In the last podcast interview with Carol Travers, DJ mentioned there was a half dozen books that he had given to all his friends and family.
So “Mistakes were made”-Carol Travers and Elliot Aronson, is one of them, any ideas what the others are??

Rangi

“and all of your best thoughts just drift through space”- Bob Marly

Good question!

Hasn’t DJ given to his friends and family every book by whoever he’s talking to at the time?

In that case, I need to become his friend. I want a copy of Dr. Debunko…

Maybe I could become friends with him on MySpace… And then I’d get a free copy.

There have been a few books out of the 90 or so authors we have had on that bought and gave around to family etc. All of our authors are great (we have them on for a reason, afterall) but we each have different tastes and the following especially appealed to me:

Tavris
Hecht
Druyan/Sagan (gave a copy of this to a woman sitting next to me on a flight after a beautiful conversation, and then had to go get other copies for me and my friends and family. This was a great introduction to these topics for my mother—I did the same years ago with Demon Haunted World. Books are powerful ways to evangelize.)
Dawkins, of course

I also gave Peter Irons’ God on Trial to old friends of mine from bible college who seemed to dismiss the justifications those who work for church state separation give.

As for the other books— I really wish everyone involved with the humanist and atheist movement would read Kitcher’s Living with Darwin. He speaks directly to the issues that ostensibly get us organizing and working together, and I found him very persuasive.

And of course Hitchens and Harris are great books to give the relatives who want to see why you’re such a loyalist to the atheist cause.

The Demon-Haunted World was one that helped to turn me from a relatively quiet atheist to a more (cough) assertive one - as did a couple of the interviews Sagan gave when it came out, on ‘Fresh Air’ and ‘Science Friday.’ Eloquent stuff.

As if my reading list wasn’t already long enough. Does anyone know of a good place to rent or buy audio books at a good price? They’re so convenient, but I hate buying them because I can either never find what I want or they’re just so much more expensive than just buying a book. I figure that would be the best way for me to find the time to get all of this good stuff in between classes and everything else.

Also, I have to say that reading The Demon-Haunted World was the first time I can remember a book having such a deep impact on me. If it wasn’t for Sagan’s work, not only in that book but also Pale Blue Dot and the Cosmos series, I don’t think I would have ever realized how much Science, reason, skepticism and secularism really mean to me. I was surprised to discover that there’s a whole world of like minded people and more material on these topics than I could have imagined.

Given the number of times I’ve heard DJ mention that he’s given a certain book to all his family and friends I’ve been wondering whether DJ’s family now cringe when they see him coming their way with a book shaped package.

I’ve mentioned giving books to family and friends four times, but I have done it about a half dozen times.

I want to again stress Philip Kitcher’s <u>Living With Darwin</u>. I just read it again and am very persuaded by it. Kitcher is speaking to the humanist movement, and says very important, vital things to the secular humanist activists who are working along the lines of what I have been working for the last decade..

Thanks for the answers guys.  A few more to add to the list….....

Ophelia Benson - 12 August 2007 05:50 PM

The Demon-Haunted World was one that helped to turn me from a relatively quiet atheist to a more (cough) assertive one - as did a couple of the interviews Sagan gave when it came out, on ‘Fresh Air’ and ‘Science Friday.’ Eloquent stuff.

This is one of the books that first got me going as well. Ophelia, wouldnt you say this is one of the titles that all skeptics should read and give around to their families and friends to help explain the viewpoint, to increase “mind-share”? If I were a rich man, I’d make sure this and a few other titles were provided free of charge to any and every college student who requested it.

I was wondering what you thought of Robert Price’s “The Reason Driven Life”, DJ.  It was Bob’s response to Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life”.  Bob attempts to debunk a lot of what Warren said in his book and personally, I give Bob kudos for it.  He’s dead on about a lot of things concerning the Fundies and he has a marvelous way of pointing them out to others.  I couldn’t have said it better myself.  I esp like the parts where he gave the suggestion to “act like there is no God” and to come up with other words for God, like inner drive, human nature, human greatness, human potential, inner strength… those without the word human are some of the words I came up with myself, but you get the idea.  He makes some good suggestions to atheists, those who are closet atheists, and hopefully makes any Fundamentalist who reads his book think.  Thus he addresses a wide audience.

Anyway, I thought I would ask in case you have read it.

LOVED IT. We had him on to talk about it earlier this year. Funny, and engaging. Light reading, and accessible just like Warren’s. Bob is formerly a fundamentalist, and gets inside that mindset in both an uncompromising but empathic way. Not everyone could write a book like this, but given his background, his academic training and interests, and especially his Falstaffian personality, he was perfect for it. I wish it got even a quarter of the readership of Warren’s amazingly best-selling book.

I wish it had too and Bob sort of looks like how I picture Falstaff too.  I have never read Warren’s book and do not plan on it.  I’m glad that wasn’t a necessity with Bob’s book or I would not have read his either.  I’m just not interested in such extreme brainwashing religious beliefs such as Warren’s.  Now Bob, I can appreciate.  He tells it like it is, without any BS.