Hi mojo.

I love Susan Jacoby and Richard Dawkins too.  I'm reading The Greatest Show on Earth right now.  Carl Sagan's lectures are in a pile of books on my nightstand too.  I've yet to read Dennett, but he's on my list.  I understand Paul Kurtz is the man for secular humanism.  He's on my list too.  If I had to name my favorite 10 books for freethinkers, I'd pick (alphabetical order):

Barker, Dan (2008) godless
Dawkins, Richard (2006) The God Delusion
Eller, David (2004) Natural Atheism
Harris,Sam (2006) Letter to a Christian Nation
Hitchens, Christopher (2007) god is not Great
Jacoby, Susan (2004) Freethinkers:  A History of American Secularism
Price, Robert M. (2003) The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man
Shermer, Michael (2002) Why People Believe Weird Things
Smith, George H. (1979) Atheism:  The Case against God
Stenger, Victor J. (2007) GOD:  The Failed Hypothesis

Hi mojo.

I chose "god is redundant" for the title of my book because throughout it, the concept of god became unnecessary to explain anything.  It was never the best answer in explaining nature (creation, design, etc.) or morality or...

I wrote the book for my daughters who were fairly young, so I tried to keep it simple and moving fast.  There’s a few dozen chapters that are on average only 5 pages long.  The whole book is only 200 pages and can be read in a couple sittings.

After introducing the topics, I provide some simple definitions and do a quick American history lesson on the Founding Fathers.

The next section gets into all the things I don't like about theism:  the nature of faith (vs. reason), the nature of religion (vs. science), why the benefits to theists aren't benefits to me, why I think it's psychologically unhealthy, and why I think it promotes intolerance, anit-Semitism, and misogyny.

In the third part of the book, I tackle the great debate dedicating brief chapters to all the historic arguments theists have offered over the ages: Pascal's Wager, causal, arguments from design, authority, etc.

The next section dives deep into Christianity and provides more likely answers to prophecies, miracles, virgin births, resurrections, etc.  I also examine references to Jesus in other holy books, historical writings, and discuss historical authenticity.

I wrap up by examining the relationship of morality and reason to theism, and lay out my wish for my kids.  My goal was not to indoctrinate them, but it was to be honest and make sure they knew whether and what to believe was their choice.

If you're interested in learning more, my profile has a link to my book's facbook page where there are many links to free chapters, reviews, etc.  I'm told it's a fun, fast read that makes for a handy little freethought primer.

Thanks for asking!

Hey fellow Janesville dweller! How's it going? Did you ever hear of Southeast Wisconsin Free Thinkers group? They just move here to Nexis. Join the fun!

http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/swift