Why I Am Not a Christian

It really depends on what you're looking for, but Philosophy is a field where one philosopher's work is built on top of the other's going all the way back to the ancient Greek's. Its important (I think anyways) to read the raw texts before you read philosophical commentary so that you have a chance to form your own opinions. That being said, here's some recommendations of mine that cover a breadth of philosophical subjects and time periods. Its always good to see someone else want to learn more philsophy, especially if its of their own volition. Plato. Strangely enough, Plato is probably one of the best introductions to philosophy, not only because he was one of the first whose writings survive to modern time, but also because its relatively simple to read and understand. Some of my personal favorite are 'The Apology', 'The Symposium', and 'The Phaedrus', and of course 'The Republic'. The weird thing with Plato is you'll never know how much of his writings are his thinking as opposed to Socrates teaching. I still reread Plato because the stories (most of his writing is in narrative form) are so damn entertaining.…

I don't agree that the arguments in the God Delusion are too bad. He does take some real liberties with Aquinas, but all the scholarly dressing you apply to Aquinas doesn't really improve the arguments. Dawkins deals with them too hastily, but even if Dawkins was an Aquinas scholar and applied the principle of charity to the arguments, they'd still be unconvincing arguments. The God Delusion is a popular book, not a scholarly refutation of all arguments for the existence of God. If you want to read scholarly refutations of arguments for the existence of God, as well as read some arguments put forward explicitly for the non-existence of God, then you have to turn elsewhere: Michael Martin's "Atheism: A Philosophical Justification", Robin Le Podevin's "Arguing for Atheism" and Nick Everett's "The Non-Existence Of God". Another good book from an agnostic rather than atheist perspective is Anthony Kenny's "The God of the Philosophers". A slightly easier read is Julian Baggini's "Atheism: A Very Short Introduction" which is okay. I have some reservations with it, but it covers most of the important arguments and has some stuff about ethics and living the good life and all that…