Books about atheism

[kılıç_mehmet]

(5th January 2012 05:48)aleialoura Wrote:  Why don't you read one and find out?

Well, I never thought that it'd be necessary, actually.
Like the one which Stimbo so courteously gave me the links from wikipedia, "God is not great", I really see not much I could gain from this book.
It comes off to me as a more emotional, sensible book, reflecting the writer's attitude on religion, rather than actually analyzing religion, or it's impact on society, nor it's development and etc.
As a matter of fact, I don't think that it's a book about atheism at all, it's a book about anti-theism. I hold the view that anti-theism is quite a sloppy way of thinking, as it holds, in my opinion, of course, a rather superficial view of religion as a whole.

Quote:Because they are not about atheism as an ism. They are usually about theism or sometimes a specific religion.

Well, that's what I figured out just.

Quote:One book for example is "50 reasons people believe in a god" by Guy P Harrison. It is not about atheism, but it shows in separate chapters the reasons theists give for their belief, and why the author doesn't agree with them. For atheists who already are out of the faith or like me never believed in the first place, the book is useful as a guide to argue against theistic claims but nothing more than that. I own the book, but to me there is nothing in there I didn't already know so I hardly ever look at it any more. It is a very good book which for my taste sometimes goes too far overboard by being nice to various religions, but in itself the counters this book makes are good ones without the harsh and/or condescending undertones of a Dawkins or Hitchens.

Hmmm...So books written by writers about atheism(I refrained from using the phrase "books written by atheists" as I'm sure that there are books written by atheists which are not concerned with this debate), generally deal with theism in general. Or just with the core tenets of theism, as like in a philosophical viewpoint?

Quote:no book on atheism is actually about atheism, they're just about what is wrong with theism and religion.

Do you think that these books are entitled to the writer's own viewpoint?
Or do you think that they truly reflect what exactly is wrong?

[leo-rcc]

(5th January 2012 16:28)kılıç_mehmet Wrote:  Hmmm...So books written by writers about atheism(I refrained from using the phrase "books written by atheists" as I'm sure that there are books written by atheists which are not concerned with this debate), generally deal with theism in general. Or just with the core tenets of theism, as like in a philosophical viewpoint?

Again that varies, some like Daniel Dennet are strongly on the philosophical side of theistic arguments, others are more in terms of looking at theistic religions in a anthropological standpoint (how did certain religions come to exist and so on) and also religions that are not theistic in its core are sometimes written about. It is very versatile.

There is no default atheist book as such, Hitchens could not have written what Harris writes and vice versa. Both have their specific angles to approach different facets of theism and religions.