Cameron

Here’s how I’d rate the atheist books I’ve read (best to worst): Atheist Universe, God Is Not Great, The God Delusion, The Blind Watchmaker, The Demon-Haunted World, The Bible Unearthed, Age of Reason, and Letter to a Christian Nation.

But out of all of those, God Delusion is the safest bet and the one you’d want on the bookshelf for reference as he quotes many of the other books. He’s a great popularizer and he doesn’t go off on tangents that could turn the reader away. The only thing I wish he would have gone into more is how the “nothing” of space is actually made up of energy fluctuations, E=mc^2 which allows that energy to become matter, and hey – we don’t need a first cause. Atheist Universe is the only book that really did that, and it was the first time I understood how nothing could really become something.
GDad

I suppose if you could get a friend to stand with you, you could claim that two points describe a line, ergo…
Travis McDermott

Two weeks? Then barnes&noble.com must have a time machine because I just received my copy on Friday.
Secular Planet

Who stands in line for a book that’s already available in hardback?
Linda

I have mine on order with Amazon. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t released yet. I was wondering why it was taking so long… 😯

BTW Hemant, how come you’re not glued to the TV and hypnotized like the rest of the male population? (football)
Sarah H.

Hey… I just found your blog in a roundabout way, through Leaving Eden and I love it.

I’m an atheist, and I’d like to be more friendly, but instead I feel mostly silent. I have a few close friends who I can share with, some atheist and some not, but outside my facebook profile, I try to avoid being labeled as an “atheist” unless directly asked the question.

In college I used to be more open about my beliefs, but I found myself subjected to intense interrogations, usually by religious students who cared less about the answers than trying to make me look foolish or trying to change my mind. My family all identify as very fundamentalist evangelicals, and although my parents and siblings know about my beliefs, they never acknowledge them in any way.

I hope that reading through your past entries and following what you write in the future can help me learn about opening up as a “friendly atheist” to those around me.
Richard Wade

Hi Sarah H, I think if what you are looking for are ways to remain positive and constructive in the face of misunderstanding, ignorance or even abuse, this is a good place. I have learned a lot and grown a lot by hanging around here. There are several “regulars” who have had very similar experiences and who face similar challenges, such as their evangelical families.
Sheri

Hi Sarah H, I think you are very courageous. I’m afraid to tell my fundamentalist family that I am an atheist because for so many years I was one of “them.” So here I am, 42 years old, and feeling very cowardly. You are way ahead of me!
Jeff

Sarah H. said,
…I’m an atheist, and I’d like to be more friendly, but instead I feel mostly silent…

Sarah,

This blog is a good one to freely correspond with both atheists and theists who share the belief that the world would be a better place if both groups can understand each other better. Speaking for myself, I am very hard on the theists, but I respect them and wish them well. You will find here that atheists and theists are both very diverse groups. There are also many here that prefer to call themselves “non-theists”, humanists (of various varieties), or skeptics to distinguish themselves from atheists. The theists are likewise very diverse in their beliefs. This all allows for very interesting exchanges in the comments to the interesting posts by Hemant, Mike, and Richard..
Efrique

Hmm.

My copy of TGD, which has been on my shelf for six months or more (I don’t recall exactly how long i have had it), is paperback, not hardcover. I assume you mean “will be released in the US” .
hoverFrog

I’ve only ever seen The God Delusion in paperback. Clearly the publishers in England didn’t expect as many people to buy it over here. 😉
Sarah H.

Thanks, Richard, Sheri and Jeff! I’m really happy to have found this site and it’s already been challenging my thoughts about how theists and non-theists can interact. I look forward to being part of these discussions. 🙂
JeffN

Is there a web link to read the book on line are do I have to bye the 😕 thing.
What can I say I’m cheep ok. 🙂
hoverFrog

JeffN you could conceivably use a BitTorrent to locate and download this book but my own experience of reading e-books is that is it less fun reading from a screen than reading from a book. There’s also the idea that we should reward authors for their efforts in providing the book in the first place.
Richard Wade

JeffN, there’s another little known source of books for people who don’t want to buy them, one that has been almost entirely forgotten since the advent of the internet. It’s called the Public Library.
JeffN

I’m not a big fan of programs like Limewire are Kazza but thanks for the idea any way.

The public library; now there’s an overlooked thought worth checking into. Thanks.

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