2007-01-20

My Freethought Library

The following is a list of works in my personal freethought library. In truth, there are a few books here which I don't own but which I instead checked out from the library, but I included them for completeness. I will provide a link to this post on the main page and update this list whenever I add a new work to the library. If you would like to recommend something, leave me a comment.


Philosophy
  • Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
  • Atheist Universe by David Mills
  • Atheism: The Case Against God by George H. Smith
  • The Case Against Christianity by Michael Martin
  • Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor
  • Critiques of God by Peter A. Angeles
  • Fifty Reasons People Give for Believing in a God by Guy P. Harrison
  • Meditations for the Humanist by A.C. Grayling
  • Natural Atheism by David Eller
  • Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier
  • The Philosophy of Humanism by Corliss Lamont
  • Sense and Goodness without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism by Richard Carrier
  • Why Atheism? by George H. Smith
  • Why I Am Not a Christian by Richard Carrier
  • Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell
  • Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq
Science
  • Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett
  • The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
  • Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel Everett
  • God: The Failed Hypothesis by Victor Stenger
  • The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
  • The God Virus: How Religion Affects Our Lives and Culture by Darrel W. Ray
  • How We Believe by Michael Shermer
  • Looking for a Miracle by Joe Nickell
  • The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
  • The New Atheism by Victor Stenger
  • Relics of the Christ by Joe Nickell
  • The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan
History
  • Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht
  • Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby
  • Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers by Brooke Allen
Politics
  • The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • The End of Faith by Sam Harris
  • God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
  • Kingdom Coming by Michelle Goldberg
  • Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
  • The Secular Conscience by Austin Dacey
  • Why Are You Atheists So Angry? by Greta Christina
Quotations
  • The Atheist's Bible by Joan Konner
  • The Quotable Atheist by Jack Huberman
Biography
  • Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • Godless by Dan Barker
Fiction
  • Big Domino in the Sky by Michael Martin
  • The Book Against God by James Wood
  • Candide by Voltaire
Humor
  • The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs
Miscellaneous
  • The Atheist's Guide to Christmas
Magazines
  • Free Inquiry — regular reader since November 2006

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are only three books listed under fiction (no Bible?)

Does anyone know of some good atheist fiction out there? Something we can read for fun and ideas, rather than just the popular non-fiction choices?

A Google search of "Christian Fiction" returns 1.24 million hits. A search for "Atheist Fiction" lists a staggeringly small 74. Are we flying under the radar, literature-wise, or is enjoyable fiction with an atheist theme really that scarce?

David Mann said...

I didn't list the Bible since it's not exactly freethought literature, although reading often does lead to doubt and freethinking. And it's not entirely fiction.

Yes, atheist fiction really is that rare. I thought Big Domino in the Sky was fairly poor, so quality atheist fiction is especially rare.

Delta said...

That's a good number of freethought books. I've read the two by Sam Harris, Bertrand Russel's, and Breaking the Spell. In addition I've also picked up a few issues of Free Inquiry.

But at this point I think I'm getting tired of reading about atheism. Religion is as absurd as flying unicorns, and it doesn't expand my mind much nor help me in real life to continue to read 1,001 ways to show how ridiculous it is. So I've shifted my focus to politics, economics, and history.

Having said that, religion is still a very powerful force in the world today and requires effort by all freethinkers to minimize its affect and help those infected by it to start looking at the world in a rational way.

Wm said...

Non fiction : History of the Warfare Between Science and Theology in Christiandom by Andrew Dickson White

For The New Intellectual by Ayn Rand

The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand

Fiction : The Star Gazer by Zoltan Harzanyi

The Fountainhead
Anthem
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

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