




























See the full list of 400+ titles & their Amazon links
INTRODUCTION
“What do you think about the upheaval in Jesus studies?” THIS IS THE QUESTION I WOULD so much like to pose to my Christian friends—to be met, I am sure, in most instances–with blank stares. “What upheaval?” Because they are not paying attention. In fact, the Jesus question has been removed from the exclusive domain of Bible scholars and ecclesiastical functionaries. Most New Testament scholars have been, and remain, committed to the Jesus faith. These are the folks who, in the words of one observer, “…still write books manufacturing and manicuring Jesus to look like they do.” Secular observers decided that this biased community could no longer be trusted to provide honest answers on who and what Jesus was. So you will find plenty of titles on this list by secular analysts who have opened up Jesus studies as never before—and exposed its faulty methodologies and conclusions, e.g., Richard Carrier, Earl Doherty, David Fitzgerald, Raphael Lataster, Robert Price, R. G. Price.
Of course, it’s not just Jesus; theism in general and Christianity in particular have been subjected to penetrating, withering critique. As I point out in the Introduction of my book, we are experiencing—and have been for some twenty years—an unprecedented atheist publishing surge. This has never happened before. Ever. There are more than 400 titles on the list below. Some of the titles predate 2000; I have included them because they are classics in the deconstruction of Christianity, e.g. H. L. Mencken’s Treatise on the Gods (1932) and Charles Guignebert’s Jesus (1935). Not all of the authors cited here are atheists, but one thing that they do have in common is their conviction that the Christian brand of theism—no matter how successful it has been—has been falsified.
My purpose in this Cure-for-Christianity Library is to document many of the resources now available to inquiring minds, and I do hope that Christians can take the hint: use this list to get a grasp of what all the fuss is about—why we have been smacking Christianity down so emphatically—and get a move on! Tackle the homework.
These are the resources that have come to my attention, in book form. Admittedly, this approach may have an archaic aroma. Books? What percentage of the populace—spread across multiple demographics—still reads books? But even for people who no longer pick up hard copies, the titles listed here can be considered portals; many of the authors on this list have their own websites, Facebook pages, blogs, Twitter accounts. “The Internet,” it has been said, “is where religion goes to die.”
In my book I have presented ten tough problems in Christian thought and belief, to whet the appetite. Please pursue research, read, probe: find out how Jesus, Christianity and theism have all been so convincingly slam dunked.
* * * * *
Abram, Cheryl,
Firing God, 2014
Alcántar, Fernando,
To the Cross and Back: An Immigrant’s Journey from Faith to Reason, 2015
Alter, Michael,
The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry, 2015
Andrews, Seth,
Angier, Natalie,
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, 2008
Anonymous,
Atheism Is Winning! 2015
Antony, Louise, ed.,
Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life, 2010
Arel, Dan,
Avalos, Hector,
Babinski, Edward, editor,
Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists, 1995
Baggini, Julian,
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction, 2003
Baker, Brian,
Nonsense from the Bible, 2012
Barbera, Don,
Black and Not Baptist: Nonbelief and Freethought in the Black Community, 2003
Barker, Dan,
Beaumont, Paul,
A Brief Eternity, 2013
Bekius, Drew,
The Rise and Fall of Faith: A God-to-Godless Story for Atheists and Christians, 2017
