Any favorite atheist authors?

That said, he writes mysticism (when the story calls for it) better than those who believe.

Definitely one of mind too.

Yes, he made me angry many times and I certainly didn't agree with him on everything, but he was a wonderful and witty writer. I miss him every effing day. I also think Vanity Fair has gone way downhill since his death, and then Graydon Carter left. It's not the same.

Nice to meet you.

Carl Sagan was less "atheist" than he was a straight up proponent for evidentiary-based conclusions - which in general excludes most religious screeds, but he was an outstanding author and amazingly prescient at times too. MUST READ!

Sam Harris is easy to digest on his earlier works (like "letter to a 'Christian' nation", but his more recent stuff is not so much atheist as political agenda at times with his anti-Muslim stances running over other topics.

Daniel Dennett is a great philosopher and author, but his style is dense writing and can be difficult to read at times (at least for me)...

Consciousness Explained (1991)

Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

Breaking the Spell (2006)

I often wonder what Sagan and Harlan Ellison would say about Trumpism. They both may conclude that darkness is covering rationalism.

Jack London
Arthur C. Clarke
Harlan Ellison
H.P. Lovecraft (yes I know about his racism)

Non-Fiction
Carl Sagan
Richard Dawkins
Bart Ehrman

Robert Heinlein and Phillip Jose Farmer were agnostic

Interesting how few horror writers are listed as atheists.

.... but I've just gotten back into it... Sam Harris???? May be another.

GMTA

I also like that he called out Mensa for the ridiculous organization it is. And I say that as someone who is very very good on multiple choice tests which past a certain level mean nothing whatsoever.

But I am fascinated by the works of Neville Goddard. He has a unique way of interpreting the bible that has nothing at all to do with religion. He views the bible as a symbolic metaphysical book. Whereas religions teach it as an historical book. He believes that none of the people or events in the bible ever existed. Instead, in his view, the figures and events in the bible represent "states of mind". I grew up in an evangelical Christian environment and went to Christian school through the eighth grade. After all the formal biblical education I received in my younger days, never ever could I grasp or accept what I was being taught. I rejected it all once I moved out of the house and got on my own.
Neville has a way of interpreting things in such a way that now the bible makes perfect sense to me. It might not be acceptable to an Atheist person, but to many who have rejected the indoctrination pushed by organized religion, Neville Goddard might provide an insight that had not yet been considered.

"The Satanic Verses" was a total hoot.

Roddy Doyle, for The Barrytown Trilogy (the movie "The Committments" was the first book)

Dave Barry

Barbara Ehrehreich

Those are just off the top of my head. There are more than you know.

A history of American secularism. Robert Ingersoll was the Christopher Hitchens of his day when it came to god(s)(esses).

nt

2. Hitchens
3. Hitchens

In the middle of “The Secret Commonwealth” right now.

 
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My favorite quote from him, which I don't think is in the book but is something he said during a debate, went something like "Saying science and religion are compatible because some scientists are religious is like saying Catholicism and pedophilia are compatible because some priests are pedophiles."