Beyond the Bestsellers: An Atheist Reading List for 2011

This is a guest post from a fan of Purgatory, Lauren Baily. I'm going to add a few comments at the end of this post.

Beyond the Bestsellers: An Atheist Reading List for 2011

That many pro-atheist books have become instant bestsellers in the past five years demonstrates that atheism is finally becoming a more accepted position in mainstream culture. Of course, this isn't to say that we don't have a long way to go before we become a respected in group in culture and politics—after all, a new study shows that atheists are trusted about as much as rapists.

Still, we can say quite honestly that there has never been a time in human history in which atheism has been so little marginalized as now. While I found the more well-known books by the so-called New Atheists enlightening and entertaining, I do also think that the time is ripe for atheists to complicate their views, to go beyond the more basic arguments proffered by the likes of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. In other words, it is time that we create an atheist culture in which we consider all sides. If you are a little tired of the God Delusion and other books of its ilk, if you are interested in venturing beyond the bestsellers, consider adding the following books to your reading list.

Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate by Terry Eagleton

While Eagleton is not an atheist per se, he is deeply acquainted with atheist thought beginning from now and dating back to the very first atheist philosophers. In his book, Eagleton takes many of the New Atheists to task in their ignorance of philosophy and theology. If you are interested in learning more about the basic principles that undergird religious thought, from a cogent and deeply learned thinker, look no further than this book.

Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies by David Bentley Hart

Like the previous book on this list, Atheist Delusions reexamines some of the common arguments against religion in general and Christianity in particular that'll really make you think. Hart gives a thorough account of the history of Christianity and its cultural and philosophical impacts, pointing out along the way the many factual errors that the New Atheists commit in their books.

On Belief by Slavoj Zizek

Zizek, a staunch atheist who's earned a reputation as one of the foremost public intellectuals of our time, arrives at his own atheism from a refreshingly new perspective. In On Belief, Zizek outlines the various ways in which our increasingly post-religious culture still practices religion in sublimated forms. This slim but fascinating volume is a must-read for those interested in modern philosophy, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies.

While the above mentioned books discuss belief and disbelief in more conceptual terms, Joy in Secularism, a collection of eleven essays, is a deeply person reflection about atheism. If you are interested in learning more about how others live, and not just think, as atheists, this book will be right up your alley.

Don't get me wrong—it's probable that you won't agree with all the viewpoints purveyed in these books. But if you are interested in more fully developing a well-rounded, considered atheistic worldview, then they are definitely worth checking out. Happy New Year!

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com. 

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I thought I would do a cursory look at the books listed above. Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate by Terry Eagleton, from what I've seen, seems to be talking about how many atheists are ignorant of "complex theology". Of course, complex theology is a term commonly used by Christians as a smokescreen to hide the fact that regardless of the complexities of an argument their basic core belief is faith trumps reason. Complex theology is another word for flim-flam. A reviewer of this book noted It [the book] can be very useful to Christians who want to be able to cite a seemingly non-Christian critique to the anti-theist crowd. (As an aside, I find the blogs Camels with Hammers and Debunking Christianity good sites to explore deeper philosophical issues.)
Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies by David Bentley Hart, from the reviews I have read, is just what the book's title implies: A book defending Christianity. Here is an excerpt from one reviewer,

Some atheists writers try and suggest that all was fine and dandy in the ancient pagan world before those pesky Christians came along with their hang ups over human physicality. Hart addresses this point, exposing the "glorious sadness" at the heart of pagan life and experience. Heretical Gnostics may have had hang ups over human physicality, but not the orthodox, who believed that the Word was made flesh. Christianity constituted a great rebellion against the false gods of paganism and the pitiless indifference to human suffering that often characterised pagan thought. The central tenet of the Christian faith, that he who was in the form of God took the form of a servant and died for sinners conferred a new dignity on each and every human being, slaves included.

 I'm not rushing out to buy this.

On Belief by Slavoj Zizek, explores a wide span of topics. Here is what one reviewer stated,

In proposing that historicity per se be defined as the occurrence of sudden ruptures/breaks (akin to Thomas Kuhn's "paradigm shifts"), Zizek refrains from explicitly stating either whether a certain decisive break has indeed occurred (i.e., whether Fukuyama is right, which would be consistent with his earlier mention of a Lacanian critique of Marx-history is over because the shift/rupture marked by capitalism really is the last genuine change, after which an overall structural stability sets in due to a certain symbiosis achieved by capitalism's arrangement of relations between the plurality of libidinal economies and the overarching, mediating socio-symbolic economy) or whether the "true and real end" has yet to arrive (his concluding remarks about Christian theology indicate that he now sees Christianity as containing within itself, when coupled with Marx and Lenin, the potential for engendering further breaks and revolutionary transformations,...

That is only part of one sentence. And I have to say, this bit confirms my bias that a person who holds a PhD in Philosophy must have taken several classes on very, very, very long sentences. (Oh, it isn't that I don't understand the sentence, either. My feeling is just that unnecessarily obtuse sentences should not be assumed to be particularly deep or clever.)

Joy in Secularism by various, seems to be something I would enjoy reading. Click here is a review from the New Yorker.



LiP