Recommendations

  • Age of American Unreason, The - Susan Jacoby
  • Age of Reason, The - Thomas Paine
  • Ancestor’s Tale, The - Richard Dawkins
  • Antichrist, The - Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
  • Breaking the Spell - Daniel Dennett
  • Brief History of Time, A - Stephen Hawking
  • Briefer History of Time, A - Stephen Hawking
  • Brothers Karamazov, The - Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Caged Virgin, The - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • Descent of Man, The - Charles Darwin
  • Devil’s Chaplain, A - Richard Dawkins
  • End of Faith, The - Sam Harris
  • Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism - Susan Jacoby
  • Gay Science, The - Friedrich Nietzche
  • God Delusion, The - Richard Dawkins
  • god is not Great - Christopher Hitchens
  • God Who Wasn’t There, The (Video Documentary) - Brian Flemming
  • Growing Up in the Universe (Video Lectures) - Richard Dawkins
  • I Sold My Soul on eBay - Hemant Mehta
  • Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  • Jesus Camp (Video Documentary) - Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady
  • Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris
  • Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, The - Thomas Jefferson
  • Origin of Species, The - Charles Darwin
  • Portable Atheist, The - Christopher Hitchens
  • Root of All Evil?, The (TV Documentary) - Richard Dawkins
  • Selfish Gene, The - Richard Dawkins
  • Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, The (Online)
  • Skeptic’s Annotated Book of Mormon, The (Online)
  • Skeptic’s Annotated Quran, The (Online)
  • Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzche
  • Universe in a Nutshell, The - Stephen Hawking
  • Why I Am Not a Christian - Bertrand Russell

2 Comments

  • omega3224
    20 June 2008 at 3:57 pm

    I find your recommendations very interesting. I have already read some of those and I can say for myself that they are great.

    One question though:

    Are you a supporter/believer of social-darwinism or do you just like to read about it?

  • Rev. Reed Braden
    20 June 2008 at 4:34 pm

    Omega, it’s not about support or belief, it’s about evidence. I find social Darwinism an ugly topic and it’s not something that people should be encouraged to facilitate, but there is evidence for societal influence by natural selection (social Darwinism) and artificial selection (eugenics).

    Do I like it? No. Do I recommend that leaders try to take advantage of it? No. Do I advocate eugenics? No. Do I think the evidence shows that it can and has happened? I think so, yes.

    I know certain Christians will latch onto me saying this and say, “See? I told you that Darwinism leads to Social Darwinism/Nazism! Ha ha ha! I win!” I want to address that so I can ward off that attack before it arrives.

    First, social Darwinism is just the belief that natural selection and artificial selection CAN (not “should” ) influence human society. That’s it. It’s not an advocation of genocide or eugenics. Social Darwinism is not Nazism.

    Also, Hitler made it very clear that he was devoutly Catholic. At the time, the Catholic Church’s official stance was against evolution. I’m not sure whether Hitler himself supported Darwin’s theory or not, but he didn’t need it to do what he did. We knew before Darwin that if you gas and burn all the Jews, there won’t be any more Jews. He didn’t need Darwin to tell him that. Natural selection (”Darwinism” ) did not lead to Nazism in any way, shape, or form.

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