This is not an exhaustive bibliography. It is a list of works that have shaped the thinking on this site, challenged it, or that any serious reader of these questions ought to engage with. It will grow as the site does.
The Foundations
These are the works that define the modern anti-theist and new atheist tradition. If you are new to this debate start here.
Christopher Hitchens — God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007) The most politically and morally forceful case against organised religion written in the modern era. Hitchens argues not from science but from history, ethics and lived observation. Essential.
Richard Dawkins — The God Delusion (2006) The scientific and philosophical case against theistic belief made with characteristic precision and occasional impatience. Whatever its critics say, the central argument has never been adequately answered.
Sam Harris — The End of Faith (2004) Written in the immediate aftermath of September 11th, Harris makes the case that religious moderation is not the solution to religious extremism but part of the same problem. Uncomfortable and important.
Sam Harris — Letter to a Christian Nation (2006) Shorter and sharper than The End of Faith. A direct address to religious America that remains entirely relevant to religious Britain and beyond.
Daniel Dennett — Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006) The most analytically rigorous of the four horsemen. Dennett treats religion as a cultural and evolutionary phenomenon and asks why it has survived. Essential for understanding the institution rather than simply arguing against it.
Beyond the Four Horsemen
Bertrand Russell — Why I Am Not a Christian (1927) The essay that in many ways started this tradition in its modern form. Russell’s clarity and wit anticipate Hitchens by half a century. Available free online and worth reading in a single sitting.
A.C. Grayling — The God Argument (2013) A thorough and accessible philosophical dismantling of the case for theism followed by a positive case for secular humanism. Grayling is less confrontational than Hitchens but no less precise.
Steven Pinker — Enlightenment Now (2018) Not strictly an anti-theist work but an essential defence of the values this site stands on. Reason, science, humanism and progress. Pinker makes the empirical case that secular Enlightenment values have made the world measurably better.
Yuval Noah Harari — Sapiens (2011) Places religion in its proper historical and evolutionary context. Harari’s treatment of religion as a unifying human fiction is essential background for understanding what organised religion actually is and does.
On Morality Without God
Sam Harris — The Moral Landscape (2010) Harris argues that science can determine human values and that the religious monopoly on moral authority is not only unjustified but dangerous. The most direct engagement with the moral framework argument central to this site.
Peter Singer — Practical Ethics (1979, updated 2011) The most rigorous secular moral philosophy available in accessible form. Singer demonstrates that you do not need God to construct a serious, consistent and demanding ethical framework.
The Other Side
These works are included not because this site agrees with them but because intellectual honesty demands engaging with the strongest available counter arguments rather than the weakest.
Alvin Plantinga — Where the Conflict Really Lies (2011) Plantinga is the most serious philosophical defender of theistic belief working today. His reformed epistemology argument, that belief in God can be rational without requiring evidential justification, is the most sophisticated challenge to the position this site takes. It deserves a serious response rather than dismissal. That response is coming in a future post.
C.S. Lewis — Mere Christianity (1952) Still the most widely read popular defence of Christian belief. Lewis is a better rhetorician than philosopher but understanding his arguments is essential because they remain the ones most believers actually reach for. Know this book.
John Lennox — God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (2007) Lennox is a mathematician and the most credible contemporary defender of the argument from design. He debated Hitchens and Dawkins and did so with more rigour than most. His arguments deserve engagement on their own terms.
Debates and Talks
Hitchens and Fry vs Widdecombe and Onaiyekan — Intelligence Squared (2009) The debate that for many people, including the writer of this site, crystallised the argument more forcefully than any book. Available in full on YouTube. The audience vote shifted dramatically against the motion during the debate itself. Watch it.
Hitchens vs Lennox — Is God Great? (2008) A more evenly contested debate than many Hitchens appearances. Lennox is a serious opponent and this is one of the best examples of the argument being made at its highest level on both sides.
Dawkins vs Lennox — Has Science Buried God? (2007) Follows directly from Lennox’s book of the same name. Essential viewing alongside the book.
The Four Horsemen Conversation (2007) Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett in conversation together, unmoderated. Available on YouTube. Two hours of the argument at its most relaxed and wide ranging.
Podcasts
Making Sense — Sam Harris Harris’s podcast covers neuroscience, philosophy, politics and religion with consistent rigour. Not every episode is directly relevant to this site’s concerns but the episodes on religion, morality and free will are essential listening.
Unbelievable? — Premier Christian Radio Included from the other side. Justin Brierley hosts debates between believers and non-believers. The quality varies considerably but at its best it puts the arguments directly against each other in a way that is genuinely useful. Brierley is a fair moderator.
This list will be updated regularly as the site develops. If you have a suggestion for something that belongs here, or a challenge to something that does, the comments are open.
The Permanent Rebuttal 