Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday!

Author: Penn Jillette
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0142180270
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
From Emmy Award–winning, world-famous magician Penn Jillette comes an irreverent, hilarious, and provocative book of essays—the perfect gift for the skeptic in your life. Let's be honest—nobody has more fun than atheists. Don't believe it? Well, consider this: For non-believers, every day you're alive is a day to celebrate! And no one celebrates life to the fullest like Penn Jillette, the larger, louder half of legendary magic duo Penn & Teller, whose spectacularly witty and sharply observant essays in Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday! will entertain zealots and skeptics alike. Whether he's contemplating the possibility of life after death, deconstructing popular Christmas carols, or just calling bullsh*t on Donald Trump, Jillette does not fail to shock and delight his readers. And as ever, underneath these rollicking rants lie a deeply personal philosophy and a generous spirit, which find joy and meaning in family, and peace in the simple beauty of the everyday. Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday! is a hysterical affirmation of life's magic from one of the most distinctly perceptive and provocative humorists writing today.

God, No!

Author: Penn Jillette
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451610378
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
The outspoken half of magic duo Penn & Teller presents an atheist reinterpretation of the Ten Commandments, discussing why doubt, skepticism, and wonder should be celebrated and offering humorous stories from his own experiences.

Hi, I'm an Atheist!

Author: David G. McAfee
Publisher: St. Martin's Essentials
ISBN: 1250782090
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
The essential guide to coming out as a non-believer David G. McAfee was raised in a conservative American Christian household. So when he stopped believing in God—any god—his family was shocked. He quickly realized that atheists are misunderstood, frequently thought of as Satan worshippers and anarchists. Thus started McAfee's journey to his true self, and crusade to tell others—especially those who are devoutly religious—what atheism really is, what he believes in, and why atheists should not be feared. In Hi, I'm an Atheist!, McAfee looks at what an atheist believes and how to “come out” as an atheist to your friends, family, and co-workers, offering sound advice on overcoming the difficult moments in any “coming out” conversation. Including a resource guide both for people just coming to atheism and people who have been atheists for years as well as an interview with Rebecca Vitsmun, the woman made famous for coming out as an atheist live on CNN, Hi I’m an Atheist! is a smart, sensitive, and realistic guide to living one’s life positively and honestly without the need for a belief in God.

Religion for Atheists

Author: Alain De Botton
Publisher: Signal
ISBN: 0771025998
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
From the author of The Architecture of Happiness, a deeply moving meditation on how we can still benefit, without believing, from the wisdom, the beauty, and the consolatory power that religion has to offer. Alain de Botton was brought up in a committedly atheistic household, and though he was powerfully swayed by his parents' views, he underwent, in his mid-twenties, a crisis of faithlessness. His feelings of doubt about atheism had their origins in listening to Bach's cantatas, were further developed in the presence of certain Bellini Madonnas, and became overwhelming with an introduction to Zen architecture. However, it was not until his father's death -- buried under a Hebrew headstone in a Jewish cemetery because he had intriguingly omitted to make more secular arrangements -- that Alain began to face the full degree of his ambivalence regarding the views of religion that he had dutifully accepted. Why are we presented with the curious choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle and effective rituals and practices for which there is no equivalent in secular society? Why do we bristle at the mention of the word "morality"? Flee from the idea that art should be uplifting, or have an ethical purpose? Why don't we build temples? What mechanisms do we have for expressing gratitude? The challenge that de Botton addresses in his book: how to separate ideas and practices from the religious institutions that have laid claim to them. In Religion for Atheists is an argument to free our soul-related needs from the particular influence of religions, even if it is, paradoxically, the study of religion that will allow us to rediscover and rearticulate those needs.

The Christian Atheist

Author: Craig Groeschel
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310597412
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
Are you putting your whole faith in God but still living as if everything is up to you? You may believe in God, attend church, and generally treat people with kindness…but are you living as if God doesn't exist? Have you surrendered to God completely, living every day depending upon the Holy Spirit? Pastor and bestselling author Craig Groeschel will lead you on a personal journey toward an authentic, God-honoring life. This honest, hard-hitting, and eye-opening look into the ways people believe in God but live as if he doesn't exist is a classic of discipleship training. Groeschel's personal journey will help you break down your own barriers between simple belief and a more intentional faith. This book will help you: Let go of the shame of your past and know that you’re forgiven. Embrace Christ’s profound love for you. Believe in the power of prayer. Give up control when life doesn't seem fair. Trust God with all your anxious thoughts, heartache, struggles, and pain. From the author of Winning the War in Your Mind, The Christian Atheist is a rallying cry to get honest with God, shed the self-sufficiency and the hypocrisy, and live a life that truly brings glory to Christ.

