All of us have come to Secular Humanism by different routes. Our understanding of the world, science , reason and secular humanism has come from reading, viewing, listening, talking and experience. It is possible to get into arguments merely because we individually attach different meanings to the same words. Sometimes, we think that we understand a concept when, in fact, we do not grasp it fully.

In order to ensure that we all have a basic understanding of Secular Humanism, I suggest that we develop a Canon consisting of books and articles about Secular Humanism that we all should read. 

Below are six books that I suggest for the Canon, followed by a list of suggested additional readings. I invite others to add their suggestions to the lists. Let’s reserve a discussion about which books should finally be placed into the Canon for a meeting.

Joe

The Canon:

Humanist Manifesto 2000-Drafted by Paul Kurtz

Imagine There’s No Heaven-Voices of Secular Humanism- Compiled by the editors of Free Inquiry

The Courage to Become-The Virtues of Humanism-Paul Kurtz

Forbidden Fruit-The Ethics of Humanism-Paul Kurtz

Science and Religion-Are They Compatible?-Edited by Paul Kurtz with the assistance of Barry Karr and Ranjit Sandhu

Living Without Religion-Eupraxophy-Paul Kurtz

Additional Reading:

The End of Faith-Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason-Sam Harris

Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate-Susan Haack

Defending Science within reason-between scientism and cynicism-Susan Haack

Religion and Science-Bertrand Russell

Man and His Gods-Homer W Smith. Forward by Albert Einstein. (May be out of print)

Freethinkers-A History of American Secularism-Susan Jacoby

The God Delusion-Richard Dawkins

Darwin’s Dangerous Idea-Evolution and the Meanings of life-Daniel C Dennett

Unintelligent Design-Mark Perakh