Benson, Ophelia & Stangroom, Jeremy
Beversluis, John,
C. S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion, 2007
Blackford, Russell & Schüklenk, Udo,
Boghossian, Peter,
A Manual for Creating Atheists, 2013
Boyer, Pascal,
Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, 2002
Brancazio, Peter,
The Bible from Cover to Cover: How Modern Scholars Read the Scriptures, 2007
Brewster, Melanie, ed.,
Atheists in America, 2014
Bradley, Raymond,
God’s Gravediggers: Why No Deity Exists, 2016
Brodie, Thomas,
Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus: Memoir of a Discovery, 2012
Callahan, Tim,
Secret Origins of the Bible, 2002
Cameron, Christopher,
Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism, 2019
Carroll, Sean,
Carrier, Richard,
Centre, Bart,
Chaney, Daniel,
Religion Refuted: Debunking the case for God, 2018
Chase, Stephany,
Pulling Back the Green Curtain: 666 Things Your Religious Leaders Never Taught You, 2016
Christina, Greta,
Chumney, David,
Jesus Eclipsed: How Searching the Scriptures Got in the Way of Recounting the Facts, 2017
Comings, David,
Did Man Create God? Is Your Spiritual Brain at Peace With Your Thinking Brain? 2008
Compere, John,
Outgrowing Religion: Why a Fifth-Generation Southern Baptist Minister Left God for Good, 2016
Conner, Jonah David,
All That’s Wrong with the Bible: Contradictions, Absurdities, and More, 2017
Conner, Robert,
Coyne, Jerry,
Cragun, Ryan,
Crane, Tim,
The Meaning of Belief: Religion from an Atheist’s Point of View, 2017
Cunningham, George,
Curran, Andrew,
Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely, 2019
Daleiden, Joseph,
The Final Superstition: A Critical Evaluation of the Judeo-Christian Legacy, 1994
Daniels, Kenneth,
Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary, 2010
Dawkins, Richard,
Dennett, Daniel & LaScola, Linda,
Caught in The Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind, 2013
Dennett, Daniel,
DeWitt, Jerry & Brown, Ethan,
Hope after Faith: An Ex-Pastor’s Journey from Belief to Atheism, 2013
Doherty, Earl,
Duke, Doyle, E.,
The Amazing Deception: A Critical Analysis of Christianity, 2009
Du Mez, Kristin Kobes,
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, 2020
Dumphy, Catherine,
From Apostle to Apostate: The Story of the Clergy Project, 2015
Dykstra, Tom,
Eden, Jason,
That’s Me In the Corner: Coming Out as An Atheist on Facebook, 2014
Edis, Tanner,
Ehrman, Bart,
Einhorn, Lena,
A Shift in Time: How Historical Documents Reveal the Surprising Truth about Jesus, 2016
Eldridge, J. R.,
The MisreadBible: Genesis, 2019
Eller, David,
Epstein, Greg,
Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe, 2010
Evans, D. K.,
Emancipation of a Black Atheist, 2017
Everett, Nicholas,
The Non-Existence of God, 2003
Ferris, Timothy,
Coming of Age in the Milky Way, 1988
Finklestein, Israel & Silberman, Neil Asher,
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, 2002
Fitzgerald, David,
Fodor, James,
Unreasonable Faith: How William Lane Craig Overstates the Case for Christianity, 2018
Fox, Cassie,
Black Sheep: My Journey from Evangelical Christianity to Atheism, 2019
Fox, Robin Lane,
The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible, 1992
Fredriksen, Paula,
From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Christ, 2000
Garcia, Hector,
Alpha God: The Psychology of Religious Violence and Oppression, 2015
Garst, Karen L.,
Gaylor, Annie Laurie,
Woe to the Women: The Bible, Female Sexuality and the Law: The Bible Tells Me So, 2014
Gerry, Lyn,
Gilgamesh, Horus,
Gill, Tyson,
Belief in Science and the Science of Belief, 2010
Gorham, Candace A.M.,
The Ebony Exodus Project: Why Some Black Women Are Walking Out on Religion—and Others Should Too, 2014
Grant, Michael,
