Atheism, humanism, freethought, &c. — Best nonfiction books in favour of

Description
A reading list inspired by Jerry Coyne’s post on the website _Why Evolution Is True_ http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/i-got-the-book-you-know-the-one-with-the-best-arguments-for-god/
1
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
by Daniel C. Dennett
3,163 members
40 reviews
3.8
6 Members
aulsmith, AntAllan, Rodemail, HxBuff, kdemetter, Condrat_Catalina
2
The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
18,357 members
381 reviews
3.9
5 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, HxBuff, Luchtpint, AlanAndrews33
3
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
by Carl Sagan
9,591 members
104 reviews
½ 4.4
5 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, hvg, HxBuff, kdemetter
4
God Is Not Great
by Christopher Hitchens
8,981 members
222 reviews
3.9
5 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, hvg, HxBuff, mspixieears
5
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
by Carl Sagan
8,105 members
119 reviews
½ 4.3
4 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, HxBuff, kdemetter
6
A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking
7,689 members
110 reviews
4
4 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, hvg, HxBuff
10
The Age of Reason
by Thomas Paine
1,739 members
33 reviews
4.2
4 Members
paradoxosalpha, AntAllan, AlanAndrews33, Nonconformisto
13
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
by Carl Sagan
1,745 members
31 reviews
½ 4.3
3 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, hvg
14
God, the Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist
by Victor J. Stenger
889 members
15 reviews
3.9
3 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, hvg
15
Religion and Science
by Bertrand Russell
688 members
9 reviews
3.8
3 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, AlanAndrews33
16
Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
by Dan Barker
588 members
10 reviews
3.8
4 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, kdemetter, AlanAndrews33,aulsmith
Explanations
aulsmith : I wasn't very impressed with this book. Don't give it to you evangelical friends and expect them to de-convert.
17
The Historical Evidence for Jesus
by G. A. Wells
32 members
1 review
½ 3.3
3 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail, kdemetter
18
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
by Sam Harris
5,428 members
95 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
19
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
by Bart D. Ehrman
4,411 members
109 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
20
The Grand Design
by Stephen Hawking
3,804 members
113 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
21
Twilight of the Idols / The Anti-Christ
by Friedrich Nietzsche
2,344 members
12 reviews
4
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
22
Jesus Interrupted
by Bart D. Ehrman
1,511 members
50 reviews
4
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
23
Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam
by Michel Onfray
1,183 members
23 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
25
The Essence of Christianity
by Ludwig Feuerbach
1,033 members
12 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
27
How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science
by Michael Shermer
819 members
8 reviews
4
2 Members
aulsmith, AntAllan
Explanations
aulsmith: This didn't add much to Why People Believe Weird Things, but if you read this one first, I think the opposite will be true.
28
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and other Delusions
by James Randi
818 members
11 reviews
4
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
29
Atheism: The Case Against God
by George H. Smith
730 members
7 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
30
How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
by Thomas Gilovich
707 members
4 reviews
3.9
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
31
Atheist Universe: Why God Didn't Have a Thing to Do with It
by David Mills
611 members
11 reviews
3.9
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
32
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction
by Julian Baggini
588 members
7 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
33
Good without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe
by Greg M. Epstein
482 members
13 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AntAllan, carolannvicki
34
The God Argument: The Case against Religion and for Humanism
by A. C. Grayling
381 members
7 reviews
4
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
35
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion
by Russ Kick
324 members
6 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
36
A Manual for Creating Atheists
by Peter Boghossian
289 members
5 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
AntAllan, hvg
37
Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking
by Thomas E. Kida
270 members
4 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
38
Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life
by Louise M. Antony
247 members
2 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
AntAllan, carolannvicki
39
Science and Religion
by Paul Kurtz
237 members
3 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
40
The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought
by Susan Jacoby
223 members
5 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
41
The Natural History of Religion
by David Hume
202 members
3 reviews
4
2 Members
paradoxosalpha, AntAllan
42
Religion without revelation
by Julian Huxley
189 members
3 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
43
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist
by Dan Barker
181 members
6 reviews
3.9
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
44
Why I Am Not a Christian: Four Conclusive Reasons to Reject the Faith
by Richard Carrier
93 members
6 reviews
3
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
46
The Problem of God: A Short Introduction
by Peter Adam Angeles
25 members
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
47
Did Jesus Exist?
