The best Atheism eBooks: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

To quote:

>Why are atheists angry? Is it because they're selfish, joyless, lacking in meaning, and alienated from God? Or is it because they have legitimate reasons to be angry--and are ready to do something about it?

Read a BOOK

Watch a LECTURE

Then try exercising what little intelligence you appear to have and think about it.

There's a good book which really dives into the deconversion process of a former missionary:

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Believed-Reflections-Former-Missionary-ebook/dp/B003UNLMRY

I read it when I was questioning my own faith (along with reading, Erhman, Price, Crossan, Meier, Sanders, etc.). And, for the record, I'm still a Christian today, but less dogmatic.

The author was raised in a conservative church, and basically was shook when he encountered challenges to what he was taught. He didn't even know these challenges existed! In my view, most churches in the US is doing a poor job of equipping people to face the real, tough questions of the Bible. Too much sheltering and holding people by the hand.

Two big issues I remember from the author's journey:

- The doctrine of most humans being tormented in hell forever

- The lousy science behind creationism

These two issues really make him shake his head at the Bible.

It's unclear what you're after. Take for example the following position:

> There is perhaps no greater contribution one could make to contain and perhaps even cure faith than removing the exemption that prohibits classifying religious delusions as mental illness. The removal of religious exemptions from the DSM would enable academicians and clinicians to bring considerable resources to bear on the problem of treating faith, as well as on the ethical issues surrounding faith-based interventions. In the long term, once these treatments and this body of research is refined, results could then be used to inform public health policies designed to contain and ultimately eradicate faith. (A Manual for Creating Atheists, KL 3551–55)

That's from Peter Boghossian and there's a subreddit named after his stuff: r/StreetEpistemology. Do you think that should be applied to all religion? I myself think it's a bit extreme.

A rather different option is to look at those groups which greatly punish you if you decide to leave. That doesn't apply to a great swath of religion (especially in the West), but it often does apply to what many people mean when they use the word 'cult'. But this property doesn't show up anywhere in the definition of 'cult' you provided in the OP.

I personally think you need rather more interesting definitions in order to justify much of any actions. If you don't, you risk implicitly depending on what certain people associate with 'religion' or 'cult', without spelling it out.

Not the best books on the subject, but a good overview, is Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I-III (The Complete Heretic's Guide to Western Religion series)

stress yan, future sakit ng ulo kapag nagkakamabutihan na kayo, kung wala sa isa sa inyo ang mag-sacrifice ng religion, usap na agad kayo habang maaga na need nyo mag hiwalay ng landas.

pakiramdaman mo din kung casual dating lang, go lang, minsan kasi ay gusto lang din ng girl sa inc na ma-experience yung kumawala sa social group na ginagalawan nya, for experience lang.

suggestion ko para sa win-win:
alis kayo both sa catholicism at inc, study humanism at atheism, saka studies/researches tungkol sa gawain ng mga cult groups.

Perhaps you have not seen their bible.. There is a huge difference between a person who does not believe in god and a person who actively believes there is no god. Most of the former usually turn out to be agnostic once you talk to them, and most of the later are very active in their disdain for believers.

> Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart

If I'm going to read a history book, as this one claims to be, I'd rather read it from a historian. And there are actual historians who deal with correcting bad ideas like the Dark Ages myth.

https://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Delusions-Revolution-Fashinable-Fashionable-ebook/dp/B00D99NS4O

This is largely outside of his field, and Hart is far too smug to be convincing to many outside of the faith.

Yes, I am in a position to tell you leave your religion. You have no idea how badly you've been brainwashed by it. It is distorting your development if you are worried about "the one" at fifteen years old. I have the perspective to realize how screwed up this is, therefore I am in that position.

I'll tell you what, don't take it from me. Do a little reading on your own.

Jesus would tell you to read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Outbreak-Crisis-Religion-Ruined-Pandemic-ebook/dp/B08KWN3VKF

The God Delusion is always a good read for the beginning of the journey.

Do not worry, gods, hell, ... are all man made. But you are making kind of a hell from your life. For the start I suggest you buy https://www.amazon.com/God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins-ebook/dp/B003JTHWJQ/ref=sr_1_1 but there are many more good books.

Well, hop on it! That’s where the “actual thought” of Christianity is to be found. It would be immeasurably more valuable to spend time contending with them rather than the oft-ignorant strangers you seem to routinely interact with on this subreddit.

I would imagine that the philosophical corpus of western theism would naturally be of interest to a critically engaged atheist. Even if you don’t agree with the conclusions of such philosophers, you’ll at least develop a far more robust form of atheism; certainly more so than the banal Richard Dawkins-esque type of atheism that I usually see around here.

Here are two initial suggestions. I would recommend something more foundational, but philosophy is harder than most people imagine, and these contemporary works will provide appropriate contextualization/defining of terms/summarizations of philosophical history for typical laymen who don’t haven’t gone through 4+ years of a formal philosophy program at university:

1. Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies, Hart

2. Five Proofs for the Existence of God, Feser

Reading these will also allow for you to more clearly figure out how to branch out into other important philosophical work, the names of which might be unknown/relatively inaccessible to you at the moment.

