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UMB Skeptics Reading List
By an Amazon.com customer
The God DelusionThe God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Buy new: $10.37 / Used from: $5.15
Probably the most popular book on atheism
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons EverythingGod Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
Buy new: $10.19 / Used from: $7.89
Hitchens uses the context of his career as a journalist to showcase the how literally, religion poisons everything.
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the NonbelieverThe Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever by Christopher Hitchens
Buy new: $9.41 / Used from: $4.45
Compilation of writings from atheists Epicurus to Einstein to Salman Rushdie
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the DarkThe Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $4.42
The skeptics bible
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our TimeWhy People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $5.00
On my reading list
How We Believe, 2nd Edition: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for GodHow We Believe, 2nd Edition: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God by Michael Shermer
Buy new: $12.24 / Used from: $4.28
More on my reading list from Shermer
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural PhenomenonBreaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $5.35
Reading LIst
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of LifeDarwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life by Daniel C. Dennett
Buy new: $12.53 / Used from: $4.19
Reading it now, shows how evolution should change the way we think about everything.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for GodThe Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $2.88
Sagan as always shows how the real world is so much more satisfying and mysterious than religious nonsense.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $2.20
Not really skeptical but probably my favorite book. Feynman was so amazingly curious about everything.
What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious CharacterWhat Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $3.95
More great tales of Feynman.
Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for WonderUnweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $3.82
Reading list.
Rendezvous With RamaRendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Buy new: $23.73 / Used from: $17.99
Classic hard sci-fi(read SCIENCE based sci-fi) book about an encounter with an alien civilization that is far more bizarre than anything found on Star Trek.
ProtectorProtector by Larry Niven
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $1.59
Worth it for the parts of the book that deal with interstellar sublight travel.
A Short History of Nearly EverythingA Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Buy new: $11.55 / Used from: $4.98
If you love science you probably already know everything in this book but Bryson is a great writer and invokes the stories of scientists behind the discoveries.
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of ReasonThe End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $0.99
Another of the holy trinity of atheists book along with Dawkins and Hitchens, its pretty good but I think Harris takes it a little to easy on Eastern Religions.
Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage)Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage) by Sam Harris
Buy new: $7.92 / Used from: $6.35
A short book which address the feedback Harris got from writing "The End of Faith"
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate TheoryThe Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $8.50
A good book explaining some cutting edge physics for a qualitative(non-mathematical) view point.
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden BraidGodel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Buy new: $15.61 / Used from: $6.72
Haven't read this one but MIT has some video lectures on a class they taught based on this book. It deals with formal systems, Godel's Incompleteness Theorem and how that applies to human conscienceness.
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its ConsequencesInnumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences by John Allen Paulos
Buy new: $9.89 / Used from: $2.94
Why not understand math makes people believe dumb things.