10 books like Answering the Objections of Atheists, Agnostics, & Skeptics

By Ron Rhodes,

Here are 10 books that authors have personally recommended if you like Answering the Objections of Atheists, Agnostics, & Skeptics. Shepherd is a community of 8,000+ authors sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Atheist Who Didn't Exist Or: the Dreadful Consequences of Bad Arguments

Roxane Lapa Author Of Answering The Atheist: Good Questions Deserve Straight Answers

From the list on Christian apologetics.

Who am I?

I’ve been a Christian for 30+ years, and have had many questions about the Bible and theology. In order to answer my own questions, I’ve consumed scores of apologetics books, articles, videos, and podcasts, as well as studied the Bible itself, with lexicons and commentaries.

Roxane's book list on Christian apologetics

Discover why each book is one of Roxane's favorite books.

Why did Roxane love this book?

Andy Bannister has written this book in response to popular one-liners by new atheists, particularly Dawkins. Tired retorts comparing God to Santa Claus and the tooth fairy are hilariously dealt with by the author's dry British humour. I had a good couple of chuckles in this book. I particularly loved his imaginary friend who claimed he stole the Venus di Milo's arm, and also how he sarcastically puts trademark symbols on the words 'Science' and 'Reason'. Still, I think he does a good job of preventing his teasing from becoming a poo-flinging contest. Such a talented writer - loved this book!

The Atheist Who Didn't Exist Or

By Andy Bannister,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Atheist Who Didn't Exist Or as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the last decade, atheism has leapt from obscurity to the front pages: producing best-selling books, making movies, and plastering adverts on the side of buses. There's an energy and a confidence to contemporary atheism: many people now assume that a godless scepticism is the default position, indeed the only position for anybody wishing to appear educated, contemporary, and urbane. Atheism is hip, religion is boring. Yet when one pokes at popular atheism, many of the arguments used to prop it up quickly unravel. The Atheist Who Didn't Exist is designed to expose some of the loose threads on the…


The Reason for God

By Timothy Keller,

Book cover of The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

John G. Stackhouse Jr. Author Of Can I Believe? Christianity for the Hesitant

From the list on why smart people believe in Christianity.

Who am I?

Ever since my ninth grade English teacher provoked me with religious questions I not only couldn’t answer, but had never even considered, I’ve been interrogating my Christian faith. Now, several decades later, with a PhD from the University of Chicago and a handful of books published by the Oxford University Press, I’m in a better position to answer those questions, and to recognize the good answers of others. I don’t think we ever get perfect answers to the Big Questions, but we can get answers adequate for trusting God, and that’s enough.

John's book list on why smart people believe in Christianity

Discover why each book is one of John's favorite books.

Why did John love this book?

Manhattan pastor Tim Keller is used to handling the toughest questions from the brightest people. This book compiles his answers to some of those, from “How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?” to the church’s responsibility for so much injustice. Keller reads widely and well, and he writes with a respectful seriousness without being ponderous or preachy.

The Reason for God

By Timothy Keller,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Reason for God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times bestseller people can believe in-by "a pioneer of the new urban Christians" (Christianity Today) and the "C.S. Lewis for the 21st century" (Newsweek).

Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics, and even ardent believers, have about religion. Using literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand their ground against the backlash to religion created by the…


The Black Prism

By Brent Weeks,

Book cover of The Black Prism

J.W. Kiefer Author Of Death

From the list on the most unique magic systems.

Who am I?

I'm a fiction author and minister from Upstate New York. As a young boy, I had many supernatural experiences. My earliest memory is of a supernatural basis. For me, the unseen world, and those things that others either deny exist or have relegated to ancient history and myth, have always been real to me. Reading, films, video games, and all other forms of storytelling were ways for me to experience the strange and the mysterious. What I found as I walked through such places as Middle Earth, Narnia, and Ice Wind Dale, was that the stories of these characters that overcame adversity, failures, and weaknesses to become heroes inspired me as well.

J.W.'s book list on the most unique magic systems

Discover why each book is one of J.W.'s favorite books.

Why did J.W. love this book?

So, if you haven’t already noticed, for most of this list I have chosen the first book in a series. Let's be honest, if you read fantasy, then you know pretty much every book is part of a series. In The Black Prism we are introduced to one of my favorite magic systems. In this system, the magicians or “Drafters” are able to turn light into substance. Each color of the light spectrum has a different property. A drafter can create constructs using light. Most people can only access one color, but there are those special people that can use multiple colors, and of course, there are the select few who can use all. What I love about this system is that it is only limited to the strength and imagination of the user.

