ATHEISM BIBLIOGRAPHY

Copyright © 2010 by James Leonard Park

Reviewed by James Park,

existential philosopher and critic of religion belief.

The following books are organized in order of quality, beginning with the best.

The paragraphs in black intend to present objective facts about each book.
The remarks in red are the evaluations of this reviewer.

1. Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion

(Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2006)       406 pages
(ISBN: 978-0-7394-8132-5; paperback)
(Library of Congress call number: not given in book)

    Richard Dawkins is a world-famous evolutionary biologist.
And his basic objections to the idea of a God come from science.
The 'God' about which many people are deluded is the creator of the universe.
Dawkins also brings up other problems of organized religions.
But basically he makes the case that there is no need
for a God-hypothesis to explain anything observed in the natural world.

    He has occasionally been invited to debate theists;
and such debates have also tacitly agreed
that the 'God' being discussed
is a God who created the natural world.

    Dawkins is also aware of the two-realities approach to religious belief.
Some believers who also accept the scientific world-view
(and who therefore accept the evolutionary origin of human beings)
nevertheless maintain that there is another reality
that cannot be examined by the methods and instruments of natural science.
Dawkins is simply not impressed by this form of thinking.
What would the basis be for any claims of truth about this other realm?

    The basic God who is rejected in a Sunday School version of God.
Dawkins does not lock horns with any theologians
who completely accept the scientific world-view.
Perhaps it is the responsibility of all such religious thinkers
to explain how they can agree with everything Dawkins rejects about religion
and still remain persons of faith or persons of spirit.

2. John Shelby Spong 
Jesus for the Non-Religious:
Recovering the Divine at the Heart of the Human

(San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco: www.harpercollins.com, 2007)       316 pages
(ISBN: 978-0-06-076207-0; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number: not given in book)

    This is a book for former Christians who are becoming humanists.
Spong makes a compelling case
that the Gospel stories about Jesus contain very few historical facts.
Rather, these stories grew out of the worship of the early Christian Church.
The Gospels were not written until two or even three generations after Jesus.
The earliest writings collected in the New Testament are the letters of Paul,
which were written before the Gospels
and which show little or no awareness
of the 'facts' of Jesus' life or of his teachings,
which would later be included in the Gospels.

    Spong himself does not believe in any supernatural beings.
So he must see what he can rescue from his Christian background.

    His positive message attempts to find in the Jesus-story
(even if these stories told within the church never happened in history)
some fine human values we can all affirm.
The Gospel-Jesus broke tribal boundaries:
He is an exemplar of non-racism.
The Gospel-Jesus broke religious rules:
He is an exemplar of the critique of narrow religiousness.
The Gospel-Jesus broke social rules:
He is an exemplar of non-sexism and non-classism.

    Quoting from page 275 of the text:
"Jesus was not divine because he was a human
into whom the external God had entered,
as traditional Christology has claimed;
he was and is divine because his humanity and his consciousness
were so whole and complete
that the meaning of God could flow through him.
He was thus able to open people to that transcendent dimension
of life, love, and being that we call God."

    Human wholeness and completeness are the message of the Gospels.
But, we might ask, can we not find better and more-historical examples
of people who exemplified the values Spong finds in the Jesus stories?

    This reviewer says "yes".
We can find wonderful examples of human beings
who worked for the good of others,
who were against tribalism and racism,
who favored the rights of women,
who rejected the narrow legalism of their religious backgrounds.
So we do not need the ambiguous stories of Jesus from the Gospels
to help us affirm these human values.

    The non-religious do not even need Jesus.

    This book could be helpful for readers
who have wondered about the truth of the Christianity
in which they were raised.
Most of the traditional beliefs are rejected by this author,
who might rightly be called an atheist bishop.

    The full table of contents will easily be found on the Internet.
See if this book addresses questions alive in your own mind.


3. Sam Harris
The End of Faith:
Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

(New York: Norton, 2004)       336 pages
(ISBN: 0-7394-5379-3; paperback)
(Library of Congress call number: not given in book)

    Sam Harris began writing this book the day after
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
And much of the text is taken up with attacking radical Islam.
The facts are presented together with the religious justifications.
But Harris misses all the millions of Muslims
who do not support such acts of terror.
Peaceful Muslims are completely missing from this book.

    Likewise, we see only the negative side
of any religion that Harris discusses.
A strong case can be made against any religion,
if all we cite are the foolish things that were done in its name
and the foolish beliefs at least officially held by that 'faith'.

    Nevertheless, defenders of any of the great religions of the world
should include with their defenses
their own condemnations of the atrocities
committed in the name of their religion.
Harris does not consider the possibility
that 'Islamic terrorism' can be overcome
if faithful Muslims reject the beliefs of the terrorists.

    A selective reading of the history of any religious tradition
will find lots of atrocities.
Christianity has its inquisition and crusades.
Millions of people have been killed in holy wars of all sorts.

    But is atheism and world government the answer?

    Harris does not engage the thought of any intelligent religious thinker.
He just keeps pointing out the terrible things
that have been committed in the name of God.

    The foolish beliefs he cites from all religions
are no longer defended by the most advanced advocates of those religions.
The beliefs and practices of the simple people from any human group
should not be used against all other members of those groups.

    For example, Harris continues to disbelieve
that there could be any peaceful Muslim.
But the daily lives of millions of Muslims everywhere in the world
shows that his caricature is one-sided.

    Harris includes a chapter showing that
morality does not depend on supernatural beings.
Rather, morality can be based on reason.

    It is somewhat puzzling to me that this has been such a popular book.
Perhaps it was the title and/or the timing.
We seem now to be ready for a new atheism.
But I cannot think of a single idea in this book that is new or original.
Harris has clearly done his homework.
Hundreds of books are listed in the bibliography.
And there are about 100 pages of notes, etc. at the end of the book.
(I did not read these.)

    If we open the book at random,
we will often come across discussion
that is not central to the announced themes of this book.
Did the author promise a certain number of words to the publisher
before he knew what he would say?
If so, this might account for pages not about theism or atheism.
Sometimes we just get whatever was going thru the author's mind that day.

    The complete table of contents will be easy to discover on the Internet.
Just search the title: "The End of Faith".

{last} James Park
Spirituality without Gods:
Developing Our Capacities of Spirit

    This small book examines traditional beliefs in Gods
by discussing five alleged powers of the Gods:
creating the world, writing holy books,
watching people, changing events, & defeating death.

    Then it explores six capacities we can develop
as we become more deeply persons of spirit:
self-transcendence, freedom, creativity, love, anxiety, & joy.

    Finally it projects the next 1,000 years of progress in spirituality
no longer hampered by past beliefs in Gods.

    See further information here:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/SWG.html


Created 2-3-2008; Revised 3-13-2008; 3-16-2008; 4-17-2008; 4-24-2008; 12-4-2009; 12-10-2010; 3-23-2011

Go to the Book Review Index
to see 350 other books reviewed by James Park,
organized into over 60 different bibliographies.

Go to the opening page for this website:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.