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Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 1:31 pm
So I just got some books in the mail that I ordered last week. As most of you know (if you've read my posts) I am a recent deconvert. I decided that getting some reading material on the matter would be beneficial to me. So I would like suggestions on which one I should read first, or if I should follow a particular order. I bought the following:
"God is not Great", by Christopher Hitchens
"The God Delusion", by Richard Dawkins
"The Portable Atheist", by Christopher Hitchens
Thanks in advance for the feedback!
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 2:03 pm
Hitchens is the more entertaining writer and I've only read the first two. I'd start with the Hitchens.
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 2:16 pm
The God Delusion is probably more like light entertainment in comparison
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 2:24 pm
I'd start with god is not Great, then Dawkins, then Portable Atheist.
god is not Great is one of my favorites, and Hitchens is a damned genius.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 3:18 pm
I love watching the debates with Hitchens on Youtube. He is definitely a genius.
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 3:54 pm
I'm apparently the lone dissenter on these forums regarding Hitchens. I don't particularly care for his written work but really enjoy him as a speaker. But preference of authors is a very personal thing and not everyone will agree about who is better than whom.
As for book recs:
Victor Stenger for books about the intersection of science and God
Dawkins for books about evolution
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 4:25 pm
Sagan's 'Broca's Brain'. While not explicitly an atheist treatise, this collection of essays methodically and systematically dismantles the need for God as an explanatory hypothesis.
Boru
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 4:26 pm
Daniel Dennett for Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Breaking The Spell
J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. for "why we believe in god(s)"
I was underwhelmed by 'The Portable Atheist'.
If you want to get angry, read "The Good News Club" by Katherine Stewart
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 4:32 pm
My single favorite book regarding science and thought and gods is The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan. Simply epic, and captures the wonder of the cosmos as only Sagan can.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: Atheist Reading Suggestions
May 10, 2015 at 5:57 pm
The Changing World of Mormonism.
While specific to the fucking LDSers, it is nevertheless a great primer as to just how fucked up a religion can get in 100 years, let alone 2000.
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