What book/books has had the biggest impact on your way of thinking and in what way did it change your way of thinking?
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Sagan, Chomsky, Harris, Dawkins etc.
The autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. It made me realize that one, seemingly meek little person, can make a huge impact. And that huge impacts can be made without resorting to violence. And that showing compassion for other living beings, is much more important than demonstrating or demanding dominance.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I read it in jr. high at a time when I felt ostracized on so many levels.
Machiavelli’s the Prince.
Made me really stop and ponder the difference between ends and the means to obtain them, as well as the effectiveness of good intentions in isolation.
The Theban Trilogy by Sophocles. Those are the 3 plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. They really got at the heart of the human condition, and Oedipus at Colonus, which was written last decades after the first 2, shows man to be the pivotal point of the world, the link between the sacred and the profane. It changed my whole way of thinking. It brought into focus how precious humanity is. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, we are the universe knowing itself.
The latest book that has changed my thinking is Lawrence Mlodinow The Drunkard’s Walk. It turned me into a bayesian.
Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being,
Homeland by R.A. Salvatore… gave me a reference to confront my personal problems.
George Orwell’s 1984 and his Animal Farm had a great impact on my thinking about the faceless political machine that totalitarianism brings. Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol gave me my disdain for oligarchy and for those who put profits above people. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy opened my eyes to new ways of seeing. and of course to the vital importance of 42—and of whimsy. J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy gave me my appreciation of the pure evil that lust for power and wealth generates. While I am not a Christian, the parables of Jesus gave me a sense of true justice that I often find missing in putted followers of Christ. I owe so much to writers and books. It’s impossible to list them all.
Much like @ETpro I cannot list (or remember! :o) ) them all. Unlike him, I am a Christian, and so I add the Bible to the list. Tolkien and many other Fantasy/Sci Fi authors helped my best friend and I both survive Middle School (we read while at recess) and added much to our High School experience. We loved to go out to the woods surrounding both of our houses and discuss everything. (We solved most of the world’s problems- just ask us!)
@GracieT When I mentioned the parables of Jesus, I was referring to the Bible. I have read it from cover to cover several times.
@ETPro, I assumed you had, but you have stated before that you were not Christian. I am now reading it from cover to cover. Many of my non-Christian friends know more about the Bible than many Christians, and many state that the reason for their disbelief is the character/actions of people whom insist that they are Christian.
@GracieT My reasons for disbelief are the Bible,s the many internal contradictions and statements of fact that severely conflict with observable evidence. The Earth, for instance, is not around 6000 years old, and the stars are not fixed in a dome above it. My agnosticism has nothing to do with the fact that some who claim to be practicing Christians clearly do not follow the teachings of Christ.
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