Books like God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

01

The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins · Religion & Spirituality

The God Delusion is Richard Dawkins' comprehensive case against religious belief, published in 2006 as the most high-profile work of the New Atheist movement.

Shares atheism and religion with God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

02

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

Sam Harris · Religion & Spirituality

The End of Faith was written in the weeks following the September 11 attacks and published in 2004.

Shares atheism and religion with God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

03

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Sam Harris · Religion & Spirituality

Waking Up is Sam Harris' argument that the insights of contemplative traditions — particularly Buddhism's claim that the sense of self is an illusion — can be separated from religious metaphysics and investigated directly through meditation and introspection.

Both dig into atheism.

04

A Universe from Nothing

Lawrence M. Krauss · Science

A Universe from Nothing is Lawrence Krauss's argument that modern physics has resolved, or at least reframed, the ancient philosophical question of why there is something rather than nothing.

Both dig into atheism.

05

Letter to a Christian Nation

Sam Harris · Philosophy

Letter to a Christian Nation is a short, blunt book written in direct address to American Christians.

Shares religion and secularism with God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

06

The Case for God

Karen Armstrong · Religion & Spirituality

The Case for God is Karen Armstrong's argument that the new atheism misunderstands what sophisticated religious believers in most traditions have actually claimed about God.

Shares religion and secularism with God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

07

The Battle for God

Karen Armstrong · Religion & Spirituality

The Battle for God is Karen Armstrong's history of religious fundamentalism across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the early modern period to the late twentieth century.

Both dig into religion.

08

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky · Science

Behave is Robert Sapolsky's attempt to explain why humans do what they do — the violence, the altruism, the tribalism, the heroism — by working through every layer of biology that contributes to a single act.

Both dig into morality.

09

Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche · Philosophy

Beyond Good and Evil is Nietzsche's assault on the philosophical tradition he had been trained in and had grown to distrust.

Both dig into morality.

10

Boy Erased: A Memoir

Garrard Conley · Memoir

Boy Erased is Garrard Conley's memoir of attending Love in Action, a conversion therapy program in Memphis, Tennessee, in the early 2000s.

Both dig into religion.

11

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

Daniel C. Dennett · Philosophy

Breaking the Spell is Daniel Dennett's case that religion is a natural phenomenon — one that can and should be studied using the methods of evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and anthropology.

Both dig into religion.

12

Critique of Pure Reason

Immanuel Kant · Philosophy

The Critique of Pure Reason is Kant's attempt to resolve a crisis in 18th-century philosophy by asking what human reason can and cannot know.

Both dig into reason.