Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great , a provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages--with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices--past and present--that... (more)

In God We Doubt

by John Humphrys

Today’s agnostics are scorned by believers for their failure to find faith, as well as by atheists for being hopelessly wishy-washy and weak-minded. But John Humphrys is proud to count himself among the agnostic ranks. In this candid memoir he charts the history of his spiritual life, from his Christian childhood through the years in which he prayed every day of his life until his growing doubts finally began to... (more)

God Is Not Great

How Religion Poisons Everything

by Christopher Hitchens

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity,... (more)

Godless

by Pete Hautman

"Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own customized religion?" Fed up with his parents' boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god -- the town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers: his snail-farming best friend, Shin, cute-as-a-button (whatever that means) Magda Price, and the violent and unpredictable Henry Stagg. As their religion... (more)

The Penguin Dictionary of Religions: Second Edition (Dictionary, Penguin)

The Penguin Dictionary of Religions: Second Edition (Dictionary, Penguin)

by John R. Hinnells

The Penguin Dictionary of Religions is a fascinating and authoritative guide to every aspect of religion, past and present. It examines ancient doctrines and modern beliefs, small sects and popular movements. Drawing on the expertise of over sixty contributors worldwide, the dictionary is an essential reference source for both academic study and general readers.

The New Penguin Handbook of Living Religions: Second Edition (Penguin Reference Books)

The New Penguin Handbook of Living Religions: Second Edition (Penguin Reference Books)

by John R. Hinnells

Comprehensive and informative, The New Penguin Handbook of Living Religions has been completely revised, with all chapters updated to include discussion of modern developments and recent scholarship. Compiled by a team of leading international scholars, it is an authoritative guide to understanding the religious beliefs and practices of the world today. * Explains the sources and history of the world's... (more)

My Life Without God

by William J. Murray

Hermeneutica y Praxis del Indigenismo: La Novela Indigenista, de Clorinda Matto a Jose Maria Arguedas (Colección Tierra firme)Joseph Campbell

Hermeneutica y Praxis del Indigenismo: La Novela Indigenista, de Clorinda Matto a Jose Maria Arguedas (Colección Tierra firme)

by Julio Rodri?guez-Luis

Black and Not Baptist: Nonbelief and Freethought in the Black Community

Black and Not Baptist: Nonbelief and Freethought in the Black Community

by Don Barbera

Known only to each other, they have walked among us, invisible and undetected for years. But now, the secret is out! Atheists exist in the African American community. In the African American community there is an unspoken rule to never air dirty laundry in public, and for years the inner workings of the black community stayed hidden beneath a veil of dark silence, but with integration came a mingling of the races... (more)

The Indians' Book: Songs and Legends of the American Indians

The Indians' Book: Songs and Legends of the American Indians

by Natalie Curtis

A book created wholly by the American Indian - songs, myths, drawings and decorations based on traditional designs - The Indians Book is a treasury of lore for general readers, for teachers, for folk singers. Its musical and folk material derives directly from the Indian oral tradition and is presented exactly as Miss Curtis recorded it.The 149 songs - the traditional music of 18 tribes - are today irreplaceable;... (more)

God, Do You Exist?: The Questions Of A Curious Agnostic

God, Do You Exist?: The Questions Of A Curious Agnostic

by George Graham Ardell

Why do we cling so tenaciously to the symbols and stories and doctrines contained in religion? Even more importantly, why do we let ourselves be driven to extremes of anger and hate and even murder in their defense? No doubt fear is the strongest reason. But, surely that fear is just the legacy from the reaction of our ancient ancestors to the mysteries they could see but not understand. Many of those mysteries... (more)

2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People With the Courage to Doubt

2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People With the Courage to Doubt

by James A. Haught

Society rarely acknowledges the many and varied gifts that disbelievers give to the world. Churchmen generally contend that great figures in history, such as America's founders, were conventional believers. That isn't true, and this insightful, witty collection sets the record straight! This collection chronicles dozens of famous people such as Isaac Asimov, W E B DuBois, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Ralph... (more)

Heaven Without Her: A Desperate Daughter's Search for the Heart of Her Mother's Faith

Heaven Without Her: A Desperate Daughter's Search for the Heart of Her Mother's Faith

by Kitty Foth

A fascinating personal account of a libertarian feminist agnostic who discovered a dynamic faith. Kitty Foth-Regner was a secular feminist who had bought hook, line, and sinker the ideals and objectives of Betty Friedan's N.O.W. Kitty's mother-a woman of faith-became sick and clearly was destined to die rather quickly. And the author began to wonder about whether she would be in heaven with her mother someday.... (more)

EARTH MEDICINE REVEALING HIDDEN TEACHINGS OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN MEDICINE WHEEL

EARTH MEDICINE REVEALING HIDDEN TEACHINGS OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN MEDICINE WHEEL

by Kenneth Meadows

To Native Americans "medicine" is more than a means for treating illness--medicine is the vitality and power that exists in all of nature. This new edition of Meadows' bestseller draws on the secret teachings of native shamans and provides new techniques for tapping your own personal medicine.

In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia to Find the World's First Prophet

In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia to Find the World's First Prophet

by Paul Kriwaczek

Long before the first Hebrew temple, before the birth of Christ or the mission of Muhammad, there lived in Persia a prophet to whom we owe the ideas of a single god, the cosmic struggle between good and evil, and the Apocalypse. His name was Zarathustra, and his teachings eventually held sway from the Indus to the Nile and spread as far as Britain. Following Zarathustra’s elusive trail back through time and... (more)

God Hates Faith: The Absurdity of Faith-Based Morality

God Hates Faith: The Absurdity of Faith-Based Morality

by Aidan Maslow

Faith has motivated individuals to perform some, if not all, of the most horrendous acts in human history. Recently, there have been a lot of books that have argued that belief in a God is a destructive thing. This book sees things differently. This book assumes that it is, in fact, the concept of faith that is destructive and not a belief in God. The book does this by showing that morality does not come from any... (more)

Life of Pi

A Novel

by Yann Martel

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes. The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal... (more)

A Guide to the I Ching

by Carol K. Anthony

Used by its readers as an oracle, this book, based on the terminology used in the classic Wilhelm/Baynes translation, puts the I Ching into modern language. This allows its wisdom to be applied to the situations of everyday life. Decoded are words such as "the superior man," the "inferior man," "the inferiors," and the "faithful followers," which refer respectively to the true self, the ego, the bodily self, and... (more)

The God Delusion

by Richard Dawkins

A preeminent scientist -- and the world's most prominent atheist -- asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11. With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He... (more)

The Medicine Way: A Shamanic Path to Self Mastery (The "Earth Quest" Series)

The Medicine Way: A Shamanic Path to Self Mastery (The "Earth Quest" Series)

by Kenneth Meadows

To the Native American, the word "medicine" means more than a substance to restore health. It refers to a vital energy force available to all who call upon it--and also means "knowledge." This practical handbook of shamanic self-mastery offers a distillation of the ancient shamanic truths of the Native American, blended with wisdom derived from the East and from Europe.

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: agnostic

Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

by Christopher Hitchens

by John Humphrys

How Religion Poisons Everything

by Christopher Hitchens

by Pete Hautman

by John R. Hinnells

by John R. Hinnells

by William J. Murray

by Julio Rodri?guez-Luis

by Don Barbera

by Natalie Curtis

by George Graham Ardell

by James A. Haught

by Kitty Foth

by Kenneth Meadows

by Paul Kriwaczek

by Aidan Maslow

A Novel

by Yann Martel

by Carol K. Anthony

by Richard Dawkins

by Kenneth Meadows