I would like this book list to correspond to a sort of roadmap, a progression from, say, a mainline Christian to a full-blown ethical progressive atheist and humanist, who has a sure foundation for morality apart from religion. I’m not all the way there yet, as I have some books on my “to-read” list that I haven’t quite gotten to. But here’s what I would recommend so far:
Confronting reality
Saving Darwin by theistic evolutionist Karl Giberson. In this work, Giberson shows that the current creationist crusade is uniquely American (most European or even Canadian theists don’t have a problem with science), and proves that the modern creationist movement was directly started by the Seventh Day Adventists in the 19th century, as they believed their prophetess to have received direct revelations from God in which he showed that everything literally happened exactly as portrayed in Genesis, about 6,000 years ago. SDA is a particularly unorthodox sect. (Up to this point, most people accepted the lessons learned from Copernicus, that if the Bible says the sun rises and sets, it doesn’t follow that our scientific observations of the solar system are merely illusory.)
Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution Is True. Once you’ve established the shady origins of the fundamentalist crusade you need to do some research on modern evolutionary science. Coyne doesn’t like theists (even ones who accept evolution), and will thereby force some internal confrontation.
Once you’ve processed these it’s probably a good idea to educate yourself on the source with Darwin’s The Origin of Species.
Confronting Scriptural inerrancy
It’s one thing to accept that the first part of Genesis is a sort of poetic literary thing not meant to be taken literally. It’s quite another to confront the nature of Scripture as a whole. For this, we will take:
For the Old Testament, Some Mistakes of Moses (1880) by the eloquent and esteemed Robert G. Ingersoll.
For the New, Bart Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus, which is geared particularly to those who care about exegesis, especially Protestants who believe in the Reformation cry “Sola Scriptura”. He shatters all ideas about the inspiration of Scripture using manuscript evidence to show how the texts were manipulated during the formation of the Christian canon.
The Attack of the New Atheists
Once we have confronted the evidence against the doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy, we are still left open to the possibility that the traditions of the Catholic church have preserved the true Christian faith apart from Scripture. Of course, this is laughable in this day an age of popes resigning and bishops covering up for perverted priests who abuse helpless children. But just in case there be any doubt…
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. An amazing work that might make you feel like all these things should have been more obvious.
Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell, which explores the evolutionary development of religion—that religions are “natural” phenomenon, which evolve just like art, music, architecture, etc., and ought to help a Christian see that there’s nothing particular divine or revelatory about the tradition we have received.
A Universal Morality
In case Hitchens doesn’t provide enough grounds for morality apart from Scripture, there is also Atheism by Julian Baggini, which contains a large section about ethics.
Morality is more than possible without God, it is entirely independent of him. That means atheists are not only more than capable of leading moral lives, they may even be able to lead more moral lives than religious believers who confuse divine law and punishment with right and wrong.
And A.C. Grayling’s The God Argument
There are many sound reasons why we should seek to live responsibly, with generosity and sympathy towards others, with care and affection for them, and with continence, sound judgement and decency in our own lives. We can see the value of these things in themselves, and from the point of the benefits they bring society and its individual members, including ourselves.
Confronting the Universe
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. “Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you.”
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. “We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out—and we have only just begun”
There are other books, memoirs and warnings against Christian Nationalism, but once I read the above I was thoroughly deconverted. This list is intended to reflect my personal journey 11 years ago.