Your favorite atheistic work (book, etc.)

[Malachi151]

List, and preferably link to, your favorite writing, or perhaps play or movie or artwork, that is atheistic. It doesn't have to be totally atheist, it can be simply highly critical of religion, such as Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason (which is actually anti-atheist.)

Only list one work. If, after a day or so, you see that no one has listed another work that you like, then you can post again, but let's let everyone get a chance to participate.

I'll start with SUPERSTITION IN ALL AGES (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17607/17607-h/17607-h.htm) by the Catholic priest Jean Meslier, which was published in 1732 after his death.

[Jolly_Penguin]

Red Dwarf. The story of Lister and the cat people.

[Queen of Swords]

The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.

[Godless Dave]

It's a tossup between these two:

"Freewill" by Rush

The episode of "Futurama" where Bender is worshipped by tiny life forms that come to live on his body as he hurtles through space.

[reddhedd]

Disc World...or Heinlein.

[KJELLMUSIC]

This music CD (of course): http://members.tripod.com/kjellmusic/kjell.htm
It is so utterly lacking a belief in gods that it doesn't even have words/lyrics in the music. It is the language of music without a thought of gods.
:D

[Styrofoamdeity]

Monty Pythons' The Meaning of Life. Quite possibly the most hilarious anti-religious screed ever conconcted...

[Mizled]

Monty Pythons' The Meaning of Life. Quite possibly the most hilarious anti-religious screed ever conconcted...

I loved that movie but I'd pick Life of Brian above it for best atheistic work.

Brian:"Now fuck off!"
Followers: "How should we fuck off, O Lord?"

Brian: "I am NOT the messiah."
Arthur: "Oh I'd say you are, O Lord. And I should know, I've followed quite a few."

Brian: "You don't need me or anybody! You're all individuals! You have to think for yourselves!"
Followers in unison: "Yes we're all individuals!"

[Gwen]

Douglas Adams' (fictional) books.
Sure, they don't poke fun of religion in every single chapter, but very nearly, and from quite a few angles. And they're funny. ;)

[naturalist.atheist]

Just about anything from Mark Twain. Richard Feynman has many interesting books. Kurt Vonnegut's "Sirens of Titan" and "Breakfast of Champions" is a hoot, "Cat's Cradle" and "Slaughter House Five" are classics.

It is not so much that these books argue for atheism but they view the universe and man's place in it from an atheists perspective.

[GiantOreo]

The Communist Manifesto.

[naturalist.atheist]

Disc World...or Heinlein.

Ring World?

[naturalist.atheist]

The Communist Manifesto.

One of the interesting things about Marx is that he thought that societies would go from socialism to capitalism to communism. He was a big fan of Adam Smith.

[uberhobo]

I've always liked J.P. Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm) lecture. It was probably the first thing I read that really got me thinking about god and morality. That, and James Rachel's book, Elements of Moral Philosophy. I believe he is a contributor to internet infidels.

[JamesBannon]

Damn, people have mentioned all my favourites already! Red Dwarf is a classic as are The Meaning of Life and The Life of Brian. Not too sure about the Communist Manifesto, although I would agree with a good percentage of it, and Rand (ugh!).

[Sarpedon]

I think he meant Disc world, a series of books by terry pratchett, rather than Discworld.

I'd add James Joyce's Ulysses to the list.

[GenesisNemesis]

Serenity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_%28movie%29), Firefly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28series%29), The God Delusion, Atheist Universe, Why People Believe Weird Things, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Cosmos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos_%28TV_series%29)

[wiploc]

Bertrand Russel's essay, "The Will to Doubt," in the book of the same title.

crc

[EvolvedAndygal]

The Demon Haunted World, also His Dark materials. I read that in high school and it was GREAT. Also, the God Delusion.

[Mageth]

So many...

I'll go with:

Atheism: A Very Short Introduction, by Juilian Baggini

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Atheism-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192804243

In the book, Baggini presents a concise and excellent description of the philosophcial position of Atheism. A book all atheists AND theists interested in learning more about Atheism should read.

I'll also violate the OP rules by giving a shout out to:

The United States Constitution

While not a book and not "about atheism", a secular document that establishes a secular government, that doesn't mention or call on the name of "God", and that establishes freedom of religion, speech, etc., giving Americans the right to believe or not believe as they wish, and to do so openly.

[espritch]

I'll also violate the OP rules by giving a shout out to:

The United States Constitution

While not a book and not "about atheism", a secular document that establishes a secular government, that doesn't mention or call on the name of "God", and that establishes freedom of religion, speech, etc., giving Americans the right to believe or not believe as they wish, and to do so openly.

I second that. Right from the get go, when it says "We the people". the U.S. constitution dispensed with Divine Right and other such non sense and recognized that Government is a human creation that should serve the purposes of the governed. It was the first national constitution (as far as I know) to explicitly incorporate humanist principles.

[naturalist.atheist]

I second that. Right from the get go, when it says "We the people". the U.S. constitution dispensed with Divine Right and other such non sense and recognized that Government is a human creation that should serve the purposes of the governed. It was the first national constitution (as far as I know) to explicitly incorporate humanist principles.

It certainly did represent a good try for the times, but that 3/5 vote thing didn't sound too humanist to me.

[Malachi151]

Another of the great classics of atheism...

The System of Nature (http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/%7Eecon/ugcm/3ll3/holbach/index.html) - Baron d'Holbach, 1770

[douglas]

The Bible. If it hadn't been for the crazy crap in that book, I'd probably still be a Christian today.

[Yahzi]

I have to say it is still Atheism: the case against God by George Smith.

After that, Twain, Ingersoll, and Russell for the previous century; Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens for this one.

[Mageth]

It certainly did represent a good try for the times, but that 3/5 vote thing didn't sound too humanist to me.

True, but it included the notion that the document could be amended, and provided the means to do it, and protection to keep from it being done frivolously or against the will of the people...which allowed the earlier shortcomings to be corrected (through much pain and travail, of course). That, in and of itself, took foresight. The assumption that the document was, unlike the Bible, not perfect, and was thus amendable, was built right in.