At the risk of being slammed (as I was before) for recommending a book, if you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend Sam Harris’s book The End Of Faith. It is important to educate yourself on the damage that religions can do when taken to extremes. He pulls no punches in this book. As the Zen people would say, don’t bite off my finger, simply look to where it points. If we are truly going to be atheists, it pays to be informed.
“It is important to me to educate myself…”
Fixed it for you.
Really, @Keith77, I don’t consider you in a position to instruct me on the books I “need” to read or that I need an education according to a curriculum you’ve developed. Based on your OP, however, it seems you DO consider yourself to be in said position. Interesting.
1 Like
An odd thing to say, as lacking any and all knowledge about religion is as good a reason to lack belief as any? I’ve read the book a while ago, but ultimately I need a reason to believe, not to withhold belief, all that is required for that is insufficient evidence or insufficiently compelling evidence to allay my doubts.
FWIW I find Harris a bit dry, the late Christopher Hitchens is a better read. Though of course they’re essentially saying the same things, or at least the same kind of things.
1 Like
What in particular do you think Sam Harris says in this book, that the atheists who post here need to learn, or don’t already know?
I could read Hitchens for his command of prose and sense of humour alone, I can’t say the same for Harris. I’ve also read atheists whose anger and resentment came across as every bit as preachy and holier than thou, as any theist tome.
1 Like
There was a person on this website who asked if anyone learned anything lately. That’s why I passed along the information on Sam’s book. It sounds to me that a lot of people on this site have an aversion to reading. They say knowledge is power. I say it is…but only if you use it.
I think you completely missed what the aversion is.
1 Like
What in particular do you think Sam Harris says in this book, that the atheists who post here need to learn, or don’t already know?
2 Likes
Really?
Some of the most intelligent conversations that I’ve ever had were on this forum, and we regularly exchange reading material back and forth.
Spend some time on the forum before making such sweeping assumptions.
4 Likes
I read it some fifteen or so years ago. I first read “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, which I enjoyed. Then I read “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” by Christopher Hitchens, and I enjoyed that one, too. Then I read Harris’s book, and I didn’t really enjoy it. From what I remember, Harris came across to me as just too angry, and somewhat incoherent. After reading them all, I remember that I ranked them with Hitchens’s book in first place, Dawkins’s at a good second place, and Harris’s at a fourth place. Dawkins and Hitchens are just better authors. It’s been too long since I read the books, so I cannot go into more detailed book reviews.
2 Likes
That’s news to me. I get the impression that the regulars here are mostly well read and/or have taken a stance that is well reasoned. We’re not necessarily illiterates if we don’t read what you’re reading, you know.
2 Likes
Now a days a lot of ignorant people write books like they do on the Internet like reddit, blogs, Amazon etc. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. Especially in books. Just look to the Bible and all of the self help books written by Theists who got high off of the Kool Aid. Just because it’s a book doesn’t mean we’ll learn anything from it. Hell, some books take some guidance and a degree from college to actually comprehend.
1 Like
Hi! I couldn’t agree more.
1 Like
Odd that not one single example was offered?
2 Likes
Yet me library has over a 1000 “atheism vs theism” books. Most are science textbooks.
Yes. Even I have a lot to learn. But your claim one “must” read this or that book is fallacious.
Franklin
P.S.- Keith77, you are not using correct Research methodology. Do you not realize that the WWW is 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999948713% pure garbage. Visit actual science sites.
If we are going to suggest books for atheists, I vote for The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan.
In this book, he spends a lot of ink covering religious scams, the consequences of silencing dissent, and so forth.
This book is not so much about science, but rather about skepticism . . . and he makes the point that skepticism should be applied to religion.
2 Likes
yeah, if you are searching for information about dogs, try:
dogs site: *.edu
in your search engine.
The Harris book I disagreed with was his book called Free Will in which he, as a neuroscientist, feels that the free will is a falsehood on the basis of the fact that whatever decision we make bubbles up from the subconscious literally a millionth of a second before we have a conscious thought about making that choice. It’s a theory and as yet is not totally verified by science. I don’t really see how that proves we don’t have a free will. Opinions? Has anyone read this book and what do you think?
1 Like
Haven’t read that particular one but debates about the (un)reality or exact nature of free will seem endless.
I’ve come to the view that we have a lot smaller menu of choices than we like to think and also many of what we see as our considered opinions on any topic (including free will) aren’t really “ours” but rather the product of conditioning from others and culture and society plus life experiences. In practice it is a hard discipline to be truly open to possibilities, or to even see them. YMMV.