, as they say, would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I; and the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person, as for Thomas.”

Roger Hassenforder

& a very good essay in Why I am not a Christian on Paine.
Alas "no trace remains, even of his skull and right hand"
poor crauther

mikhail

An interesting one for me recently was The Crow Road. The protagonist is the son of an atheist who has rejected his father's rationalism and become estranged with him. A very strange book from a fine author.

(I would note, Banks is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, and has been quoted as saying "There simply should not be Protestant or Catholic schools. Well, you can have them but they should not be supported by the state in any way. I think everyone should be educated together.”) I'm unclear on whether he's religious; would have thought not before reading that book, not sure now!

Dades

mikhail wrote: »

I'm unclear on whether he's religious; would have thought not before reading that book, not sure now!

Definitely not!

From here:

Q: Some of your novels critique religion or religious behaviour quite unambiguously. Do you see anything positive in religion?

IB: Not a great deal. I think the positive aspects religion sometimes gets the credit for actually originate in the people who believe in the religion rather than in the religion itself. And religion--God, whatever--seems to benefit from a sort of blindness in people, a kind of built-in prejudice; we call good luck a miracle and thank God for it, but don't blame our chosen deity for any bad luck. At best, this is muddled thinking. Certainly religion has inspired--rather than just paid for--some great art, but it is moot whether the artists concerned might have found inspiration elsewhere in the absence of religion. However, as an evangelical atheist, I concede that I may be biased.

Daftendirekt

You could try Sam Harris's The End of Faith, if you're looking for something in a similar vein to The God Delusion.

Muppet Man

Letter to a Christian nation by Sam Harris hit the spot for me. You would read in one day easily. Might even be available to download from some sites. Terrific read.

I also read the moral landscape by Sam Harris which I found interesting, but slow reading in places.

Muppet man