I am a big fan of systems that you have to think to use. Anyone can…

The Black Prism

By Brent Weeks,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Black Prism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a world where magic is tightly controlled, the most powerful man in history must choose between his kingdom and his son - in the first book of the New York Times bestselling Lightbringer series, one of the most popular fantasy epics of the decade.

EVERY LIGHT CASTS A SHADOW.

Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. Yet Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live.

When Guile discovers he…


Book cover of Amplified Holy Bible

Roxane Lapa Author Of Answering The Atheist: Good Questions Deserve Straight Answers

From the list on Christian apologetics.

Who am I?

I’ve been a Christian for 30+ years, and have had many questions about the Bible and theology. In order to answer my own questions, I’ve consumed scores of apologetics books, articles, videos, and podcasts, as well as studied the Bible itself, with lexicons and commentaries.

Roxane's book list on Christian apologetics

Discover why each book is one of Roxane's favorite books.

Why did Roxane love this book?

The AMP (Amplified Bible) is a word-for-word translation with additional information in brackets to help clarify the meaning of ambiguous words and difficult passages. This is also an incredibly useful study Bible, and is more convenient than cross-referencing Strong’s numbers.

Amplified Holy Bible

By Zondervan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Amplified Holy Bible as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Updated edition is even easier to read and better than ever to study and understand

You've trusted the Amplified (R) Bible to deliver enhanced understanding of all the rich nuances and shades of meaning of the original Bible languages. For this kind of in-depth study, no working knowledge of Greek or Hebrew is required-just a desire to know more about what God says in his Word. Amplified Bibles use a unique system of punctuation, italics, references, and synonyms to unlock subtle shades of meaning as found in the original languages.

This updated Amplified Bible includes more amplification in the Old…


Is God a Delusion?

By Eric Reitan,

Book cover of Is God a Delusion?

Mark Alpert Author Of Saint Joan of New York: A Novel about God and String Theory

From the list on to help you decide if God exists.

Who am I?

I should make it clear that I have no religious agenda. I’m not a believer, but I’m not a committed atheist either. For ten years, I was an editor at Scientific American. During that time, we were diligent about exposing the falsehoods of “intelligent design” proponents who claimed to see God’s hand in the fashioning of complex biological structures such as the human eye. But in 2008 I left journalism to write fiction. I wrote an international bestseller about Albert Einstein (Final Theory). I wrote a trilogy of Young Adult novels about teenagers who become robots (The Six). And ideas about God kept popping up in my books.

Mark's book list on to help you decide if God exists

Discover why each book is one of Mark's favorite books.

Why did Mark love this book?

Philosopher Eric Reitan offers a spirited rebuttal to Dawkins by arguing that belief in God isn’t necessarily irrational or harmful. In particular, Reitan defends the progressive faiths that are based on universal love rather than sectarian division and superstition. I especially enjoyed Reitan’s discussion of atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell, who compared religious faith to a belief in the existence of a “celestial teapot” that travels around the sun in an orbit so distant that it could never be observed by telescope. You can’t disprove its existence, but doesn’t it seem ludicrous? Can you explain how it got there?   

Is God a Delusion?

By Eric Reitan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Is God a Delusion? as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Is God a Delusion? addresses the philosophical underpinnings of the recent proliferation of popular books attacking religious beliefs. Winner of CHOICE 2009 Outstanding Academic Title Award Focuses primarily on charges leveled by recent critics that belief in God is irrational and that its nature ferments violence Balances philosophical rigor and scholarly care with an engaging, accessible style Offers a direct response to the crop of recent anti-religion bestsellers currently generating considerable public discussion


Book cover of Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Doubting Dawkins

Rodney Holder Author Of Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion: Moving Forward from Natural Theology

From the list on my Christian faith confirmed through science.

Who am I?

I believe that the most important questions one can possibly ask are, ‘Is there a God?’ and ‘Is Jesus God in human flesh?’ Since becoming a Christian at University in Cambridge the answers I have found to these questions have been the bedrock of my life. They have been confirmed by experience and I have wanted to share them. My academic work has been devoted to them. I am an astrophysicist as well as a priest and find, contrary to popular conceptions, that these vocations fit wonderfully neatly together. I am persuaded that there is a wealth of evidence for the truth of Christian beliefs, including from science itself.

