Atheists: What's a book that has greatly influenced your way of thinking?

Question

I mean thinking in the way you view the world, etc.

I would've included christians but i already know that the bible would be their answer.

Answer 1

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Answer 2

If you mean in terms of "going atheist", actually the Bible was the biggest factor for me there too-when I started having a lot of questions, a preacher advised me to read it. Read the thing sometime. It's full of contradiction and some pretty hideous stuff.



If you mean more generally speaking, I found Jared Diamond's "Collapse" to be very thought provoking, as well as Michael Sandel's "Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?" But realistically, I find a lot of things to get me thinking, everything from Asimov's "The Last Question" to Plato's cave allegory.



While I've read Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, et al, that was more from curiosity. I had already been effectively an atheist long before I discovered that such "atheist bibles" even existed. I think the vast majority of atheists drift slowly away from religion and then theism over time, rather than undergoing a sudden "conversion".

Answer 3

Great Expectations

Fahrenheit 451

The Universe in a Nutshell

The Elegant Universe (Even though I do not buy into String theory)

Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption

The Art of War



I could list a ton more, since most books I read do influence me in some way or another.

Answer 4

Robert Tressell`s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.

Answer 5

Where The Wild Things Are and George's Marvellous Medicine.



Also for identity:



Tribes Of Britain by David Miles



For ideas on the world and how other people think:



The Infinite Book by John D. Barrow, and Flat Earth by Christine Garwood.

Answer 6

The Bible. I'm serious. It's the reason why I became an atheist in the first place.

Then I've read various books, watched various shows, and even films that has some anti-religious themes about why religion is bad for the world.

Answer 7

The Tao Te Ching.



The Dhamapadda



Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman



Shadowland, by Peter Straub

Answer 8

If you're asking why I'm an atheist, that would be the bible.



If you mean what book has influenced my beliefs about humanity in general? The most recent one was Under the Dome by Stephen King

Answer 9

The Great Big Book of Atheist Humor and Quotations

The Atheist Cookbook (gotta try the No Angels Food Cake one of these days!)

Answer 10

"Breaking the Spell" Daniel Dennett

"Supersense" Bruce Hood

Principia Discordia & "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" Robert Anton Wilson

Answer 11

Best way to think the world is socialism. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels written on socialism and highest stage of socialism is communism . Marx and Lenin written on religion that influenced me to be an atheist.

Answer 12

Thus spoke Zarathustra

A few of Terry Patchet's books

The Bible

Black holes and baby universes

In search of Schrödinger's cat

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy



This doesn't necessarily mean that I agree with all of them however. Or that all of them are actually philosophical.

Answer 13

Definitely the Bible.

Answer 14

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe & The Sirens of Titan (that one's by Robert Heinlein).

Answer 15

The bible. After having to read parts of it in RS when i was younger i realized how pathetically gullible you have to be to believe it. I used to wonder if it was true but as soon as i realized santa was fake i thought "**** it" I'm gonna enjoy life to the full and not let any religion restrict my life.

Answer 16

Probably The Selfish Gene. It's not about religion, it's about biology and evolution, but it played a huge role in the development of my ability to think rationally and critically.

Answer 17

Douglas Adams - The Salmon of Doubt

Answer 18

Many, lets start with anything by Charles Bukowski, then Hermann Hesse, Richard Brautigan

Answer 19

Twilight of the idols, Friedrich Nietzsche and of course the bible

Answer 20

Self-reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as various other writings by famous people like Jefferson, but Emerson is the most salient in my memory.



"[Man] is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence...



Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike. But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."

Answer 21

Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein.

Answer 22

Double luck by lu chi fa and I am christian and whats wrong with having the bible as my favority book I like the book of zephaniia, zecharah, all of the new testement, danile, hosea, psalms, proverbs, hagga,, habbakuk, and malachi and mikah and yeah dont be mad because you hate the poor and good people and lke evil more

Answer 23

Atheism: The Case Against God, by George H. Smith

Answer 24

The Bible helped me become an atheist more than anything I can think of.

Answer 25

Yertle the Turtle, possibly the greatest book on turtle stacking.

Answer 26

The bible has caused me to make some major decisions in my life - deconversion.

Answer 27

There was no one book, it was a long line of science classes.

Answer 28

The bible! haha.



The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins.



pfft. What's wrong with my book? Fawk off, you thumb-downers.

Answer 29

lol ... the bible, it's so full of such obvious utterly ridiculous nonsense only the braindead and blind cant see it for what it is. An ancient fairytale to enslave and control the minds of fools.

Answer 30

"Way of the Bodhisattva", aka "The Bodhisattva's Way of Life", by Shantideva

Answer 31

lord of the rings

Answer 32

The internet.



Sheesh, fine. God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens.

Answer 33

DMT:the spirit molecule.

Answer 34

hitchhikers guide to the universe

Answer 35

The Hole Qur'an by Allah A. Allah

Answer 36

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Answer 37

so you're incapable of forming your own opinion without the input of others?