I would argue against Dennett, although I have only read Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, not Freedom Evolves, but I found it to be fairly inaccessible, in terms of the language and chapter structure. The term intellectually masturbatory comes to mind. Even though I have a great respect for him, and agree with his ideas, I found myself thinking ‘Enough already. Shut up now’.
BTW, I’m in. I’ll do my best to read whatever the theists settle on.
I think **ITR champion ** already settled on CS Lewis and Richard Dawkins. Now, I think, we’re just waiting to know when the two threads will be opened (i.e., how long we have to read the two books).
Count me in.
I’m willing to read both the Lewis and the Dawkins books.
I’ve never been in it to convert anyone, just to freshen up some of my tired old arguements.
Looking forward to it, anxiously awaiting the time frame.
I’m in. The God delusion has been recommended several times. I’m up for reading it.
I might suggest The Divine Matrix although it’s a bit New Age. It’s interesting to me because it blends physics theories with spiritual teachings. At some point I’d like to discuss the physics mentioned in it with the board.
I would propose that, given all of the excellent books suggested, we stick to the two submitted and, after viewing the relative success or failure of the debate, move on to two more, or not as the case may be (or build upon the debate with future suggestions as issues not covered in the original two pop up).
My questions are:
I am a little unclear as to the two threads idea. Is this to be one pro and one con thread where both books are discussed in each or one thread per book?
Would the subject matter alone keep this in GD as opposed to CS or would it be presumed that debate will ensue?
Just wondering is all.
I recognize your point here. On the other hand, some of us will have more time to read and post during the next few days because we’re on vacation. So I’d still say that we should start the debate threads as soon as possible. Of course it would be fine to join the threads before you’ve finished the entire books, if you’re afraid of falling behind.
With my username, one might think I would be more involved with the religious debates, but I have avoided them for different reasons, but I definitely like this idea. I have not read either book and I look forward to the discussions.
I dig this. I’m an atheist, so after I finish my copy of God is Not Great, I’ll be back in to read some of the theists’ recommendations.
Have the two books been decided upon? What are they?
See post 13. - The God Delusion and The Abolition of Man.
One thread per book, though it’s possible that one or both book discussions will spin off other threads.
I plan to post in Great Debates, under the assumption that the discussion will be deep enough to justify it.
I plan to start the thread on The Abolition of Man either tonight or tomorrow. For those who haven’t started reading, you could probably finish it in an hour or so.
I’m in, I’ve read The Abolition of Man, and ready to go! 
(Great OP)
Harumph. I’m at a conference until the 31st. But I’ve ordered The Abolition of Man, and it has shipped, so I’ll read it on the 31st or the 1st, probably. And being the good little atheist that I am, I read The God Delusion this summer. I’ll be ready to go within a week.
I put The God Delusion on hold, it wasn’t there when I went to work yesterday. I own The Abolition of Man, so I guess I’ll read that first.
I ordered my copy of The God Delusion from Amazon. No changing books now.
Thank you ITR Champion.
I have read most of *The Abolition of Man * online (linked above) but will look for a copy of that and *The God Delusion * this weekend and pour through them over the holiday. Should be ready within a week, if not I ain’t a’ scairt to start anyways.
At the end of the thread on The God Delusion, we agreed to repeat the process with a different pair of books. My proposal for the next book from a Christian perspective is A Guide for the Perplexed by E. F. Schumacher. This is another short book, but more explicitly about spiritualism than The Abolition of Man. It’s only more recent, being written in 1977, and thus addresses more modern sensibilities.
I know that others have suggested several books from the Christian side, and some of them look quite fascinating. I’d be happy to try one of those for the third round. For now I’m proposing Schumacher’s book because it covers so much ground and is highly relevant to a lot of the topics that popped up in the first two threads.
(Also, I should note that my book is different from A Guide for the Perplexed by the ancient Jewish scholar Maimonides. Schumacher borrowed the title from Maimonides’ book.)
Nominations for the atheists’ book are now open.
Well, as for arguing against the likelihood of God, nothing really comes close to The God Delusion in terms of its attention to detail, or its scope. I suppose we could talk about The Astonishing Hypothesis by Francis Crick, or Daniel Dennett’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea but I’d be tempted to go for something a little more offbeat. Rather than arguing against God, books like Song of the Dodo do a great job of showing the natural world as a result of natural processes. It’s a great read, and has some pretty solid science in there.
If nobody else has a suggestion to offer, I guess it’s up to MrFantsyPants to make a final choice. Personally it will probably be a couple weeks before I have time to read an entire book. But if someone else wants to start the discussion threads sooner than that, it’ll be fine with me.