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Does anyone have a favorite book that helped you in your transition out of your religion? As for me “The Awakening of Intelligence”, J. Krishnamurti was prodigious. There are others, but this one really resonated with me.

Truthseeker1968 6 Sep 8
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God is NOT great, by Christopher Hitchens.
The God delusion, by Richard Dawkins.
Waking up, by Sam Harris.
Forged, by Dr. Bart Ehrman.
To name a few.

To be honest, I wasn't raised in a religious houshold, so I was never a believer, and never really thought anything about it.
But as years went by, and the internet bloomed, there have been an abundance of books on the subject. I could go all day on a ton of books, but my forementioned books are at my tops of those that really make one think, or question their norm.

I’m with you. My first was the God delusion, then, God is nor great, and then a ton others. Now I like the ones about ancient Christian history.

@bradnyijuan Bart D Ehrman has a ton on that subject. He's one of my faves as well. I'd start with his book "Forged", as an opener, but he's written many others.

@TristanNuvo I’ve seen a lot of Bart Ehrman’s YouTube videos! He gives really interesting talks!

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I started really questioning religion when I was about 8 years old or maybe even younger BUT I tend to think that actually reading the Bible, aka The Goat herders Guide to the Galaxy, word by word, verse by verse, page by page, etc, plus being expelled from EVERY Xrstian Sunday School by the time I was 9 years old for simply asking questions only served to consolidate and reinforce my rejection of religion and all of its woo-woo.

I never got expelled, but I started asking practical questions when I was in the 2nd grade and the nuns sent notes home to my mother for being a smart aleck. I was asking innocent questions, for instance where did Noah find the penguins and the polar bears? How could Columbus have discovered America. There were already people here. Stuff like that. My mom saved these notes and I found some of them after she died. My dad thought it was smart of me to ask questions. I did not learn he was an atheist until 2 months before he died, although I suspected it for many years. So why the fuck did he send me to Catholic school???

@realneal54 Hey, not only was I expelled from every Xrstian Sunday School, my friend, but also marked down as " Not Wanted" in Primary School and High School Scripture classes as well.
I can still remember clearly being sent once a week for the best part of 2 months to the School Library, as 'punishment' ( so they called it) to spend a whole hour alone to read books until one day 2 more kids joined me, a week later another 4 joined us and so it went on until we actually became known as the 12 Unwanted Ones, so named by the Scripture Teachers.
That carried on right through Primary School and on into the first 2 years of High School until the Education Department finally saw sense and abolished Scripture Classes in schools.
I often sit and think to myself " If sending us to the Library was THEIR idea of punishment. DID they realise that by 'punishing' us they were, in all reality, rewarding us and making Good, Decent, Free-thinking Atheists instead ?

@realneal54 That is an interesting question..

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Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell. I was already a non believer. Just added reinforcement.

The celestial teapot.

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The Bible. It made absolutely no sense.

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I read the bible 17 times. It convinced me it was false.

hahahahahahah good one.

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Not a book, but just listen to George Carlin talk about religion. He was a big influence on me growing up.

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Mine was the Bible itself. By the time I was 15, I had read the Bible from cover to cover 3 times. Each time, I saw more and more things that did not make sense or that were simply impossible.

4

Joe Campbell

Yes. Another favorite of mine.

4

I became an atheist at age 13, when I realized the Bible was just a book of stories written by men.

Michigan has a hard winter that year. Bored and restless, my brother, 10, and I decided to read the World Book Encyclopedias.

Reading about philosophers Descartes and Spinoza was fascinating. In the 1700s, they were bravely anti-deity and anti-church when heretics were burned at the stake. Their rationalism theories led to the Age of Enlightenment, focusing on science instead of the Bible.

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Nope. In college took philosophy, then cultural anthropology, then Old Testament and New Testament classes and somehow that combination just sealed my future as an atheist.

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Oh, yes, (waving hand in the air), I can answer that one! The book that helped me transition from a child who attended church (because of my parents, mostly my mother) to someone who understood that my life would be science-based was a child's version of a Greek mythology book. Several of them, actually, including Roman mythology and Norse mythology. I quickly realized - whilst reading these stories about the gods and goddesses - that early people did not have answers to what we now know to be scientific questions, so they made up gods and goddesses with personalities, abilities, and temperaments (or quirks thereof) that explained SO much. We now understand the scientific principles to explain natural phenomena. Voilà - no more need for gods and goddesses!!

