If you stopped for a moment and decided not to troll christians for a day, and genuinely wanted to help them see reason, which books would you suggest reading? I have a few that helped me leave religion behind, I thought I'd share them.

What I think helps: straightforwardness, not being condescending, being matter-of-fact about evolution as if it is not worth debating. Why? When I saw a title by Dawkins or Hitchins, I saw they were obviously provocative and I was obviously not going to read them, being a human being who hates combativeness. But I had an interest in history, science, psychology, etc. So when I read books that discussed another subject but took evolution as the accepted fact that it is, it gradually changed my mind over many years.

Just for fun is my list of books and topics that in a subversive way helped me out of religion, and the order in which I think they should be read. Starting out from when I was just a kid:



[bookcover:Calvin and Hobbes|77727][bookcover:The Lorax|7784][bookcover:In the Shadow of Man|135486]

The previous books might help a young mind think for themselves. I think Calvin and Hobbes did a lot more for me than you would think.

Later when I had an intersted in science, books on other subjects that accepted evolution as fact and made me stop to think. Here some I think might help someone accept evoluiton as fact by blindsiding them with the subject hidden in another topic:



[bookcover:How the Mind Works|835623][bookcover:The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature|5752][bookcover:The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature|373969][bookcover:The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat & Other Clinical Tales|63697][bookcover:Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain|1297985][bookcover:Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection|2753527]

You can see by the above tat Steven Pinker is a big hero of mine, I bought his books because I was interested in the subjects, but by the time I finished them I was forced to admit that my beliefs were wrong.

By this time if you can find a book that can discusses evolution for the first-timer in a straight-forward, non-antagonistic way, you might be able to help. Here's what I read to solidify evolution as fact in my mind:

[bookcover:Why Evolution Is True|4005310][bookcover:Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body|1662160][bookcover:Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans|6753172]

These above books are not as antagonistic and should prove to an open-minded person that evolution is true.

Then and only then, can you read these following books and appreciate them. I must note that Dawkins would be a great help to people if he would not make such provocative book titles. I know in my personal experience, I refused to read them because of the kind of person I perceived him to be.

[bookcover:The God Delusion|14743][bookcover:The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution|6117055][bookcover:God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything|43369][bookcover:The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values|7785194]

My greatest dissapointment in books I think would persuade a christian is: [bookcover:The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined|11107244]

It is such a great and well researched book, I just wished he put his tirade against religion in the back of the book instead of the beginning. Most religions waiting for armageddon are always talking about the signs of the times, 'things are getting worse', this book completely disproves that, but anyone who might be swayed won't make it that far because of the placement of the chapter against religion, too bad.