What is the best Atheist Book you have read?

[Logical]

One of mine is "Letter To A Christian Nation" by Sam Harris. Very short but great. Of course anything by Hitchins.

Any other I might have missed?

[laconicsax]

1. Depends on how you define "Atheist Book"

Book by an atheist or book that plays heavily in the loss of faith for many people.

[Logical]

3. Critical of Religion.

[Humanist_Activist]

2. The Holy Bible...

If you want any single book that can cause a loss of faith, that one is it.

[Logical]

4. Good point!

[Humanist_Activist]

5. Though I will say its most likely only effective on those raised with a Christian background. n/t

[PassingFair]

6. Carl Sagan.

It started with "The Dragons of Eden"....

It climaxed with "The Demon Haunted World".

What a gentle atheist he was.

On edit:

Also, Simone De Beauvoir, "The Second Sex"...my father
passed it on to me after he read it.

He had hectored me to pieces by starting all of his sentences
with, "Simone says....".

He was right, it was a real eye-opener!

[iris27]

7. Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" was the most interesting, for me, particularly in providing the

biological background of sleep paralysis and its various supernatural interpretations (incubus/succubus, aliens, etc.).

The books most instrumental to my loss of faith were the Bible and "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis.

[AlbertCat]

14. Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" was the most interesting, for me,

Me too.

But it's really more about common sense.

Dawkins' "The God Delusion" I liked for what many people hate it for.... It's straight forward. This is often interpreted as being mean or hateful, but he's just dropping the special fuzzy-wunkles religion always gets.... like that it should even be considered as a serious explanation of anything. And he's horrified by the abuses.

I wonder.... if Dawkins was from AL and had a southern drawl, if so many people would call him arrogant.....

[iris27]

15. I really liked "The God Delusion" as well, because it does spell everything out so clearly.

And I've actually used passages from it in arguments with people who think their particular scriptures are the only source of morality. ETA: Specifically, the studies he cites about 90+% of people choosing to switch a train so it only kills 1 person instead of five, but almost no one finding it ethical to kill one person to take their organs to save five transplant patients.

But I did keep thinking as I read it that if someone had handed it to me when I still believed, all it would have done was get me royally pissed off.

[truebrit71]

8. For me it was Hitchens 'god is not great'

...an excellent book, well laid-out, point-by-point deconstruction of not just christianity, but all religions....totally opened my eyes...

[pokerfan]

9. The Holy Bible

cover to cover, twice.

[cleanhippie]

10. Demon Haunted World. Sagan is the MAN!

[rexcat]

11. Isaac Asimov...

Asimov's Guide to the Bible

[WhollyHeretic]

12. Bible Stories for Adults by James Morrow

Letters From Earth by Mark Twain

[amyrose2712]

13. I am keeping this for referecene. The only "atheist" book I have read is Dawkins

"The God Delusion" But I was already a non-believer and it didnt really move mountains for me. I did like his 1-7 scale though, and have adopted it as a way to describe myself.

[aka-chmeee]

16. As a young teen, I read Twain's

The Mysterious Stranger. It made all the doubts I had had for several years (I can't remember ever just accepting the god story) jump into clear focus and I have been an atheist since. Long time ago....

[onager]

17. A few not mentioned yet...

Sorry, I just can't pick a single "best." And some of these are only "atheist books" thru collateral damage...

2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People With the Courage to Doubt by James A. Haught

A collection of history, biography and quotes (some controversial) covering religious doubt from the ancient Greeks to modern times. Always interesting and often hilarious - e.g., the domestic battle between the atheist Thomas Edison and his very devout second wife.

http://www.amazon.com/2000-Years-Disbelief-Famous-Courage/dp/1573920673/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326047843&sr=1-1

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael Hecht

Gnu Atheism? Pfft! As Hecht shows, the history of doubt is just as ancient and venerable as the history of religion. And atheists can even be found lurking in the pages of the Holy Buy-bull. Personal quibble: I love this book, but Hecht herself seems to be something of a Faitheist who has attacked the Gnu Atheists.

http://www.amazon.com/Doubt-Doubters-Innovation-Jefferson-Dickinson/dp/0060097957

The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason by Charles Freeman

Stunning historical account of how the fast-rising Xian church bludgeoned science and human progress, replacing it with superstition and Sophisticated Theology like infant damnation. Its stories of the battles between the church power centers in Constantinople and Alexandria sometimes read like modern reality TV...if reality TV let its stars fight each other in the streets with clubs and swords, which might not be a bad idea. Personal quibble II: in the Foreword of his next book, Freeman attacked Richard Dawkins. He seems to think Dawkins wants to outlaw discussion of religion. What is it with these otherwise intelligent people?

http://www.amazon.com/Closing-Western-Mind-Faith-Reason/dp/1400033802/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326049629&sr=1-1

Christianizing the Roman Empire: A.D. 100-400 by Ramsay MacMullen

How did Xianity spread so quickly in the Roman Empire? Fake miracles, phony mass conversions, coercion, and after Constantine, the naked power of a state religion. MacMullen is a Professor Emeritus of History at Yale, and he writes exactly as you would expect a Professor Emeritus to write - sometimes drier than a Baptist wedding, but definitely worth reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Christianizing-Roman-Empire-D-100-400/dp/0300036426/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326048132&sr=1-1

Alexander's Tomb: The Two-Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conquerer by Nicholas J. Saunders

What? How did a book about the tomb of Alexander The Great sneak in here? Mostly for its story about the "miraculous discovery" of an another ancient tourist trap in Jerusalem - the tomb of Jesus, which the ancient Church needed to compete with that annoying pagan tomb in Alexandria. Also, fake psychics!

http://www.amazon.com/Alexanders-Tomb-Two-Thousand-Obsession-Conquerer/dp/0465072038/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326049756&sr=1-1

[amyrose2712]

19. Awesome. A few more for my reading list, thanks.

[Logical]

18. This list has been great! Thanks for all the great lists!!

[BiggJawn]

20. Got one by Robert Ingersol in the que.

I've browsed it, looks like it'll be pretty good.

Gotta love free books for Kindle.

[JNelson6563]

21. Marking for later.

Great thread everybody! I don't often comment in this forum but always read it! You guys are awesome!

Julie

[RueVoltaire]

22. WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN by Bertrand Russell

ON LIBERTY by John Stuart Mill
THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM by Max Weber
THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS by Albert Camus

Just a few classic titles for you - I love these books!

[marginlized]

25. Really enjoyed the Myth of Sysphus

Camus' "The Plague" might also be included, or is that stretching the category?

[and-justice-for-all]

23. The God Delusion....nt

[marginlized]

24. Twain's "Letters from the Earth"

Harris' "The Moral Landscape"

Almost any title by Bart Ehrman

Dan Barker's "Godless"

[marginlized]

26. Then there's other criticism like Mary Daly's "The Church and the Second Sex"

whole 'nother ball of wax.

[Deep13]

27. Hitchens

I found Harris to be overly reifying.