The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer

The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer is a 2007 book by Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens writes introductions for the selected writings of philosophers, scientists, and other thinkers such as Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Victor J. Stenger and Richard Dawkins.

Contents

• Chapter 1: Lucretius: De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) - Books I, III, V, translation by W. Hannaford Brown
• Chapter 2: Omar Khayyám: Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: A Paraphrase from Several Literal Translations by Richard Le Gallienne
• Chapter 3: Thomas Hobbes: Of Religion, from Leviathan
• Chapter 4: Benedict De Spinoza: Theologico-Political Treatise
• Chapter 5: David Hume: The Natural History of Religion, Of Miracles
• Chapter 6: James Boswell: An Account of My Last Interview with David Hume, Esq.
• Chapter 7: Percy Bysshe Shelley: A Refutation of Deism
• Chapter 8: John Stuart Mill: Moral Influences in My Early Youth, From Autobiography
• Chapter 9: Karl Marx: Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
• Chapter 10: George Eliot: Evangelical Teaching
• Chapter 11: Charles Darwin: Autobiography
• Chapter 12: Leslie Stephen: An Agnostic's Apology
• Chapter 13: Anatole France: Miracle
• Chapter 14: Mark Twain: Thoughts of God, From Fables of Man; Bible Teaching and Religious Practice, From Europe and Elsewhere and A Pen Warmed Up in Hell
• Chapter 15: Joseph Conrad: Author's Note to The Shadow Line
• Chapter 16: Thomas Hardy: God's Funeral
• Chapter 17: Emma Goldman: The Philosophy of Atheism
• Chapter 18: H. P. Lovecraft: A Letter on Religion
• Chapter 19: Carl Van Doren: Why I am An Unbeliever
• Chapter 20: H. L. Mencken: Memorial Service
• Chapter 21: Sigmund Freud: From The Future of an Illusion, translated and edited by James Strachey
• Chapter 22: Albert Einstein: Selected Writings on Religion
• Chapter 23: George Orwell: From A Clergyman's Daughter
• Chapter 24: John Betjeman: In Westminster Abbey
• Chapter 25: Chapman Cohen: Monism and Religion An Old Story
• Chapter 26: Bertrand Russell: An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish
• Chapter 27: Philip Larkin: Aubade Church Going
• Chapter 28: Martin Gardner: The Wandering Jew and the Second Coming
• Chapter 29: Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World The God Hypothesis
• Chapter 30: John Updike: From Roger's Version
• Chapter 31: J. L. Mackie: Conclusions and Implications, From The Miracle of Theism: Arguments for and against the Existence of God
• Chapter 32: Michael Shermer: Genesis Revisited: A Scientific Creation Story
• Chapter 33: A. J. Ayer: That Undiscovered Country
• Chapter 34: Daniel C. Dennett: Thank Goodness!
• Chapter 35: Charles Templeton: From A Farewell to God, A Personal Word, and Questions to Ask Yourself
• Chapter 36: Richard Dawkins: Why There Almost Certainly is No God, Gerin oil, and Atheists for Jesus
• Chapter 37: Victor Stenger: From God: The Failed Hypothesis, Cosmic Evidence
• Chapter 38: Daniel C. Dennett: A Working Definition of Religion from "Breaking Which Spell?"
• Chapter 39: Elizabeth Anderson: If God is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?
• Chapter 40: Penn Jillette: There is No God
• Chapter 41: Ian McEwan: End of the World Blues
• Chapter 42: Steven Weinberg: What About God? From Dreams of a Final Theory
• Chapter 43: Salman Rushdie: "Imagine There's no Heaven": A Letter to the Six Billionth World Citizen
• Chapter 44: Ibn Warraq: The Koran, The Totalitarian Nature of Islam
• Chapter 45: Sam Harris: In the Shadow of God, From The End of Faith
• Chapter 46: A. C. Grayling: Can an Atheist Be a Fundamentalist? From Against All Gods
• Chapter 47: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: How (and Why) I Became an Infidel