Your Own Sacred Texts
Name favorite titles, even if they aren't really Atheist books. Read a great book on Evolution? A book that explains the science of homosexuality? A picture book of undersea creatures? A biography of Penn? A cookbook that includes flying spaghetti monster supreme? Or a beautiful fiction about Princess Sprinkles in the enchanted forest?
Okay, so I went overboard with the suggestions, but lets go for variety and the reasons you love them. Personally, I'd especially be interested in religious/psychology stuff. ...And maybe a picture book.
To start off, I really love The Scarlet Letter. ...Everyone else in my class hated it. Interestingly, even though it's fiction, it still offers a lot of information and combats Puritan ideals... a great perspective and beautiful story to boot.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John B Hodges on -
Many, Many....
My favorite book on ethical philosophy is GOOD AND EVIL, A New Direction, by Richard Taylor.
For understanding the evidence and theory of evolution, any and all of the books on that subject by Richard Dawkins, and the book WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE by Jerry A. Coyne. I also strongly recommend YOUR INNER FISH by Neil Shubin.
For an overall view, a "worldview" if you don't mind, all of the books of Carl Sagan since COSMOS. This would include COMET, PALE BLUE DOT, THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD, and TALES OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS.
Politically, My central concern is that we should make all efforts to put human civilization on a sustainable basis. I.E., we should avoid having our civilization collapse (and/or destroy itself fighting over resources on the way down). Between overpopulation, the pollution and depletion of groundwater, the exhaustion of fossil fuels ("Peak Oil"), the continuing degradation and erosion of croplands, the continuing hoarding of nuclear weapons and other WMD's by nations less than stable, and the rising threat of wholesale losses of cropland to climate change, we have many problems which our nation, and some others, are resolutely refusing to address. Two books on climate change I'd recommend would be STORMS OF MY GRANDCHILDREN by James Hansen, and THE WINDS OF CHANGE by Eugene Linden. See also COLLAPSE by Jared Diamond.
Dare I talk about economics? In my foolish youth I started out with Ayn Rand and Libertarianism, which led me to get my B.A. in Economics; so if anyone is interested in that sort of thing, let me recommend PROGRESS AND POVERTY by Henry George, NATURAL CAPITALISM by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, STEADY-STATE ECONOMICS and BEYOND GROWTH by Herman Daly, and (if you can stay awake reading them) ECO-ECONOMY and WORLD ON THE EDGE by Lester R. Brown. (Brown has done great work, if I were King of the World I'd enact his policies wholesale, but his writing style is emotionally flat.)
For fiction, I have a huge collection of science-fiction and fantasy. But if I had to pick one book that was dearest to my heart it would be THERE WILL BE TIME by Poul Anderson. I don't know if it is still in print.
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Permalink Reply by Larry W Snider on -
Sacred,,,HeHeHe,,,
Yeah, well, I hold NO text as Sacred..
Ahh, but, There is some good stuff out there!
I would start with anything by Mark Twain or Kurt Vonnegut and let my curiosity roam from there.
Everyone is different, ergo, so are their lists.
My own list is in constant flux, as am I.
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Permalink Reply by atypican on -
Well since to me the reading of large books without being able to have inquisitive give and take conversations with the author feels a whole lot like the focusing of attention I associate with worship, and I being atheist I try not to slip into worshipful habits.....I decided to compile my own collection of "sacred" texts. I call it "self-canonization" and I try to promote the practice as a method of philosophical self-criticism and self-guided religious instruction. I suggest getting into a text based conversation or debate since expressing the ideas you have is equally as important as trying to understand other people's ideas. Most books are crappy. I do think it's a good idea to solicit recommendations for reading material but the recommendations should come from people who know you a whole lot better than just that you happen to be atheist.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Wood on -
"Catch-22," "King Lear"
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Permalink Reply by Stephen Nuzzo on -
Jesus cries when you touch yourself
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Permalink Reply by Stephen Nuzzo on
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Jesus cries when you touch yourself
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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on -
I rather enjoy Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and Job: A Comedy of Justice, for the shellacking that religion takes in both of them, and particularly the second.
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Permalink Reply by fschmidt on
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My favorites are the Old Testament (Tanakh), the Iliad, and the Odyssey.
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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on -
Jillian Venters "Gothic Charm School", is one that I really like. I could list more.
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Permalink Reply by Richard K. Emms on -
If it's fiction you want, then I recommend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet". Most of this Sherlock Holmes classic is a flash-back to early Utah and encounters with the mormons. It's pretty scary really, and is not hart to see how the mormons got to where they are today. This short novel has been banned in several grade schools in the south east.
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