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mts711 @lemm.ee

Books to read for a beginner atheist

Hello Everyone,

As someone who's religious beliefs are on a shaky ground, what books on atheism can you recommend me to read?

I'm looking for something for beginners / down-to-earth.

52 comments

  • Unironically, read the Qur'an and the Bible (the novel), if you're feeling adventurous educate yourself on Buddhism.

  • Come to think of it, I wouldn’t really recommend any books on atheism. Atheism is not really its own thing, it’s just the result of not being persuaded by the claims of theism.

    For me personally, I actually became an atheist via reading various religious texts, as well as various acclaimed spiritual novels. So sort of the opposite of what you’re asking for haha.

    Recommendations based on science and humanism are okay, since that gives you a place to start looking through the secular stance on the mysteries religions claim to have all the answers for. But that also isn’t quite what you’re asking for. Many scientists and philosophers are religious themselves, after all.

    Yet a third thing you aren’t asking for: I would check out Matt Dillahunty. He used to do a call-in show in Austin. Mostly just regular religious people calling in, going through their thought process on why they believed, then getting an atheist’s perspective in response. Looks like he’s still very active on youtube these days

    I haven’t listened in years, and if I recall some of the most viewed clips were basically just angry arguments lol. But sitting and listening through full episodes is about as down-to-earth of atheist content as I can think of. Just addressing religious claims one at a time

  • Small Gods is indeed a great choice. I never thought of it as a "book for atheists" and it's quite unlikely to turn someone religious into a non-believer - but it's clever, funny and one of my personal favorite Terry Patches books. So, worst case scenario: you've read a highly entertaining book.

    "The Bible" is the book that ultimately turned me into a convinced atheist. If you actually read it, without having it filtered and read to you by religious people with agendas, it's hard to continue believing in any of its insane ramblings. But it's a really tough, slow and often immoral and revolting read. Mostly, it's just really stupid.

    "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" is the opposite. It's a funny, light and often silly read. It's not exactly deep, but neither are the books it's parodizing. As a satire of other religious text it works reasonably well in putting the finger in the wound.

    "The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever" is just that: a collection of texts and letters on the subject by some brilliant minds: Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Lucrecius, Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins and many more ... collected and edited by Christopher Hitchens. As an anthology it allows you to dip your toes in and read the texts you are interested in. Maybe my first choice as serious "atheism for beginners" literature.

  • Lord of the rings is a great book series.

    I'm very fond of scifi, the old man war series is a very fun and smooth series to read. I like to recommend it to ppl that want to read a longer, but easy to digest series.

    If you like scifi in general, you can't go wrong by picking any random nebula award winner. It's what I've done these past few years. Can't say I've regretted it this far.

    You'll have plenty time to read amazing books now that you don't have to waste your time in church, reading the Bible and thinking about skydaddy. Welcome to freedom!

  • The Skeptic's Annotated Bible by Steve Wells, assuming you're Christian (or I suppose Jewish or Muslim to a lesser extent).

    It's literally the KJV bible with commentary by an atheist. It might be a bit much to sit down and read over several days, but it should be useful.

  • One that comes to mind is "Religion for Atheists". It is a great book that highlights the non-spiritual functions of religion in society. The idea is by identifying what function you got out of religion in the past, you may find ways to replace it without getting involved in the collective delusion of pretending to know the unknowable.

    If you're stepping away from the god of Abraham, you could always read Nietzsche's "The Antichrist" but i dont really recommend most people read Nietzsche without some solid footing in philosophy and some helpful context, since he can lead people to some straight up Nazi shit which he elsewhere explicitly warned against. Context important with him. But it's a scathing criticism of the role of dogma in society.

    If you feel a need for a spiritual drink without relapsing on god, I recommend exploring the Dao De Jing. It's another one that benefits from context, rereading, and meditation, but it can explain the world quite nicely without need of an invested anthropomorphic god.

    Finally, you might want to pick up some existentialist literature if you feel like life has no meaning and you're lost. Sartre or Frankl come to mind.

