Speaking for myself, I didn’t come into being as a self-actualized rational scientific method practitioner. It took years of development over teens and early adulthood to approach the ‘big picture’ of rationalism and to also develop the intellectual self confidence. Books like these, music, and various quotes and writings from other agnostics/atheists were a great help in shaping my vague feelings into tangible thinking.
True, but you could say the same about 2/3 of the “Dummies” etc. books, or even AA’s book.
A concise book that explores the arguments and makes a case for nonreligion is not necessarily, well, unnecessary for someone struggling to actually get free of pervasive religious influence on our culture.
There is nothing about atheism to learn. What I learned was about the contradictions between my Catholic upbringing, and reality. I stopped believing. I’m not even sure when I learned than non-belief was called atheism. It was a long time later and I can’t say that putting a label on it made much difference.
Agree to disagree. If you want to argue that there’s no point in books about atheism, please start a new thread to do so. This one is for recommendations for books about atheism.
I didn’t say there was no point to books about atheism. I said there was nothing to learn about atheism. Those are two different things,
But I will now shut up. 
Like Sattua, I was raised as a total free thinker, encouraged to examine all sides of an issue and then decide for myself. My parents never constrained my thinking (at least, not consciously) and atheism was an easy conclusion. However, I know quite a few atheists whose journeys began in a very different way. One fellow marinated in the Jehovah’s Witness culture from birth and through early adulthood. He readily admits he was brainwashed. It took time, effort and education to undo that early conditioning. We’ve had many conversations about his journey to atheism. One of the things he shared that has always stuck with me: “I had to learn how to think.”
As a lifelong non-believer, I’ve never had to fight the second voice in my head, and critical thinking comes to me as easily as breathing. But it is not so for many. So yes, I think books can be helpful in teaching one “how to think.”
It’s why I suggested Coyne’s book. It’s not about atheism per se. He simply makes the point that sooner or later, one must choose. Either you are a a faith-based believer, or you are an evidenced-based believer. There is little, if any, overlap between these two positions. If you learn to think in an evidence-based way, you will never conclude there is a god. Or at least you won’t without some impressive mental gymnastics.
No, not the thinking processes, religious indoctrination establishes emotional response pathways that can be very strong (depending on the individual). You can observe this sort of thing in some general discussions about a wide variety of topics, where a person will just refuse to accept valid information that undermines their position, making excuses as to what is wrong with that information. Religion ties in to an emotional substrate that is very powerful and can simply overwhelm rational thought with a bad feeling. “Faith” comes from the “heart”, and it is one nasty bastard.
Boyo Jim’s completely right though. What do you want to learn about not believing in fairies? That’s really all it is.
Again, agree to disagree. I’ve participated in this argument before, and I don’t think it’s very interesting, nor is it what I want this thread to be about.
There is no argument though - I just asked a question. What is it you want to learn about it? Atheism is simply not believing in mythologies that for some reason became popular with a lot of people (and I think the discussion of why they choose to believe those mythologies can be interesting, and might be something touched upon in a “book about atheism”, if that’s what you’re getting at). And since you say you’re surprised by the reactions in this thread, it doesn’t seem like you have done it before.
A good book on atheism can show you how to examine and how to expose the faulty logic of the supposed “answers” and “facts” given by various religionists.
Sure, I could see that. Personally I try to avoid those types of arguments altogether, but if you’re the type to engage, it makes sense.
And iamthewalrus, I really am just curious since it has never occurred to me before that one would need a book on atheism.
Since you want recommendations: my husband was raised as a strict Southern Baptist. He went to Bible college, did missionary work, and joined a Fundamentalist church as an adult.
When he was thirty years old, he watched Planet of the Apes (the original), and a switch turned in his head. The whole thing about the orangutans and flight being impossible etc etc was, right there, the turn-around.
He says it was a serious mindfuck for a while, to realize that everything he’d believed wasn’t true, and all these people he’d trusted were wrong–and obviously atheism had been quietly cooking in the back burner of his mind–but he worked through it and is now a secure atheist. So Planet of the Apes is the best recommendation I can give. Not a book, I know.
Yep. I was raised in a Protestant household and believing in God, and all that goes with that, including going to church on a weekly basis – it was just something that was taught to me. I stopped going to church when I left for college and felt somewhat guilty for doing so, but I got over it (I still believed in God and prayed on a somewhat regular basis); after being out in the world (and away from home) for a few years, I recognized myself as an atheist.
My wife was raised in a Catholic household and, although she stopped going to church when she went to college more than two decades ago as well and has gradually moved away to the point where she doesn’t call herself a Catholic, she still struggles mightily with some tenants of Catholicism that are nigh hardwired into adherents of that faith from Day 1. Don’t get me started.
A move to atheism, or recognizing oneself as such, is more difficult for some than others, and a lot of it depends on how you were raised and the opportunities you have to see the world from other perspectives (and whether you can/do take advantage of them).
ETA: After re-reading my post, I don’t mean to infer that one has to go to college to gain some additional perspective. In the case of my wife and me, though, it helped a lot – but any opportunity to get away from a groupthink environment accomplishes the same.
By all means, start a thread on it. I’ll even respond, once, there, with my thoughts, and then anyone else who wants to can take the ball and play with it.
I echo the recommendation of Sagan.
I’ll also recommend a video, available on youtube: Julia Sweeney’s Letting Go of God: - YouTube
It’s her monologue on how she lost her religious faith.
I was brought up more or less in the Church of England, so I’m a very Anglican atheist, which is to say, a- rather than anti-theist, and one of those who “put away childish things” without any great wrench or regret.
But for something to give some kind of framework for an alternative to the religious mindset, particularly with a focus on the question of morality, how about starting with
I don’t know about the US, but here there are a number of groups who have set up secular Sunday assemblies for those who miss the sense of community in a church.
Boy, if you read TDHW, and don’t see anything a believer in a supernatural being would disagree with, I gotta think something is off either with your reading comprehension or your concept of God. Did you really think he was talking about invisible purple dragons?
Sorta hits on one of the things I love most about Sagan. The guy was as Humanist and nontheist as ANYONE, but was able to phrase his message in a way that did not directly threaten all believers.
“The Moral Arc” by Michael Shermer is a good read, focusing on the role of science and reason in the development of a richer human society. Not specifically about atheism but in the ballpark.