Memphis Freethought Alliance, Inc
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.
Saturday, 11/12/11 at 5 pm: Pages 1 to 35 of The Words We Live By at Newk's Express Cafe at 2200 Germantown Parkway, Cordova, TN
Saturday, 11/19/11: NO BOOK CLUB DUE TO SKEPTICON
Saturday, 11/26/11 at 5 pm: Pages 36 to 150 of The Words We Live By at Newk's Express Cafe at 2200 Germantown Parkway, Cordova, TN
Saturday, 12/10/11 at 5 pm: Pages 150 to 204 of The Words We Live By at Newk's Express Cafe at 2200 Germantown Parkway, Cordova, TN
Saturday, 12/17/11 at 5 pm: Pages 150 to 204 (continued) of The Words We Live By at Newk's Express Cafe at 2200 Germantown Parkway, Cordova, TN
Saturday, 12/24/11 & 12/31/11: NO Book Club
Saturday, 01/07/12 at 5 pm: Pages 205 to 232 of The Words We Live By at Newk's Express Cafe at 2200 Germantown Parkway, Cordova, TN
Saturday, 01/14/12 at 5 pm: Pages 233 to 263 of The Words We Live By at Newk's Express Cafe at 2200 Germantown Parkway, Cordova, TN (END OF BOOK)
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
9. 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
25. Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists by Dan Barker
26. "What Have the Infidels Done" and "What Would You Substitute for the Bible as a Moral Guide" by Robert Ingersoll http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/inginfid.htm#WTHD
27. "The Limitations of Toleration" by Robert Ingersoll http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/inglimtol.htm
28. god.com: a deity for the new millennium by John A. Henderson
29. "Ghosts (Lecture)" by Robert Ingersoll
30. "What Shall We Do To Be Saved?" by Robert Ingersoll
31. "Individuality" by Robert Ingersoll
32. Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer
33. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
34. The God Virus by Darrel Ray
35. How We Decide (2010) by Johan Lehrer
36. Nomad (2010) by Aayan Hirsi Ali
37. Secular City Limits by Matthew Barron
38. The Grand Design (2010)by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
39. The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails (2010) by John W. Loftus
40. Worked Over: Corporate Sabotage of an American Community (2003) by Dimitra Doukas
41. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (2010) by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
42. The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies--How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer
43. A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment by Philipp Blom
44. The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution by Linda R. Monk
45. Robert Ingersoll, "The Gods" (1872)
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/gods.html
Potential Books for the Future:
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
6. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
7. and so forth as recommended by MFA Book Club attendees