Caught in the Pulpit

Author: Daniel C. Dennett
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
ISBN: 1634310225
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
What is it like to be a preacher or rabbi who no longer believes in God? In this expanded and updated edition of their groundbreaking study, Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola comprehensively and sensitively expose an inconvenient truth that religious institutions face in the new transparency of the information age—the phenomenon of clergy who no longer believe what they publicly preach. In confidential interviews, clergy from across the ministerial spectrum—from liberal to literal—reveal how their lives of religious service and study have led them to a truth inimical to their professed beliefs and profession. Although their personal stories are as varied as the denominations they once represented, or continue to represent—whether Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Mormon, Pentecostal, or any of numerous others—they give voice not only to their own struggles but also to those who similarly suffer in tender and lonely silence. As this study poignantly and vividly reveals, their common journey has far-reaching implications not only for their families, their congregations, and their communities—but also for the very future of religion.

No Atheists in Foxholes

Author: Patrick McLaughlin
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN: 1418574708
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Book Description
Experience gripping wartime stories and honest prayers by this Camp David chaplain now serving in Iraq. When words mean less and less, but money talks more and more; when blasphemy is a best seller, and eternal war has replaced hopeful diplomacy; in times like these is prayer even possible? Patrick J. McLaughlin thinks so. McLaughlin is an active duty Navy Chaplain who has ministered to heads of state and to soldiers living and dying in the heat of Iraq. No Atheists in Foxholes assembles Chaplain McLaughlin's experiences and prayers from e-mails, private notes, and personal conversations that take us real-time into realms of duty and spirit: from the quiet darkness of his infant son's New England bedroom on September 11, 2001, to the bomshelled medical tents and blistered Army Humvees of Anbar Province. Chaplain McLaughlin believes that prayer is not only possible, but critical. "We must all learn to pray for peace," he says, "and then become an answer to that prayer."

The Happy Atheist

Author: PZ Myers
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307739805
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
On his popular science blog, Pharyngula, PZ Myers has entertained millions of readers with his infectious love of evolutionary science and his equally infectious disdain for creationism, biblical literalism, intelligent design theory, and other products of godly illogic. This funny and fearless book collects and expands on some of his most popular writings, giving the religious fanaticism of our times the gleeful disrespect it deserves by skewering the apocalyptic fantasies, magical thinking, hypocrisies, and pseudoscientific theories advanced by religious fundamentalists of all stripes. Forceful and articulate, scathing and funny, The Happy Atheist is a reaffirmation of the revelatory power of humor and the truth-revealing powers of science and reason.

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Author: Stephen Batchelor
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588369846
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
Does Buddhism require faith? Can an atheist or agnostic follow the Buddha’s teachings without believing in reincarnation or organized religion? This is one man’s confession. In his classic Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor offered a profound, secular approach to the teachings of the Buddha that struck an emotional chord with Western readers. Now, with the same brilliance and boldness of thought, he paints a groundbreaking portrait of the historical Buddha—told from the author’s unique perspective as a former Buddhist monk and modern seeker. Drawing from the original Pali Canon, the seminal collection of Buddhist discourses compiled after the Buddha’s death by his followers, Batchelor shows us the Buddha as a flesh-and-blood man who looked at life in a radically new way. Batchelor also reveals the everyday challenges and doubts of his own devotional journey—from meeting the Dalai Lama in India, to training as a Zen monk in Korea, to finding his path as a lay teacher of Buddhism living in France. Both controversial and deeply personal, Stephen Batchelor’s refreshingly doctrine-free, life-informed account is essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhism.

Atheist Universe

Author: David Mills
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 156975263X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
Using logic, common sense, philosophy, ethics, history, and science, the author rebuts every argument that claims to “prove” the existence of God. IS THERE REALLY A GOD? OR DOES GOD EXIST ONLY IN OUR HEADS? IS THE BIBLE TRULY GOD’S WORD? OR IS IT A JUMBLE OF FANCIFUL MYTHS? Atheist Universe details why God is unnecessary to explain the universe’s diversity, organization and beauty. Using simple, straightforward logic, this book rebuts every argument that claims to “prove” God’s existence. A comprehensive primer for countering today’s religious dogma, Atheist Universe addresses all the historical and scientific questions, including: •What is atheism, and why is it so misunderstood? •If God is a myth, then how did the universe appear? •Without God, is there an objective “right” and “wrong”? •What is the meaning of life without God? •Is there evidence of Jesus’s miracles and resurrection? •Can atheists explain “near death” experiences and medical miracles? •Can science and the Bible realistically be reconciled? •What is the behind-the-scenes relationship between politics and religion? “An admirable work.” —Richard Dawkins “David’s work will be very useful for anyone combating harmful religious beliefs. Honest, frank, and right to the point!”—Albert Ellis, Ph.D., father of modern psychotherapy, author of A Guide to Rational Living