  • An influence on my views was reading an abridged Bible on my own when I was a child to see what my family’s doctrine actually is and to critically examine the merits of its values and realism. School science textbooks also provided some insight into the physical world and its implications.

    A unique element of atheism relative to other religious views is that there isn’t a unifying dogma. Generally, atheists agree on evolution and The Big Bang and just basic science stuff, so some elementary literature or media on those could be a start. However, it’s possible to be an atheist and not believe in these things and to instead believe that everything happens and happened for some non-deistic magic reason or because of some other off-the-wall idiosyncratic theory without scientific backing.

    Fundamentally, you should ask yourself if you’re interested in atheism due to doubting the feasibility of deities; or if you’re doubting there being a meaning or purpose to life and the universe; or if you’re doubting that your concept of deities could perform certain actions, such as standing by while tragedy happens (or perhaps you’ve got some other reason?). From there, you can direct yourself to the field of study of your choice: scientific, philosophy, and world religions, respectively, but be sure to branch out into the other two options.

    • You understand my current state of mind.

      I just stopped believing in existence of deities and the existence of inherent meaning of life (not to mistake it with value of life).

      The world is just a mess beyond our comprehension and we tend to attribute random events beyond our comprehension to the grand plan of things.

      I do think that life is much more beautiful with the acceptance of atheism, mortality (no afterlife), personal and sexual freedom. I tend to just enjoy the moment and the life I have while I still have it knowing that this is it, this isn't a preparation for what comes next. This is it.

      I'm still against mocking religion because I find it to be in poor taste, in the same vein like mocking someones gender, nationality, sexual orientation.

      • I’m gathering from your comment that you’re being motivated by disillusion and disappointment in the universe, rather than a purely logical approach? While I am an advocate for atheism, I don’t know if you’re looking at it for the most sound of reasons. I will play devil’s advocate (badum-tss) to clarify some things about the belief system for you. 

        There’s a well-known quote by Epicurus that comes to mind:

        “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. 

        Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. 

        Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? 

        Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

        You see that there is evil in the universe, but that could be explained by an uncaring or malicious deity. If there is a deity that knows of the universe’s evil and chooses not to stop it even though it would not ail the deity any to do so, then that deity is evil and undeserving of worship. 

        I’m slightly an agnostic-atheist (even though I think the term itself is a bit sloppy), since I think it’s technically plausible (but essentially unknowable) that an astronomically large being could have created the Earth and its inhabitants through scientific and/or mechanical means but for their own entirely selfish and uncaring reasons. The deity in the poorly received film Eternals is the closest representation I’ve seen to what I consider to be a plausible “creator”, since he created Earth and its life to selfishly exploit them for his own species’ natural procreation, and he achieved this through scientific and mechanical means such as a factory forge (you’ll have to ignore the little bit of literal magic that he does perform in the movie).

        Atheism also does not categorically conclude that there isn’t an afterlife, but most atheists would believe that there is not one. Maybe when we die, the electro-chemical signals in our brains get turned into antimatter and get zapped over to another dimension? It may be an off-the-wall notion and be fundamentally unprovable and non-disprovable, but atheism does not require a belief that there is no afterlife.

        Not having to abide by the arbitrary rules and dictations of religions can be freeing, but don’t get carried away and think that nothing matters or that you’re okay to take up any vice or do any crime. Religions have sometimes plugged in the wrong formula and accidentally got the right answers, like “Thou shalt not kill” or “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, which generally will be destructive and hurt undeserving people if you violate them. 

        I think of religious views as just another set of beliefs, and I consider any belief that is ridiculously detached from observable reality, contradictory, taken up without evidence, or devoid of empathy to be a belief deserving of being mocked and scorned. I don’t grant an exception on the merits of categorization or level of conviction or personal attachment, though I do circumstantially avoid mocking it out of courtesy.

        Hope this helps clarify some things and that you make the best of your future.

52 comments