Reddit mentions of The Science of Good and Evil (Holt Paperback)

Maybe try The Science of Good and Evil by Michael Shermer.

Also, this video might be helpful.

I did my undergrad work at UT (BS in CS), and I took a CS ethics class in the spring of '06. This is the class, although I took it with a different prof.

I really loved the class. My prof was a bit eccentric (I can't remember his name at the moment...), and we covered a ton of topics. He was a staunch atheist (at the time, I was a religiously-confused kid that grew up going to a fairly liberal Christian church) and highly encouraged debate. There were some classes where we would debate religion the entire time, and I loved it. I looked forward to the class every time I went.

We spent a lot of time discussing morality and ethics in the more philosophical sense. We read The Science of Good and Evil (and several other books), which made a pretty huge impact on me. The class, although held in the CS department, wasn't in practice really computer science-y. Oftentimes, topics would be related to computer topics (e.g., hacking, human research, what to do in certain hypothetical situations at work), and test questions (which were short essays) often involved hypothetical situations we might encounter.

To date, I still think that was one of the best 2 or 3 classes I took in undergrad. That class is single-handedly responsible for me changing my religious views (I'm an agnostic atheist now). I've always had the need to question everything, but this class made that need explicit.

One of the problems about Buddhism is the amount of money it seems to suck away from the people who practice that religion. We have family friends in Thailand and Korea who practice Buddhism and both of their families get mad at them because when the Buddhists get some extra money- it goes to their religion instead of saving it for something else (i.e. retirement).

I recommend The science of Good and Evil as a book to consider.

Bart Ehrman's books & videos are a great start for the accuracy of the Bible. He is very clear especially considering he's an academic. Forged would be the best one specifically about the accuracy of the Bible. His books are linked at his website: http://www.bartdehrman.com/books.htm

There are no historical documents of Jesus' life, only a few references to Christians from later documents. Nobody disputes that people believed in Jesus, so those don't really prove anything. It's clear that people believed in Thor and Zeus too. That doesn't mean a thing.

Whether faith is helpful or good, can't help you there. I think it's totally useless except to control sociopaths with low IQs.

For morality, check out Good without God: http://www.amazon.com/Good-Without-God-Billion-Nonreligious/dp/006167012X

or Sam Harris The Moral Landscape: http://www.samharris.org/the-moral-landscape

Science vs religion: that's kind of apples & oranges despite what believers keep saying. Science is a method of investigating hunches. Religion is subservience to an unproven deity.

How about the science of religion? Try Michael Shermer: The Science of Good and Evil: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805077693/ or The Believing Brain: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250008808/ or Why We Believe Weird Things: http://www.amazon.com/People-Believe-Weird-Things-Pseudoscience/dp/0805070893/

Thanks for visiting. An unexamined belief system is not worth believing!

Wow, I can relate to your first para. One of the first cracks on my shelf started when sitting in an ancient city and realising there was no evidence the Gospel had ever gone to this ancient empire. It was a pre-eminent civilisation for thousands of years, and no gospel. I then though of all the other ancient civilisations (Chinese, Minoan etc) that all didn't have any idea about the gospel, started to wonder from that point that it might not be true.

I'd recommend this book by Shermer.

Here's a great TED talk by Sam Harris.

and finally an awesome meme.

sitting around and debating the topic is exactly what I have a problem with. I am in no way qualified to answers these questions, and never claimed to be. I only pointed out that the philosophers aren't qualified either. Since this is /r/trueatheism, can I recommend a few books on the topic? Science of Good and Evil or The Moral Landscape are both good reads, and I think they have advanced the study of Ethics by leaps and bounds.