by G. A. Wells
20 members
½ 3.5
2 Members
AntAllan, Rodemail
49
Lead Us Not into Penn Station : Provocative Pieces
by Anne Nicol Gaylor
4 members
1 review
½ 4.5
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33
50
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
12,026 members
135 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
AntAllan
51
Critique of Pure Reason
by Immanuel Kant
7,549 members
47 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
52
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
by Richard Dawkins
5,120 members
88 reviews
4.2
Member
AntAllan
53
Infidel
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
4,927 members
203 reviews
4.2
Member
AntAllan
54
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
by David Hume
4,373 members
31 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
55
Letter to a Christian Nation
by Sam Harris
3,687 members
98 reviews
3.9
2 Members
AntAllan, AlanAndrews33,aulsmith
Explanations
aulsmith : Too strident. Scares people more than convinces them.
56
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life
by Daniel C. Dennett
3,401 members
36 reviews
4.1
Member
AntAllan
57
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
by Steven Pinker
3,385 members
78 reviews
4.1
Member
AntAllan
58
Letters from the Earth
by Mark Twain
3,024 members
40 reviews
4.1
Member
AntAllan
59
The Antichrist
by Friedrich Nietzsche
2,758 members
35 reviews
3.8
Member
paradoxosalpha
60
Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
by Richard Dawkins
2,501 members
28 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
61
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
by David Hume
2,310 members
13 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
62
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
by Richard Dawkins
2,256 members
48 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
64
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
by Bart D. Ehrman
2,061 members
26 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
65
The Future of an Illusion
by Sigmund Freud
1,922 members
18 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
AntAllan
66
The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
by Sam Harris
1,883 members
44 reviews
3.8
Member
AntAllan
67
A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
by Richard Dawkins
1,838 members
20 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
68
Mortality
by Christopher Hitchens
1,833 members
83 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
69
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
by Lawrence M. Krauss
1,765 members
46 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
AntAllan
70
Letters to a Young Contrarian
by Christopher Hitchens
1,507 members
23 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
71
The Age of American Unreason
by Susan Jacoby
1,452 members
49 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
AntAllan
72
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
by Robert Wright
1,393 members
19 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
73
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
by R. Crumb
1,387 members
53 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
74
Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
by Susan Jacoby
1,365 members
27 reviews
4.1
Member
AntAllan
75
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture
by Marvin Harris
1,347 members
21 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
76
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
by David Deutsch
1,264 members
27 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
77
Theological-Political Treatise
by Baruch Spinoza
1,177 members
12 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
78
The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation
by Matt Ridley
1,168 members
14 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan
80
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World
by Catherine Nixey
1,006 members
31 reviews
3.8
Member
Rodemail
81
The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible
by Robin Lane Fox
838 members
7 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
Rodemail
83
God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales
by Penn Jillette
630 members
39 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
AntAllan
84
The Woman's Bible
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
563 members
7 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
AntAllan
85
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up
by John Allen Paulos
546 members
13 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
AntAllan
86
The Good Book: A Humanist Bible
by A. C. Grayling
486 members
3 reviews
½ 3.5
Member
AntAllan
87
Why I Am Not a Muslim
by Ibn Warraq
447 members
6 reviews
4.1
Member
AntAllan
88
Our Kind: Who We Are, Where We Came From, Where We Are Going
by Marvin Harris
392 members
6 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
89
The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God
by J. L. Mackie
329 members
5 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
90
The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity
by Bruce Hood
317 members
5 reviews
3.8
Member
AntAllan
91
The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters
by Anthony Pagden
302 members
6 reviews
3.8
Member
AntAllan
92
The Faith of a Heretic
by Walter Kaufmann
281 members
4
Member
AntAllan
94
The Cambridge Companion to Atheism
by Michael Martin
265 members
4.1
Member
AntAllan
95
Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity
by John W. Loftus
237 members
7 reviews
3.8
Member
AntAllan
96
The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason
by Victor J. Stenger
229 members
4 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
AntAllan
97
Treatise on the Gods
by H. L. Mencken
223 members
8 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
AntAllan
98
Gospel Fictions
by Randel Helms
216 members
3 reviews
½ 3.4
Member
AntAllan
99
The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails
by John W. Loftus
201 members
2 reviews
4
Member
AntAllan
100
Atheism: A Reader
by S. T. Joshi
196 members
3 reviews
3.9
Member
AntAllan