Reddit reviews The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

Just gonna throw this out there - most of me and my wife's shelf breakers came from books or film that wouldn't traditionally be seen as related to mormonism. Our brains were just too wired to sniff that stuff out and reject it even if engaging with it. Instead I'd recommend two of the most powerful books I ever read and obiliterated my testimony without so much as a mention of Mormon history:

The Greatest Show On Earth by Richard Dawkins - Dawkins has a bit of a reputation as a vocal Atheist so your wife may already be biased. But if not - he is a wonderful writer, capable of relaying complex scientific principles in easy-to-understand layman's terms. So clear and levelheaded, it's essentially impossible to read this book and not have a minor stroke from the cognitive dissonance it throws on every concept of a divine creator that's ever existed.

Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan - Carl Sagan was the original 'make science cool and accessible' superstar and in my mind he still hasn't been topped. This book is a supremely entertaining, mind expanding and FAIR mediation on science and belief from one of our generations greatest thinkers.

Hope this helps (cause reading mormon history books if she isn't ready sure as hell won't)

Would highly recommend The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Sagan

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

I'll admit, Cosmos is probably the closest we have to Atheist propaganda.

However, unlike most propaganda, it's based on facts and never claims to know things we don't, or mislead from the truth.

According to wikipedia:

> Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group.

The point of Cosmos is to influence. Propaganda now often has a negative connotation, but it does not have to be so.

As an aside, if you want to see one of the pinnacles of how to respectfully make the case for atheism, see Sagan's The Varieties of Scientific Experience, originality presented at the Gifford Lectures in 1985. We have more facts and some of our arguments have been better refined now, but it is still a standout both for tone and content.

I read Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity a couple months ago. Spinoza is popularly thought of as a pantheist, yet his philosophy was instrumental to Freethinking.

An especially enjoyable book, I say, is The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan. Or you might enjoy his novel Contact, which is essentially a novelization of Varieties.

THIS!! Sagan had one of the most humbling approaches to religion and science and was a most eloquent writer/speaker. You seriously cannot go wrong with this one. One of my favorite books.

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God - Carl Sagan

http://www.amazon.com/The-Varieties-Scientific-Experience-Personal/dp/0143112627

I really enjoyed Carl Sagan's The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. I like how Sagan acknowledges the beauty in religion, but he also demonstrates the beauty of a scientific view of the universe and our place in it. It's a little less harsh or combative than other atheistic work I've read, but it's just as committed to truth.

Sometimes I wish I had said what he said when my parents were asking if I believed in God. He said something like, "If by God you mean an anthropomorphic supreme being, then I don't believe that that particular God exists. But if by God you mean the sum total of all of the laws of nature, then I believe that that God indeed does exist." It probably would have made things go more smoothly.

Carl Sagan talks about it in this book
We (animals/life) have an understanding of physics built into us, the same way a lion knows how to chase down its prey.

>I just kind of hate the idea that we are all just a bunch of bouncing neurons reacting to stimuli, that there is likely no heaven or anything after death, and that everything... juts barely or doesn't matter.

You are experiencing an existential crisis. Religious spoon-feeds meaning and purpose to its adherents. Reality doesn't give a shit about you or anything else. Is it any wonder so many people choose the safe, comforting lies of religion? It takes courage and a strong degree of self-assuredness in oneself to face an uncaring universe without a mythology to fall back on.

You could go through the large body of works by Existentialist philosophers to discover the path to defining your own meaning and purpose in life, but I'll warn you now it is not a quick, easy process. It's well worthwhile and I encourage everyone to study Existential philosophy, but if you're hurting right now, taking a shortcut peace of mind is understandable.

My recommendation is to read some of Carl Sagan's works. He kinda flips the existential question on its head. Instead of being left adrift without a purpose, he illustrates in beautiful detail just how insanely awesome the world around (and inside) us is. Sure, there's no purpose to life, but isn't it fucking amazing that I get to partake in it for the better part of a century?

Through Sagan's writings, I found that the remaining hooks Christianity had in me completely faded to nothing. Since there is no afterlife, and I only get a finite amount of time to experience life, I should make the most of what time I've got. Irrelevant shit is easier to recognize and I don't stress out over the things that don't matter or that I can't change.

As for where to start reading Sagan, there's a text called, "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God," that seems like a perfect fit for your situation, but I haven't read it and can't vouch for it. My introduction to Sagan was "Dragons of Eden" followed by "Broca's Brain" and "The Demon-Haunted World." Look through his books and decide what makes sense for you.

Why do you need a god at all to have mystery? the one big man in charge thing is a human construct. There are still mysteries out there, physics, parallel universes, the true nature of reality and finding out what is REAL. Humans want to KNOW. It is better they seek out what is actually true instead of building falsehoods as truth.

Read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Varieties-Scientific-Experience-Personal-Search/dp/0143112627

The Christian right is a brutal political dominionist force built on an authoritarian brutal god.

I'm in the middle of reading this: The Varieties of Scientific Experience and I think it's quite relevant to r/atheism's interests. I highly (pun unintentional) recommend it.

I really enjoyed The Varieties of Scientific Experience. It's actually a posthumous release transcribed from a series of lectures he gave. It deals with a lot of the 'God' questions in a really straight forward, non-preach way and feels more cohesive and contains a lot more of the scientific 'wow' type stuff from Cosmos than 'Demon Haunted World' does.