3

The Oxford History of Christianity. A truthful textbook that gives the honest history of how the religion was formed, what other religions it borrowed from and how it expanded, none of which caused by a god

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By the time I was transitioning out of religion, I'd already been aware of several examples of how Christianity had subordinated other traditions and enforced its brand. In addition to Monty Python and Dave Allen, I would add the Inquisition, the story of Santa Clause / the Green Man, the origin of the word 'heathen', the early settling of America by Christians, and the draconian enforcement of church attendance in early Europe. The books that have resonated with me would include Sam Harris' End of Faith, Reza Aslan's Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, and Michael Schumer's Why People believe Weird Things.

I have read both and totally agree with you. It's funny to me that Reza says that Islam is the language he uses to express his spirituality. I am not sure what that means. He converted from Christian to Muslim.

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I left all religion at age 12 when I started my first job .... didn't need help in leaving
Read Jonathon Livingston Seagull ....opened my mind to the possibility that with the right mindset you can achieve anything

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I’ve been looking at “ The awakening of intelligence “ for the last 5 years I have about 100 pages or so left. I’m at a point to were I look at that when I get a prompting . Some of the things posed in that collection of questions took me a year or two to see .

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nope. i came to it myself, based on something that had nothing to do with god or religion.

g

What was it based on? If I may ask.

@Truthseeker1968 oh it was the silliest thing! my mom and dad had said many times that long-haired boys were dirty. then i discovered the monkees. they had what was then considered long hair and they were quite obviously not dirty. oops, conflict between what i had been told and what i could clearly observe! so i decided that i would, instead of taking my parents' word for everything (and again, i had no word from them concerning any gods), examine everything closely and see if i really believed it. god went out the window pretty fast. so the monkees triggered my atheism, without necessarily being atheists themselves (i have no clue) or in any way promoting it, or dissing religion, or any such thing~! i told you it was silly!

g

3

Although I hate to admit it, Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". I read it the summer between my freshman and sophomore in college. It gave permission for intellectualism.

I no longer ascribe to Ayn Rand's philosophy. Its is flawed (politest thing I can say), and its followers subscribe to it for all the wrong reasons. Did an independent study in philosophy on Ayn Rand and her philosophy. To be young and stupid again. Lol

t1nick, what do you mean particularly relative to “permission for intellectualism”? I am thinking permission to question, speculate or challenge. Is that, at least in part, how Rand’s book helped you?

I liked RUSH a lot and their liner notes on 2112 thanked Ayn for inspiration; so I figured she must be alright.

@CallMeDave
Not really, but glad you enjoyed RUSH

@Truthseeker1968

Yes and no. The idea that it was okay to seek intellectual pursuits. Whether it might be questioning, deliberating, or the choice in literature or reading material. Even something as dimple as an interest and love of art. My family wasn't very interested in these things so I had little prior exposure. Needless to say I found Rand an eye opener to say it's alright to use your brain, to be curious, etc. Does this answer your question?

2

Anything by Bertrand Russell. And Letter to A Christian Nation by Sam Harris.

I have read Sam's book. It is quite enlightening.

@Grecio I've read man of Sams' books but Letter was such an excellent book explaining to christians why we are atheists. To bad the will never read it.

2

The Demon-Haunted World from Carl Sagan show how to approach the phenomena without a mystical or religious view.
To be an atheist is to continuously exercise this way of thinking and removing the shadows and demons in the corners.

One gunny book is Small Gods from Terry Pratchett, it is a massive critique on Organized religion and religion itself, Just a small spoiler, the group of atheists can only meet in buildings with copper roof because on that world gods obviously exist and smite non believers with thunders XD. This is also a critique on people that have to go loooooooong distances do justify an obvious wrong way of thinking.

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The two I couldn't put down were "the God Delusion" by Dawkins and "God is Not Great" by Hitchens.

Agreed. Those were fun reads.

I have read both and I totally agree with you.

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Any book by Carl Sagan.

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I read the bible(KJV) cover to cover and it made me stop being a christian. I read several books that helped me become a pagan/wiccan. But, sadly no books helped me become an agnostic atheist.

2

The Bible.

BD66 Level 8 Sep 9, 2019

The Bible is definitely the book that started me on my journey to atheism.

2

Nathaniel Brandon’s, “The psychology of Self Esteem” and “The Blind Watchmaker” (Dawkins?).

2

The riddle of abiogenesis was a bit of a stumbling block for me until I read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

Richard is a great scientist as well as an atheist. You know, I can't figure out how a true scientist can be a believer. About 50 % of all living great scientists are believers.

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