The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (all five books).
Not perhaps the most obvious choice, but given that Douglas Adams was a rather outspoken atheist (at the time), I think his most popular work is worth mentioning. It's not particularly anti-religious, but there are certainly digs at religion / religious thinking throughout. It's also probably one of the most hilarious books in existence, so well worth reading and listening to the radio series as well.
Some quotes:
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
"For instance, in one corner of the Eastern Galactic Arm lies the large forest planet Oglaroon, the entire intelligent population of which lives permanently in one fairly small and crowded nut tree. In which tree they are born, live, fall in love, carve tiny speculative articles in the bark on the meaning of life, the futility of death and the importance of birth control, fight a few extremely minor wars and eventually die strapped to the underside of some of the less accessible outer branches. In fact the only Oglaroonians who ever leave their tree are those who are hurled out of it for the heinous crime of wondering whether any of the other trees might be capable of supporting life at all, or indeed whether the other trees are anything other illusions brought on by eating too many Oglanuts."
"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons."
Not perhaps the most obvious choice, but given that Douglas Adams was a rather outspoken atheist (at the time), I think his most popular work is worth mentioning. It's not particularly anti-religious, but there are certainly digs at religion / religious thinking throughout. It's also probably one of the most hilarious books in existence, so well worth reading and listening to the radio series as well.
Some quotes:
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
"For instance, in one corner of the Eastern Galactic Arm lies the large forest planet Oglaroon, the entire intelligent population of which lives permanently in one fairly small and crowded nut tree. In which tree they are born, live, fall in love, carve tiny speculative articles in the bark on the meaning of life, the futility of death and the importance of birth control, fight a few extremely minor wars and eventually die strapped to the underside of some of the less accessible outer branches. In fact the only Oglaroonians who ever leave their tree are those who are hurled out of it for the heinous crime of wondering whether any of the other trees might be capable of supporting life at all, or indeed whether the other trees are anything other illusions brought on by eating too many Oglanuts."
"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons."