Saint Paul, 2000
Grayling, A.C.,
Green, Ruth,
The Born Again Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible, 1999
Guigneberg, Charles,
Jesus, 1935
Hafer, Abby,
Hägglund, Martin,
This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom, 2019
Hall, Jim,
Most People Believe in God, Can They All Be Wrong?: The Christianity Counter-Apologetics Handbook, 2013
Hallquist, Chris,
UFOs, Ghosts, and a Rising God: Debunking the Resurrection of Jesus, 2009
Harbour, Daniel,
An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Atheism, 2001
Harding, Nick,
How to Be a Good Atheist, 2008
Harris, Sam
Harrison, Guy,
Harvie, Robin. & Meyers, Stephanie, eds.,
The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas, 2010
Harwood, William,
Mythology’s Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus, 1992
Haught, James A.,
Hawking, Stephen,
Brief Answers to the Big Questions, 2018
Hawking, Stephen & Mladinow, Leonard,
The Grand Design, 2012
Hecht, Jennifer Michael,
Heimlich, Janet,
Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment, 2011
Helms, Randel,
Highland, Chris,
A Freethinker’s Gospel: Essays for a Sacred Secular World, 2018
Hitchens, Christopher,
Houk, James,
The Illusion of Certainty: How the Flawed Beliefs of Religion Harm Our Culture, 2017
Howson, Colin,
Objecting to God, 2011
Hunsberger, Bruce & Altemeyer, Bob,
Atheists: A Groundbreaking Study of America’s Nonbelievers, 2006
Hyppolite, Carolyn,
Still Small Voices: The Testimony of a Born Again Atheist, 2014
Ingman, Neel,
Jacob, Margaret,
The Secular Enlightenment, 2019
Jacoby, Susan,
James, Craig,
The Religion Virus: Why We Believe in God, 2010
Jefferson, Thomas
The Jefferson Bible, Smithsonian Press, 2011
Jelbert, Glenton,
Evidence Considered: A Response to Evidence for God, 2017
Jenkins, Philip,
Jillette, Penn,
God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales, 2012
Johnson, Chris,
A Better Life: 100 Atheists Speak Out on Joy & Meaning in a World Without God, 2014
Johnson, David, et al,
Still Unbelievable: Why after listening to Christian Arguments We Are Still Skeptics, 2018
Joshi, S. T.,
Kelly, Joshua,
Oh, Your God!: The Evil Idea That Is Religion, 2016
Kennedy, Ludovic,
All In the Mind: A Farewell to God, 1999
Kent, Jack,
The Psychological Origins of the Resurrection Myth, 1999
Kick, Russ, ed.,
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion, 2007
Kiekeben, Franz
Klein, George
The Atheist and the Holy City: Encounters and Reflections, 1990
Klein, Peter
Beyond God: Why Religions Are False, Outdated and Dangerous, 2018
Komarnitsky, Kris,
Doubting Jesus’ Resurrection: What Happened in the Black Box? 2009
Krauss, Lawrence,
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing, 2013
Lalli, Nica,
Nothing: Something to Believe In, 2007
Lataster, Raphael,
Law, Stephen,
Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole, 2011
Lee, Adam,
Daylight Atheism (2014)
Lehto, Bill, ed.,
Atheist Voices of Minnesota: an Anthology of Personal Stories, 2012
Lents, Nathan,
Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes, 2018
Le Poidevin, Robin,
Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, 1996
Lewis, Ralph,
Finding Purpose in a Godless World: Why We Care Even If the Universe Doesn’t, 2018
Lindsay, James,
Lindsay, Ronald,
The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can’t Tell Us What To Do, 2014
Lobdell, William,
Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America and Found Unexpected Peace, 2009
Loftus, John,
Long, Jason,
Maccoby, Hyam,
The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity, 1998
MacDonald, Dennis,
Mack, Burton,
MacLean, Brent,
My Perfect Broken God: Musings of a Former Believer, 2019
Maguire, Daniel,
Christianity without God: Moving beyond the Dogmas and Retrieving the Epic Moral Narrative, 2014
