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I recently became an atheist, anyone willing to help me out?

I am somewhat familiar with atheism, but I want to be educated on what science aspects go alongside atheism. I want to be able to properly and intelligently defend my reasoning of being atheist to my religious family. Also, if anyone knows any good books I should read, it would be greatly appreciated if you let me know. Thank you!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on February 6, 2012 at 2:16pm

Yes Kaila, books are a good place to start. Dawkin's "the God delusion" and Hitchens "God is not great" are 2 great places to start. the former is certainly more 'scientific' than the latter, but both should give you lots to think about and a strong foundation upon which to build.

also, anything by Voltaire, and Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" if you want something a bit older.

Youtube is also a good source. spend some time on the Video section of this site as well.

good luck in your endeavors, and congrats on your conversion!

Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on February 6, 2012 at 2:24pm

ps - i've never read Paine other than select quotes from his works.

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on February 28, 2012 at 5:12pm

To get the gut level opposition to theism and good reasons to become an Atheist the works of Robert Ingersoll are hard to beat. To be able to say that there is nothing supernatural about the universe and no mystical entity living up there somewhere is controlling how the real world unfolds - you have relieved yourself of a large bundle of useless baggage

Permalink Reply by Troy Gorsline on February 6, 2012 at 2:25pm

I am in the process of coming out myself. You are right. It is tough. I have received good information from works published by Richard Dawkins (pretty much anything). Dan Barker wrote a wonderfull book as well. I know of a self published auther who wrote a great coming to terms with Atheism, also. Let me know & I can get you his name. This is a good string I will keep my eye on, also.

Permalink Reply by Kaila G on February 6, 2012 at 3:00pm

Any information you have i will use to my best advantage. Thank you for your help good sir.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on February 6, 2012 at 2:25pm

I'll go raid my bookshelf for good starters, when I get home from work. Also, I recommend watching The Atheist Experience. You'll see a lot of argumentation about religious beliefs in action, on the older episodes. I could also go pick out some good YouTube clips from the show, for you.

Permalink Reply by Kaila G on February 6, 2012 at 3:03pm

That would be awesome! Thank you so much for being so willing to help me. I want to be able to use this knowledge to teach my daughter the right way to live, not through some 'supernatural being' who cannot be proven to be real.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on February 7, 2012 at 2:44am

Marc already mentioned Carl Sagan's 'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'. That was one of the two big ones that I was thinking of, at work. Similarly, there's John Allen Paulos's 'Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences'.

They're not atheism books. They're skepticism books. Properly applied skepticism leads to atheism, since none of the religions have anything solid behind them. All good atheists should be skeptics, because otherwise, you're likely to fall for other sorts of woo woo bullshit.

Definitely stay away from Dawkins and Hitchens. Particularly Hitchens. Certainly, read them for your own enjoyment, but if you're looking for a source for how to deal with your family, they're not a good choice. They're far too aggressive.

The one Dawkins book I would suggest is 'The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution'. If your family is the Creationist sort of fundamentalist wackos, that book will serve as a decent primer, by an evolutionary biologist, on the off chance that any of your family members are intellectually curious enough to want to really learn.

I saw someone further down mention Acharya S. I'd stay the hell away from her too. A lot of her books are of questionable scholarship, to put it mildly. I'd also avoid movies like 'What the Bleep do we Know?' and 'Zeitgeist'. They're horrible crap. If you want to learn about what's wrong with the Bible, read a few of Bart D. Ehrman's many books. He's a great Biblical scholar.

Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on February 28, 2012 at 5:30pm

A very graphic and funny intro to the logic of Genesis and all that follows is R.C. Crumb's Illustrated Book of Genesis. It is word for word accurate and profusely illustrated in the manner that only Crumb could do.
The beauty of the book is that it makes the entire story look really silly but the bible thumpers can't attack it because it does not leave a word out of the biblical account.

Permalink Reply by Marc Draco on February 28, 2012 at 5:32pm