Atheists - what book most influences your personal view on how "it all works"?

Question

Meaning evolution, universe, life, whichever you prefer.

or books, plural. Just wondering about scientific influences, or even fictional ones. I'm looking for some new reading material!

Answer 1

There are numerous books, of course. I can direct you to a few: "The Bible Unearthed," "Misquoting Jesus," "The True Believer," "Why We Believe What We Believe," "Language, Truth and Logic," "Language in Thought and Action," "A History of God," "A Short History of Almost Everything," "The Map that Changed the World," to name a few.

Answer 2

There isn't any particular book, but the sum total of all I have read, including the Bible and the books of other religions.

I suppose Isaac Asimov and Daniel Boorstin have been influential, not only because of their insights, but also because of the grand scope of their books and the educational value of seeing such a large part of history and science within a single book.

Boorstin's Creators and Discoverers, Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space.

It's been ten years or more since I read them, but they were influential in making the transition from Agnostic to Atheist.

Also, anything by Roger Penrose is worth reading, even if he is so far out there he makes Hawking and Sagan look timid.

Answer 3

Back in the early '70s, I found "The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris to be particularly helpful. The right book at the right time of my life. Now, when I want biology I read anything by E.O. Wilson I can get my hands on. For math/physics, I just finished "The Road To Reality" by Roger Penrose, seriously difficult and deeply profound. I also keep "The Feynman Lectures On Physics" handy -- possibly the best undergraduate physics text ever written.

Answer 4

Physics and Philosophy, (Werner Heisenberg)
A Cartoon History of time (Charlesworth and Gribbin)
In search of Schrodinger's Cat (John Gribbin)

The Robot's Rebellion: finding meaning in the age of Darwin (Keith Stanovich).
Stephen Jay Gould's essays,
Camus, Sartre, Jaspers...

From my time as a Christian: the bible, C S Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, Os Guinness, F F Bruce...

Oh, and definitely Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld and Dirk Gently novels.
They smuggle in an amazing amount of philosophy and theology in amongst everything else, in a most palatable form.

And a very good computer game: "Sophie's world."
The book is excellent, but the computer disc had extra aspects and resources.

Answer 5

i will see a situation with both the non secular and the atheist alike as they both attempt to push their time table upon others. faith is the conception of conversion to, as some placed it, administration, at the same time as if atheism isn't a faith, why make an attempt to transform yet another on your conception? The non secular a minimum of furnish a reward for conversion although the atheist has no such present. In my innovations, it truly isn't any ask your self that there are such an excellent number of non secular human beings, because of the benefits. Now imagine the benefits the Muslim and what they offer their martyrs, seventy 2 virgins! If I were a sex addict, i might want to surely grow to be a Muslim! The Christian faith delivers eternal existence in a city with streets of organic gold, a harp and a crown. What do the atheist furnish me? A hollow contained in the floor, airborne dirt and mud thrown in my face and doubtless after one hundred years someone may keep in mind my call. i trust that atheists could attempt to come back up with better to furnish in the adventure that they want to cajole others to modify. i trust an same about maximum religions, because i do not rather look after harp music both and a crown might want to look extraordinary on suitable of my ball cap. i'm pantheist, and trust that each individual of nature is god. It delivers existence if all of us recognize what to apply and shortage of existence if we devour the incorrect ingredient. it may heal, teach, entertain and keep up one. I unquestionably have by no potential heard your god or non-god say a note, yet I unquestionably have heard nature call.

Answer 6

There is no one book that influences my view. Every book I have ever read has contributed to my understanding of the world in which I live.

Answer 7

Hard to pin it down to one book....I'd say any and every book written by Carl Sagan; Relativity by Albert Einstein; The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Answer 8

A Brief History of Time by Hawking
and my Bio courses in college.

Answer 9

The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life
Armand Nicholi

Answer 10

" The Naked Ape" Desmond Morris
" The Dragons of Edan" Carl Sagen