Is anyone interested in starting a discussion thread for various books? I've just picked up the God Delusion finally. If people are up for it, we could read two chapters a week for discussion.

If this is too geeky, I won't take offence...

Count me as a 'Maybe.'

I have the book on tape, but I also have school.

I would be in. In The Lounge for a while we had a movie discussion group where someone at random would be picked to provide a list of five movies, and then the other members would vote on them. The winner would be the one to watch and discuss. Perhaps we could do something along those lines. I would love to read Innumeracy and Demon Haunted World again and have a discussion about them.

I'm in. I'll need to know what books in advance, so that I can actually go out and buy them.

I'd be interested in reading that thread, participation is a maybe.

bump

I want to do this LOL

Will our first book be The God Delusion? I would recommend it because it is intended for a broad audience.

My guess is you'll find a lot of lurkers and not many contributors. You'd probably find more success by reading a book, and posting thoughts or a review, and letting people respond to that.

Just an idea.

I'm in, though I won't be partaking before somewhat into december. I've been attacked by horrible stealthy backstabbing ninjamonsters called deadlines.

Sounds like there is some decent interest here. I think we should start with the God Delusion, probably the best known book and one of the most popular.

I would suggest we do it in 2 or 3 chapter increments so we don't have to feel pressure to read a whole book in a week (who has time?)

If you've never read The God Delusion before, you're going to love it.

Reminds me of this quote:

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

--Douglas Adams

I actually hope this does happen, but only because I think it would be an interesting thread to read.

To be honest, I don't think the atheists on this forum will get much out of any of the "Big Four": Hitchens' God is Not Great, Harris' The End of Faith, Dawkins' The God Delusion, or Dennett's Breaking the Spell. Well, actually the last one might stimulate some good discussion because it's a bit deeper than "lol religion is a joke, oh and check out all these atrocities, yeah religion sucks." I'm not saying the other titles aren't well written, but they're not going to give you much new insight.

I think it would be far more useful from an intellectual standpoint to examine something from Karen Armstrong or Reza Aslan, scholars of religion who take religion seriously with intellectual rigor. It might be nice to get a different point of view that has some depth and isn't the same nonsense that flies back on forth on this forum.

I hear you TP, though my gut tells me lets start off with something relatively easy, like the God Delusion, see how it goes, and if we want to tackle something more difficult after we can do that. Hopefully this will become a regular thing and we can read a whole bunch of books! Heck, even some religious ones!

My gut tells me that book club threads never work no matter what you do.

It's winter break, and some of us have time on our hands. Do you want to start The God Delusion?

Any recs on this front?

this.

im in if we read this kind of thing. not too interested in reading more stuff i already agree with.

i think we should read Hugh Ross' More Than a Theory

I read the first chapter in a Barnes & Noble one day when I had a half hour to waste. He laid out the opposing side well, no strawmen...I was impressed with what I read. Think atheists would get a lot more out of something like this.

I would be interested in the inclusion of all types of books: arguments for atheism, arguments for Christianity, historical analysis of Christianity and the Bible (as well as other religions, but I am sure Christianity will be the main focus for the most part), skepticism, etc.

imo the god delusion and its ilk is nothing more than pointless masturbation - being an atheist isn't a big deal, it hasn't been for years now, the majority of reasonably educated people reject religion. use that education to read some real philosophy rather simply read about why religion is dum hurf durf.

wat's a book?

if religion is that utterly banal to you...why the hell are you even here? this is RGT. i dont go into the Health & Fitness forum and tell everyone they are wasting their lives in a gym.

I'm down for a book from the religious perspective -- how about Francis Collins' The Language of God?