To quote:

>Why are atheists angry? Is it because they're selfish, joyless, lacking in meaning, and alienated from God? Or is it because they have legitimate reasons to be angry--and are ready to do something about it?

Read a BOOK

Watch a LECTURE

I highly suggest people give Noah Lugen's book a read. It follows the paths that led churches to be a secondary antagonist along with the virus in the last year.

>But then Paul happens.

Paul happened first. Even though the Bible puts the gospels first, Paul’s letters are actually earlier. And what’s so odd is that Paul barely mentions anything that Jesus said or did. In fact, in many cases, Paul is trying to convince people of something that Jesus states so clearly in the Gospels, but Paul doesn’t quote Jesus to prove his case.

There is a theory that the gospels were written not as “accounts of what happened,” but as a story-based version of Paul’s teachings. Paul doesn’t say things because Jesus did. Paul was interpreting the scriptures. But then later, in the Gospels, Jesus says things because Paul did. (This isn’t my own theory. Check out Jesus: Mything in Action.)

You have a great start. At 15, you're going to discover so much more than argues against religion - just give it time. Keep questioning and reading. I'm sure the folks in this sub can recommend some good books for you. Like The God Delusion by Hitchens.

I was surprised to find that it's not so clear that Christianity was built around any real person. For more, read Nailed or Jesus: Mything in Action.

Noah Lugeons of the Scathing Atheist wrote a great book on just how badly the US was fucked by religion wrt the pandemic response. Good read. https://www.amazon.com/Outbreak-Crisis-Religion-Ruined-Pandemic-ebook/dp/B08KWN3VKF

> I should clarify I'm looking for an actual physical book, not something downloadable/online.

I know this doesn't meet the criteria above, but I'm very very fond of using BibleGateway as it has about 150 different bible versions available. So you can look up a verse and then switch between versions for comparison purposes.

There is a print version of the Skeptic's Annotated Bible available on Amazon but it's hella expensive.

To "win" the debate, the morality argument is unrelated to truth value, and science has not established whether the universe ever came into existence. Boom. So what? To actually change his mind, even an iota, check out Street Epistemology, or Manual for Creating Atheists. Their approaches are similar.

My book recommendation would be Greta Christina's <em>Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless.</em>. I also have a list of examples demonstrating the hypocrisy of Christian privilege.

I would recommend reading Atheist Delusions. Ignore the sensational title. The aim of the book is to act as a strident defense of Christianity against some of the vulgar (in the sense that they are simple and unnuanced) attacks on it while also acting as a beacon for why Christianity is so important and unique. David Bentley Hart is a fantastic philosopher who is well-versed in history, philosophy, and rhetoric. It is a short, but substantive read that will educate you immensely on Christianity's incredible history and wonderful ethos of love, mercy, and compassion.

Yeah that's a good point - it's frustrating when people sexualise everything. Perhaps it's a symptom of their own sexual repression, which they project onto other people. After all, if they are thinking about sex all the time, they assume other people are too! I do also think our culture has retained some Freudian ideas even if they are not scientifically valid... the idea that nearly everything people do is motivated by sex.

You make a great point about child abuse and sexual shame. Shame about sexuality is one of the primary tools that religion uses to keep people coming back, as most people experience sexual fantasies and thoughts fairly frequently, thus they feel guilty on a regular basis and have to repent continually. You might find this book interesting if you want to explore this topic further: Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality

But yeah I'm in a partnership with a woman now and sometimes it's frustrating feeling like our relationship gets sexualised. I feel like my relationship with her is primarily based on a foundation of friendship, first and foremost. We have gone long periods without sex for health reasons, so sex to us is really just a nice bonus - but not a necessity. However, people act like it's the only reason we're together.

I’ll just leave this here

https://www.amazon.ca/God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins-ebook/dp/B003JTHWJQ

In this book (God delusion) Dawkins answers your question. Moral values should not be derived from the bible, they are developed from human experience.

If you want to get beyond deferring to experts and are interested in applying reason to the evidence, you could check out something like https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Mything-Complete-Heretics-Religion-ebook/dp/B06XRQYGBV/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1521863689&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=jesus+myth or the few other Jesus myth books.

I'm not sure if I can commit to that. However, if you haven't already maybe check out A Manual for Creating Atheists, or watch some of the videos on Anthony Magnabosco's channel for some tips on a softer, more persuasive approach to these kinds of interactions.

if the goal is to teach your father about your beliefs... this book might not actually be so bad. its a well reviewed book called "why are you athiest so angry... 99 things that piss off the godless" and is really meant to explain that, yes, athiest have reasons to be angry and reasons why we should do stuff, and it's not just to piss off christians.

but i think Demon haunted world is a better idea, its a book about skeptical thinking, which is ultimately what i think you want convey really, not your beliefs but how you arrived at them.

and it won't piss off your father... like the god delusion. i mean seriously, just the title is bad enough for someone like your father.

The book Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary might help.

The author has a gentle but honest approach.

If your girlfriend was brought up in a religious atmosphere you may want to read Darrel Ray - Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0073WNSV6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&amp;btkr=1

https://www.youtube.com/user/magnabosco210

r/StreetEpistemology

Based on the book A Manual for Creating Atheists by Peter Boghossian