Madison, David,
Maisel, Eric,
The Atheist’s Way: Living Well Without Gods, 2009
Malkin, Vitaly,
Dangerous Illusions: How Religion Deprives Us of Happiness, 2018
Mark, Jeffrey,
Martel, Frédéric,
In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy, 2019
Martin, Colby,
Martin, Michael,
Martin, Michael & Monnier, Ricki, eds.,
Matheson, Chris,
The Story of God: A Biblical Comedy about Love (and Hate), 2015
McAfee, David,
McCormick, Matthew,
Atheism and the Case Against Christ, 2012
McGowan, Dale,
McGowan, Dale, ed.,
Voices of Unbelief: Documents from Atheists and Agnostics, 2012
McGowan, Dale; Matsumura, Molleen; Metskas, Amada; Devor, Jan,
Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief, 2009
Mencken, H. L.,
Treatise on the Gods, 1932
Mehta, Hemant,
Miller, Richard C.,
Miller, Robert J.,
Mills, David,
Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person’s Answer to Christian Fundamentalism, 2006
Mitchell, Deborah,
Growing Up Godless: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Kids Without Religion, 2014
Molyneux, Stefan,
Against the Gods? A Concise Guide to Atheism and Agnosticism, 2011
Moss, Candida,
The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom, 2014
Murphy, Derek,
Murray, Malcolm,
The Atheist’s Primer (Broadview Guides to Philosophy, 2010
Musolino, Julien,
The Soul Fallacy: What Science Shows We Gain from Letting Go of Our Soul Beliefs, 2015
Naff, Clay Farris,
Navabi, Armin,
Why There Is No God: Simple Responses to 20 Common Arguments for the Existence of God, 2014
Nicholls, William,
Christian Anti-Semitism: A History of Hate, 1995
Nickell, Joe,
The Science of Miracles: Investigating the Incredible, 2013
Niose, David,
Nixey, Catherine,
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World, 2018
Onfray, Michel,
Atheism Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam, 2011
Orenstein, David & Blaikie, Linda,
Godless Grace: How Non-Believers Make the World Safer, Richer and Kinder, 2015
Orenstein, David & Hafer, Abby,
Ostman, Cami & Tive, Susan,
Beyond Belief: The Secret Lives of Women in Extreme Religions, 2013
Ozment, Katherine,
Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age, 2016
Palmer, Michael,
Parsons, Keith,
God and the Burden of Proof: Plantinga, Swinburne, and the Analytical Defense of Theism, 1989
Paulkovich, Michael
Beyond the Crusades: Christianity’s Lies, Laws and Legacy, 2016
Pearce, Jonathan MS,
Pearce, Jonathan MS, editor,
Perakh, Mark,
Unintelligent Design, 2003
Pervo, Richard,
Pfeiffer, C. Boyd
No Proof at All: A Cure for Christianity, 2015
Pinn, Anthony,
Price, R. G.,
Deciphering the Gospels Proves Jesus Never Existed, 2018
Price, Robert,
Price, Robert & Suominen, Ed
Evolving Out of Eden, 2013
Price, Robert & Lowder, J. J., eds.,
The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave, 2005
Prothero, Stephen,
Pyle, Jack,
Rafferty, Tom,
Making Stuff Up Is Unwise: An Introduction to Reason, Skepticism and Science, 2012
Ramsey, David Blair,
Speaking of God: We Don’t Know $hit: A Former Minister Reflects on God and Religion, 2020
Rastrelli, Tom,
Confessions of a Gay Priest: A Memoir of Sex, Love, Abuse, and Scandal in the Catholic Seminary, 2020
Ray, Darrell,
The God Virus: How Religion Infects our Lives and our Culture, 2009
Rhodes, Larry,
Atheism: What’s It All About?, 2015
Rigsby, Casper,
Ripley, Bob,
Life Beyond Belief: A Preacher’s Deconversion, 2014
Roberts, Teresa,
Have We Been Screwed? Trading Freedom for Fairy Tales, 2017
Rodda, Chris,
Roncace, Mark,
Raw Revelation: The Bible They Never Tell You About, 2012
Rubicondior, Rosa,
The Unintelligent Designer: Refuting the Intelligent Design Hoax, 2018
Russell, Bertrand,
Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects, 1967
Sagan, Carl,
Scorah, Amber,
Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life, 2019
Seidel, Andrew,
The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American, 2019
Seidensticker, Bob,
Sherlock, Michael A.,
Shermer, Michael,
Silverman, David,
Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World, 2015
Silverman, Herb,
Candidate Without a Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish Atheist in the Bible Belt, 2012
Sjørdal, Jonathan Erik, Two Witnesses: Hebrew Texts Changed By The Greek New Testament, 2009
Sledge, Tim,
Smith, David Oliver,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul: The Influence of the Epistles on the Synoptic Gospels, 2011
Smith, George,
Atheism: The Case Against God, 1979
Snedeker, Rick,
Holy Smoke: How Christianity Smothered the American Dream, 2020
Speckhardt, Roy,
Creating Change Through Humanism, 2015
Stefanelli, Al,
Stedman, Chris,
Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious, 2013
Steele, David Ramsay,
Atheism Explained: From Folly to Philosophy, 2008
Stenger, Victor,
Stephens, Mitchell,
Imagine There’s No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World, 2014
Suominen, Ed, An Examination of the Pearl,
Tarico, Valerie,
Templeton, Charles,
Thomas, J. Anderson & Aukofer, Claire,
Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith, 2011
Thompson, Thomas,
The Messiah Myth: The Near Eastern Roots of Jesus and David, 2005
Thompson, Thomas & Verenna, Thomas S., editors,
Is Not This the Carpenter? The Question of the Historicity of the Figure of Jesus, 2014
Tiger, Steven,
Doctrine Impossible: A Journey from Dogmatic Religiosity to Rational Spirituality, 2019
Torres, Phil,
The End: What Science and Religion Tell Us about the Apocalypse, 2016
Tuchman, Barbara,
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, 1987
Tyson, Neil deGrasse & Goldsmith, Donald,
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, 2014
Uhl, Stephen Frederick,
Out of God’s Closet: This Priest Psychologist Chooses Friendly Atheism, 2009
Vanderburgh, William L.,
David Hume on Miracles, Evidence, and Probability, 2019
Vincent, Marc,
Liberation from God: Step Away from the Fairytale, 2014
Wackrow, Richard E.,
Beginner’s Guide to Blasphemy, 2016
Wathey, John,
The Illusion of God’s Presence: The Biological Origins of Spiritual Longing, 2016
Watson, Peter,
The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live since the Death of God, 2014
Weinstein, Bonnie,
To the Far Right Christian Hater…You Can Be a Good Speller or Hater, But You Can’t Be Both, 2014
Wells, George Albert,
Cutting Jesus Down to Size: What Higher Criticism Has Achieved and Where It Leaves Christianity, 2013
Wells, Steve,
Werner, Michael,
What Can You Believe If You Don’t Believe in God? 2017
Wheaton, Billy & Fuller, Joy,
Hooks and Ladders: A Journey on a Bridge to Nowhere with American Evangelical Christians, 2009
Wheless, Joseph,
Forgery in Christianity, 1930
Whitmarsh, Tim,
Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World, 2015
Wilson, A.N.,
Wilson, Diane,
Awakening of a Jehovah’s Witness: Escape from the Watchtower Society, 2002
Winell, Marlene,
Leaving the Fold, 2006
Winsor, John,
What Your Preacher Didn’t Tell You: That You Really Ought to Know, 2011
Young, Matt,
No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe, 2001
Young, Matt & Edis, Tanner,
Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism, 2004
Zichterman, Jocelyn,
Zingrone, William A.,
The Arrogance of Religious Thought: Information Kills Religion, (2016)
Zuckerman, Phil,
Zuckerman, Phil; Galen, Luke; Pasquale, Frank,
The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies, 2016
Essential title, Loftus, The End of Christianity
Essential Title, Loftus, Why I Became an Atheist
Essential title, Loftus, The Outsider Test of Faith