The other week, I got a message asking for book recommendations on philosophy and religion? As with my debate advice thread, I’m here posting an expanded version of my response. Included will be thoughts on what’s missing in current pop-academic literature (with hints at my plans for future books). Feel free to use the comments to post your own favorites–Andrew, I know you have a list of over a hundred. Also, would people be interested in seeing a similar post for books on science? I’ve got an idea for a “all I really need to know I learned from popular psychology books” post bumping around my mind. But anyway, on to the good stuff…

Philosophy: This is the easiest category because honestly, the number of really fine books is so small. In the whole history of English-speaking philosophy, I think there have only been three people who’ve produced really fine books in the sense of both containing great ideas and being well-written: David Hume, Bertrand Russell, and Peter Singer.

Those curious about Hume should probably start with his Natural History of Religion, which is very readable and quotable. The Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion contain some trickier ideas, but are still beautifully written. With Russell, any of his collections of essays is guaranteed to be a great read, and don’t just go for the ones on religion. Of the Russell books that aren’t exclusively about religion, I’m an especially big fan of Sceptical Essays. For Singer, you’re good with anything he’s written in contemporary “trade” style. Especially big fan of Rethinking Life and Death, and I need to get his most recent book, The Life You can Save.

Some honorable mentions: Daniel Dennett is wonderfully readable and good at thinking up interesting ideas, though honestly, he has the drawback that he tends not to develop his ideas in a systematic way. Thomas V. Morris’ Philosophy for Dummiesis an imperfect overview of contemporary analytic philosophy, but is still the best book of its kind out there right now. Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment is a wonderful book on the history of philosophy, for anyone who’s wondered things like “where did this whole idea of secularism come from?” or “who were these atheists that 17th century theologians were always ranting about?” And I’m rather fond of Peter van Inwagen.

What’s needed: Readable popular works on absolutely everything that Peter Singer doesn’t cover. In other words, everything other than straightforward ethical questions like abortion, euthanasia, animal rights, poverty, etc. We need readable books on questions like truth, reason, consciousness, and whether ethics is objective.

Religion: I’m honestly not a huge fan of the “Four Horsemen” of atheism. Breaking the Spell is standard Dennett: interesting ideas, not worked out as well as they could have been. Hitchens’ god is not Great is just not a great book: Hitchens is a good writer, but it feels like not enough work was done editing and revising it, as if it was forced out quickly to cash in on the success of other writers.

I’m glad The God Delusion was a bestseller, because it was the only real exposure to atheism a lot of people were going to get, but it leaves a lot to be desired: the discussion of theistic arguments isn’t especially sophisticated, the “ultimate 747″ argument is just weird: it takes odd creationist assumptions for granted without much explanation, it doesn’t acknowledge that most theists clain God is simple, and it isn’t even clear how Dawkins understands “improbable” in this context. Finally, the section on ethics was squeaky chalk to my ears: defens utilitarianism by attacking Kant’s ethics as “absolutist,” even though utilitarians also think something is absolute (doing whatever will bring the greatest good overall), and even though Kant is not the only secular alternative to utilitarianism. He also seems to have no clear view on what morality is, and seems not to understand what the moral argument for God is.

Sam Harris is the best of the bunch, we needed The End of Faith, to punch through the post-9/11 silliness about how religion never does anything bad, ever. And Letter to a Christian Nation, is nice as a remedial course in religion and related issues. But Harris’ books do not, and were not intended to, address the most sophisticated defenses of religion.

If you want a really good general critique of Christianity, if you want to see a book that I wish had sold as well as The God Delusion, pick up John Loftus’ Why I Became an Atheist. It has good discussions of all the major arguments for the existence of God, and great discussions of all the most important criticisms of Christianity. It’s more sophisticated than Dawkins, more readable than Michael Martin or J.L. Mackie. It does have a few flaws, though: though this is less true of the current version than the Prometheus Books version, I still think John leans a little too hard at times on what other people have said about the issues, rather than having the self-confidence to just state his own views. The self-confidence issue can extend into conceeding a little too much to Christian apologists. Also, sometimes John doesn’t seem to know what his own best points are. For example, in discussing “The Outsider Test,” the idea that Christianity should be held to the same standards of evidence as any other religion, John mixes in a sociological argument against the existence of God. It’s not a bad argument, but it muddles the much more important main point.

I’m also a huge fan of Bart Ehrman’s books, in particular Misquoting Jesus, Lost Christianities, and most importantly of all Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millenium. I say Jesus is the most important one because it gets into the issues that most Christians care most about: who was Jesus, and are the Gospel accounts of his life reliable?

A recommendation that only half-belongs here is Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel, which is not a standard book “about religion” but rather about one woman’s experiences with religion in some of the nastiest parts of the world. A good rebuke to anyone who’s inclined to be complacent about the dangers of Islam, but also a good rebuke to anyone who’s incline to be complacent about poverty and dysfunctional governments.

One book I wouldn’t have mentioned if John Loftus hadn’t is David Eller’s Atheism Advanced. Pace John, I thought this book was just awful. One of the central chapters recommends that atheists refuse to use Christian vocabulary, and say that they have no idea what words like “God” and “the soul” mean, just as they have no idea what the religious vocabularies of many isolated tribes mean. Trouble is, I do have an idea of what “God,” and “the soul” are, and I also have an idea of what many less familiar religious concepts are, thanks to Eller’s tidy explanations of them. This book is an unfortunate–if usefully illustrative–example of how apparently smart people can miss obvious problems with their own ideas.

Finally, I sometimes get asked what I think the best defenders of Christianity. I’m a little reluctant to say it, but I have to go with Lee Strobel and William Lane Craig. Are there arguments often a bit dishonest? Yes. But they rarely fall to the level of “tediously awful,” in the manner of most wannabe apologists (including the supposedly sophisticated ones that have sprung up after Dawkins).

What needed: The historical/sociological side of religion is pretty well-covered by available books. But there’s a gap on the philosophical side, which is virtually identical to the gaps for philosophy of mind, epistemology, and meta-ethics. Having the sort of deep training that comes from getting a Ph.D. is necessary, but not sufficient, for producing a really fine book. It lets you speak with authority, and put out fewer bad ideas because you’re used to being in contact with criticism of your ideas.

Also, it would be nice to have a really good atheist book on the debates about the debates about religion, about the question of whether religion should even be a topic for public debate. This, again, would be a philosophical book, covering the nature of truth, reason, and so on.

To wrap up: I want to hear what you think of these recommendations, what you’d add, and whether you’re interested in recommendations for other subjects.