*Book Club*
A "sacred cow" is someone or something that is supposedly immune to or considered inappropriate for criticism. The Memphis Freethought Alliance "Book Club" meets to discuss freethought books. Freethought books explore "sacred cows" in an open and critical manner. Many (not all) of the books focus on religion, which is the primary "sacred cow" for many people. However, we are also open to critically discussing other touchy topics.
Our current book is
Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
(2008) by Dan Barker
We will take an intermission to read Has Man a Future? by Bertrand Russell after chapter 4 in Godless
Books reviewed (in order):
1. Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
2. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
3. American Fascists by Christopher Hedges
4. The Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson
5. Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff
6. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman
7. God: The Failed Hypothesis by Victor J. Stenger
8. Fears for Democracy in India (Hindu Fundamentalism) by Martha C. Nussbaum (click on the links below)
http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=t15b1l92nf46jb6sq8b82dpsct9f9003
http://stopfundinghate.org/sacw/index.html http://www.friendsofsouthasia.org/textbook/Amicus%20Brief%20by%20South%20Asian%20Groups%20Apr%2017.PDF9. Why Darwin Matters by Michael Shermer
10. Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby
11. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006) by Daniel C. Dennett
12. Animal Farm by George Orwell
13. Death by Black Hole by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
14. Short Essays by Freethinkers
http://www.online-literature.com/twain/3263/
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79e/
http://www.ditext.com/russell/russell.html
http://www.vonnegutweb.com/archives/arc_nice.html
15. God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer by Bart Ehrman
16. Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement by Barbara Forrest
17. Does Science Make Belief in God Obsolete? by Templeton Foundation
18. Power: A New Social Analysis by Bertrand Russell
19. Top Secret: The Truth Behind Today's Pop Mysticisms by Robert M. Price
20. Constitution for
the United States of America
http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm
Federalist Farmer Letter
http://www.constitution.org/afp/fedfar05.htm
James Madison's Introduction to the Bill of Rights
http://www.usconstitution.net/madisonbor.html
21. House of Cards by Robyn Dawes
22. How the Mind Works
www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed.2006.135.3.86
Section One: Mind and Will & Section Three: Science and the Cosmos
23. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
24. Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne
1. God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
2. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
3. The Demon-haunted World by Carl Sagan
4. God Needs No Passport: Immigration and the Changing American Religious Landscape by Peggy Levitt
5. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes