The globalisation of the economy and the modern world’s speed of communication haven’t been followed by a commensurate unification of the world’s belief.  Religious belief is enjoying something of a revival in some (but not all) parts of the world and belief in magic, the supernatural and the paranormal remain widespread. Here philosophers and intellectuals recommend books on beliefs, unbelief, God and other related questions.

Andrew Copson, the CEO of Humanists UK chooses his best books on “humanism” and explains that its modern usage carries more baggage than the label “atheism”.  A humanist, as well as not believing in God in any conventional sense, believes in empiricism, and that morality is (or should be) internally and culturally determined, rather that imposed by any external authority.

Philosopher Julian Baggini, author of Atheism: a very short introduction chooses his best books on atheism, as does the American author Susan Jacoby.  None of their choices overlap, but Jacoby chooses Confessions by Saint Augustine to illustrate how even the best attempt to make a coherent case for belief in a loving omnipotent God fails.

Historian of ideas, Anthony Gottlieb chooses his best books on God, although he comes from much the same angle as Baggini and Jacoby and, indeed, like Baggini chooses David Hume’s Dialogues and Natural History of Religion as a seminal text that demolishes the arguments for the existence of God.  Gottlieb describes it as “the masterpiece of English language philosophy”.

James Randi, magician and escape artists, chooses his best books on being sceptical and recounts the time he made Uri Geller cross by pointing out how he bends spoons – he does it with his hands.