Rodney's book list on my Christian faith confirmed through science

Discover why each book is one of Rodney's favorite books.

Why did Rodney love this book?

Keith Ward is a major philosopher and theologian. In this book, he presents a devastating critique of the simplistic arguments of Richard Dawkins. With touches of humour he deftly demolishes Dawkins’ materialistic atheism, showing how the priority of the divine mind as necessary being provides the ultimate explanation for anything to exist. Science provides explanations in terms of cause and effect, but does not explain why there is a universe in the first place or why the laws of nature are as they are. Contrary to Dawkins, belief in a divine mind does not close down scientific endeavour but inspires it. If the speculative multiverse idea were to explain the special nature of this universe, this would itself still need explanation, and would in any case be compatible with theism.

Why There Almost Certainly Is a God

By Keith Ward,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Why There Almost Certainly Is a God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Richard Dawkins claimed that 'no theologian has ever produced a satisfactory response to his arguments'. Well-known broadcaster and author Keith Ward is one of Britain's foremost philosopher-theologians. This is his response. Ward welcomes all comers into philosophy's world of clear definitions, sharp arguments, and diverse conclusions. But when Dawkins enters this world, his passion tends to get the better of him, and he descends into stereotyping, pastiche, and mockery. In this stimulating and thought-provoking philosophical challenge, Ward demonstrates not only how Dawkins' arguments are flawed, but that a perfectly rational case can be made that there, almost certainly, is a…


Mere Christianity

By C. S. Lewis,

Book cover of Mere Christianity

John G. Stackhouse Jr. Author Of Can I Believe? Christianity for the Hesitant

From the list on why smart people believe in Christianity.

Who am I?

Ever since my ninth grade English teacher provoked me with religious questions I not only couldn’t answer, but had never even considered, I’ve been interrogating my Christian faith. Now, several decades later, with a PhD from the University of Chicago and a handful of books published by the Oxford University Press, I’m in a better position to answer those questions, and to recognize the good answers of others. I don’t think we ever get perfect answers to the Big Questions, but we can get answers adequate for trusting God, and that’s enough.

John's book list on why smart people believe in Christianity

Discover why each book is one of John's favorite books.

Why did John love this book?

Lewis’s classic is the most popular and influential defense of Christian belief published in the last 100 years. It is cited more often than any other book, particularly among scientists, philosophers, and other thoughtful people as important to them on their journey to the Christian faith. It’s a little dated now—the gap between Lewis and ourselves stretches wider each year—but it’s still compelling.

Mere Christianity

By C. S. Lewis,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Mere Christianity as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Special 65th Anniversary Edition

One of the most popular and beloved introductions to the concept of faith ever written, 'Mere Christianity' has sold millions of copies worldwide.

The book brings together C.S. Lewis's legendary radio broadcasts during the war years, in which he set out simply to 'explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times'.

Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity's many denominations, Mere Christianity provides an unequalled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to absorb a powerful, rational case for the Christian faith.


Pensées

By Blaise Pascal, A.J. Krailsheimer,

Book cover of Pensées

Liam Milburn Author Of A Stoic breviary: Classical wisdom in daily practice

From the list on for building self-awareness that you might not expect.

Who am I?

Building upon many years of privately shared thoughts on the real benefits of Stoic Philosophy, Liam Milburn eventually published a selection of Stoic passages that had helped him to live well. They were accompanied by some of his own personal reflections.

Liam's book list on for building self-awareness that you might not expect

Discover why each book is one of Liam's favorite books.

Why did Liam love this book?

I am cheating a bit here since this was never a complete work, but a set of notes that Pascal was using for a far greater text. It confuses some people to hear that one of the greatest scientific and mathematical minds of his age was also a devout Christian, but that should not trouble someone with an open mind and an open heart. His intention was to show that there is a gaping hole inside of all of us, and that no diversion can ever fill it, except for a desire to know and to love what is Absolute. 

