# Theism v. Atheism Books
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 16, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835 "2004-01-16T20:40:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/21 "2004-01-18T20:07:17Z")
> [@RikWriter](#):
>
> Sagan’s “The Demon Haunted World” makes a good case against at least fundamentalist religion.
That would be my first choice.
For Sherman, Why People Believe Weird Things.
(Quick check of my bookshelf, that would be Shermer, not Sherman.)
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/22 "2004-01-18T20:20:07Z")
> [@DaPearl](#):
>
> Though it is not exclusively about atheism and theism, Ibn Warraq’s Why I Am Not a Muslim covers the topic extensively. The book is a bit controversail as an attack on Islam, but much in the book can be applied to other religions and Warraq makes compelling arguements.
>
> I’ve read a bit about eastern religion in the past two but I’m drawing blanks at the moment on specific titles.
The title sounds like a reference to Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian .
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2004, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/23 "2004-01-18T20:51:47Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> For Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things.
I have that one too…good read. Also interesting is The Lucifer Principle.
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2004, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/24 "2004-01-19T07:35:46Z")
Why people believe weird things focuses much less on religion than it does on case studies about Holocaust denial, witch hunts, Randian cults, and creationism. It doesn’t really touch as much on theistic arguments as does How we Believe.
You could always try Alvin Plantinga for some fairly high powered arguments for the existence of god. I don’t happen to agree with most of them, but it’s definately high level, well thought out stuff.
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### Author:  [@DaPearl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaPearl)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2004, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/25 "2004-01-19T07:51:10Z")
> [@jsc1953](#):
>
> The title sounds like a reference to Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian .
Indeed it is, though I’m unfamiliar with Russel’s work.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/26 "2004-01-20T01:51:57Z")
I have _Atheism, the Case Against God_ but I wouldn’t recommend it. Smith’s arguments have many holes in them, speaking as an atheist. For instance, his arguments against first cause is that matter is eternal, which is just wrong. Russell’s book, though a collection of essays, is much better, IMO.
Another one I like is _Atheism: A Reader_ edited by S. T. Joshi. It is a collection of essays about atheism, and includes one from Demon Haunted World.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/27 "2004-01-20T22:14:09Z")
Didn’t someone dub C.S. Lewis “Apostle to the Skeptics”?
Appropriate for this thread.
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### Author:  [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/28 "2004-01-21T01:02:58Z")
Michael Shermer’s How We Believe is the best I’ve read, beside
Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World.
It may sound odd, but a great book that helps one with critical thinking is How To Think Straight About Psychology by Keith Stanovich.
More to the theistic study would be any book by Mircea Eliade, Huston Smith, Karen Armstrong. They are more concerned with the history and theory of religions, but the more one knows about Other religions, the clearer it is that they are all about the same thing, just different symbols and methods.
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theism-v-atheism-books/224835/29 "2004-01-21T03:25:21Z")
An interesting, but ultimately IMHO unconvincing argument from the theist side is “Finding Darwin’s God” by Kenneth Miller.
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