I first came across John Allen Paulos several years ago, when someone gave me a copy of Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences. After you read Irreligion, I recommend you start on that one. Brilliant.

Formal logic is, after all, a branch of mathematics, so it is no surprise that a mathematician should write such a devastatingly well-reasoned book on the subject of belief in God. Slightly more surprising is that he should write such an entertaining book. 

Some readers of this blog are regular posters to atheist and agnostic forums, where the credulous come to trot out their particular brand of crazy. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, Irreligion is pretty much required reading for people who debate the illogic of theistic views on a regular basis. Al the usual suspects are there: the Argument from Design, the "Uncaused Cause," the Ontological Argument, prophecy, subjectivity, a variety of special pleadings—there's something for everyone! 

I could start citing passages I enjoyed from my first reading of Irreligion, but instead I would like to direct potential readers to the Point of Inquiry podcast for January 25, 2008, which contains an interview with the author.

Buy this book. Read it. Read it again. Buy copies for your friends. Give copies as Christmas gifts next year. Be careful about giving it to born-agains, though. Its small size makes it handy for kindling, just the thing when the evangelicals on your  school board is getting rid of old copies of the Origin of Species.