“All of humanity's problems stem from a man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Pensées

By Blaise Pascal, A.J. Krailsheimer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pensées as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A passionate defence of religious faith by the great seventeenth-century philosopher, mathematician and physicist

Blaise Pascal was the precociously brilliant contemporary of Descartes, but it is his unfinished apologia for the Christian religion upon which his reputation now rests. The Pensees is a collection of philosophical fragments, notes and essays in which he explores the contradictions of human nature in psychological, social, metaphysical and, above all, theological terms. Humankind emerges from Pascal's analysis as a wretched and desolate creature within an impersonal universe, but also as a being whose existence can be transformed through faith in God's grace.

Translated with…


Concluding Unscientific Postscript

By Søren Kierkegaard, Walter Lowrie (translator), Joseph Campbell (translator)

Book cover of Concluding Unscientific Postscript

Lee Braver Author Of Heidegger: Thinking of Being

From the list on everything you want to know on existentialism.

Who am I?

I’m a professor of philosophy because when I got to college, philosophy sounded like what Gandalf would study—the closest thing we have to the study of magic. It turns out, I wasn’t far from the mark. Philosophy shows you entire dimensions to the world that you never noticed because they exist at weird angles, and you have to change your way of thinking to see them. Entering them and seeing the world from those perspectives transforms everything. A great work of philosophy is like having the lights turn on in an annex of your mind you didn’t know was there, like an out-of-mind experience—or perhaps, an in-your-mind-for-the-first-time experience.

Lee's book list on everything you want to know on existentialism

Discover why each book is one of Lee's favorite books.

Why did Lee love this book?

How many bibliographical jokes have you ever heard, well, read? This book has jokes in its Table of Contents, its title, its sub-title—in the author attribution! And at the end, the Postscript to this Postscript takes the entire thing back—twice!—although, as Kierkegaard says, to write something and take it back is not the same as not writing it. He wants to affect the reader, not just pass along abstruse theories. Kierkegaard criticizes the basic mindset of philosophy that pretends to have a God’s-eye view of reality when really we’re forced to make decisions of crucial importance, in precarious circumstances, with limited information, never knowing if it was the right one, perpetually living out our lives suspended over 70,000 fathoms of water. 

Concluding Unscientific Postscript

By Søren Kierkegaard, Walter Lowrie (translator), Joseph Campbell (translator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Concluding Unscientific Postscript as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Philosophical Fragments the pseudonymous author Johannes Climacus explored the question: What is required in order to go beyond Socratic recollection of eternal ideas already possessed by the learner? Written as an afterword to this work, Concluding Unscientific Postscript is on one level a philosophical jest, yet on another it is Climacus's characterization of the subjective thinker's relation to the truth of Christianity. At once ironic, humorous, and polemical, this work takes on the "unscientific" form of a mimical-pathetical-dialectical compilation of ideas. Whereas the movement in the earlier pseudonymous writings is away from the aesthetic, the movement in Postscript is…


The Case for Christ

By Lee Strobel,

Book cover of The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Stacy A. Padula Author Of The Right Person

From the list on inspiration books with Christian themes.

Who am I?

I was elated to be named “Top Inspirational Author of the Year” for 2022 by the International Association of Top Professionals. Inspiration is central to my career as a mentor, life coach, counselor, and author. I have possessed a deep interest in both Christianity and psychology since a young age. I have tied both topics in my own books, as I believe the knowledge I have gained has helped me find the joy, peace, and fulfillment I feel each day. This great sense of fulfillment and purpose is something I hope everyone can find in their lifetime, which motivates me to write about the power of faith in my books. 

Stacy's book list on inspiration books with Christian themes

Discover why each book is one of Stacy's favorite books.

Why did Stacy love this book?

The Case for Christ is a great reference book for historical facts that demonstrate proof of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I recommend this to skeptics and those who are looking to back up their Christian faith with real-life evidence and historical knowledge. This book is an asset to all libraries, churches, and Christian schools, as it provides irrefutable evidence that Jesus is who the Bible says He is. It is smart, thought-provoking, and life-changing. If someone is searching for something to believe in, they should read this book!

The Case for Christ

By Lee Strobel,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Case for Christ as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Is there credible proof that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God? In The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel, former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune and New York Times bestselling author, retraces his own spiritual journey from atheism to faith and builds a captivating case for Christ's divinity.

In this revised and updated edition of The Case for Christ, Strobel cross-examines a dozen experts with doctorates from schools such as Cambridge, Princeton, and Brandeis, asking hard-hitting questions--and taking a deeper look at the evidence from the fields of science, philosophy, and history.

In his comprehensive investigation, Strobel…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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