Updated Recommended Reading List

doubtfull1799

Not long after I joined here I posted a reading list of books that helped me wake up, but since then I've read so many more that I've found invaluable in furthering and refining my new worldview, plus giving me a more in-depth well read perspective on theological and scientific issues. So I thought I'd post an updated comprehensive list for other voracious readers like me who are always looking for good books to read. Hope you find something useful here.... they are in alphabetical order, not in order of favourites or subject matter or anything like that.

Reading List of Books on History, Science, Philosophy, Archaeology, Theology & Critical Thinking

1984 - George Orwell (What a genius!)

Ancient Israel: A New History of Israel - Niels Peter Lemche

Apocalypse Delayed - Penton

The Art of Thinking Clearly - Rolf Dobelli

The Battle For God - Karen Armstrong

The Better Angels of our Nature - Steven Pinker

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Breaking the Spell - Daniel C. Dennett

Captives of a Concept - Don Cameron

The Cave and the Light: Plato vss Aristotle - Arthur Herman

Christianity in the Light of Science - John W. Loftus

Cognitive Illusions: A Handbook on Fallacies & Biases - Rudiger F. Pohl

Crisis of Conscience - Raymond Franz

Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of your Life - Richard W. Paul

Doubt - Leigh Sales

The Early History of God - Mark S. Smith

Endless Forms Most Beautiful - Sean B. Carroll

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume

Evolution - What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters - Donald R. Prothero

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Charles MacKay

Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion - Stewart Elliot Guthrie

A Field Guide to Lies & Statistics - Daniel Levitin

The Fine-Tuning Fallacy - Victor J. Stenger

Forged - Bart Ehrman

Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism - Aron Ra

The Four Presidents of the Watchtower Society - Edmond Gruss

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism - Susan Jacoby

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

God’s Gravediggers - Raymond D. Bradley

God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens

Godless - Dan Barker

God, the Devil, and Darwin - Niall Shanks

God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction - Dan Barker

The Greatest Show on Earth - Richard Dawkins

How Evolution Explains Everything About life - New Scientist

A History of Religion in the Old Testament Period - Rainer Albertz

Hitler Homer Bible Christ - Richard Carrier

Holy Fable: The Old Testament Undistorted by Faith - Robert M. Price

How Jesus became God - Bart D. Ehrman

How the Mind Works - Stephen Pinker

How to Defend the Christian Faith: Advice From an Evolutionist - John W.Loftus

Introduction to the Bible (Open Take Courses) - Christine Elizabeth Hayes

The Invention of Nature - Andrea Wulf

The Invention of Religion - Alexander Drake

The Invisible History of the Human Race - Christine Kenneally

Irrationality - Stuart Sutherland

Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris

Losing My Religion - William Lobdell

Lost Christianities: The Battles For scripture and the Faiths we Never Knew - Bart Ehrman

A Manual For Creating Atheists - Peter Boghossian

Misquoting Jesus - Bart Erhman

Mistakes Were Made, But Not by Me - Carol Tavris

The Moral Arc - Michael Shermer

101 Myths of the Bible - Gary Greenberg

Not the Impossible Faith - Richard Carrier

The Not So Intelligent Designer - Abbey Hafer

The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin

Paul & Jesus - James P. Tabor

The Power of Parable - John Dominic Crossman

The Pursuit of the Millennium - Norman Cohn

Pythagoras: His Life & legacy of a Rational Universe - Kitty Ferguson

The Quest for the Historical Israel - Israel Finkelstein

Questioning the Millennium - Stephen J. Gould

Rejecting Pascal’s Wager - Paul Tobin

Rock of Ages - Stephen J. Gould

Second Temple Judaism - Lester L. Grabbe

Sense & Goodness Without God - Richard Carrier

Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought 7 Belief - David Madison

The Serengeti Rules - Sean B. Carroll

The Story of Life in 25 Fossils - Donald R. Prothero

The Story of Philosophy: A History of Western Thought - James Garvey

A Treatise of Human Nature - David Hume

The True Believer - Eric Hoffer

Unintelligent Design - Robyn Williams

The Vital Question - Nick Lane

Waking Up - Sam Harris

The Wasp that Brainwashed the Caterpillar - Matt Simon

What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It? - William G. Dever

When Prophecy Fails - Leon Fesrtiger

Why I am Not a Christian - Bertrand Russell

The Works of Immanuel Kant - Immanuel Kant

The Writings of Thomas Paine - Thomas Paine

You Are Not So Smart - David McRaney

Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin

smiddy3

I would need another lifetime to read all those books doubtful is their any chance you could list the top 3 you would recommend ?

I have read the two COC`s ,I wonder if that was a coincidence?

Captives Of a Concept ,and Crisis of Conscience , and of course 1984 and a few other books that have convinced me all their is to know about religion and God.

Thanks for the list.

Muddy Waters

Great list! Thank you!

Xanthippe

Thanks doubtful, that's a great list. I read the Dawkins' books and thought they were brilliant. Also some of God is not Great and The Better Angels of our Nature. Oh and CoC of course.

stuckinarut2

Oh my "god"! HOW did you read all those?? (Don't you have a job or life? hahaha just stirring!)

Thank you so much for the recommendations! I look forward to enhancing my knowledge further!

I was only thinking earlier today just how ignorant we were as witnesses. We THOUGHT we knew it all. We had answers to everything. We KNEW everything....

Yet, a genuinely humble person knows that we don't know everything...and there is much to learn. So these books will help expand our knowledge.

KiddingMe

Thanks! This is a great list to have. I agree- could you recommend your top 3 or 5 or suggest recommendations for starters. I've read Crisis of Conscience and Steve Hassan's Books but wouldn't know where to begin.

sir82

I've recently re-read "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley.First time since high school. Another dystopian novel - as literature not as well-written as 1984, but still thought-provoking.

There is a chapter toward the end which does quite a nice job of demonstrating how frightfully dull and stifling a world of no conflict, where everyone is happy all the time and no problems remain to be solved, would be.

I.e., the JW version of "paradise earth" sounds fine at first, but thinking about its implications makes you realize that you'd eventually end up hating it.

doubtfull1799

Smiddy3 & KiddingMe - sorry its hard to suggest a top 3 because the subject matter varies so much.

However what I can suggest is watching some of the authors lectures on youtube first to get a summary of their ideas and research to see which ones interest you and then you can dive into the books to get more detail.

For example, in the field of Biblical history (including the questions of the historicity of the Gospels and Jesus etc) I would recommend Richard Carrier, particularly because he takes a very scientific approach to history and everything he researches he publishes for peer review so it is well documented and well thought out using excellent methodology. He also happens to speak well on scientific issues and evolution etc. His books can be heavy going due to their academic nature, but if you search for him on Youtube you will find many recorded lectures he has done of about an hour duration that sum up his research very well in much simpler terms. Just pick a few on subjects that interest you and go from there...

Here's a few of my faves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5MUUP4l6l4&list=PLdWE24VOnsuT9FnLP0TcuO7oafghIbfFG&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUYRoYl7i6U&t=3087s&list=PLdWE24VOnsuT9FnLP0TcuO7oafghIbfFG&index=9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e7uhaed594&list=PLdWE24VOnsuT9FnLP0TcuO7oafghIbfFG&index=5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79UAYyMYk7I&t=2805s