Searching for Truth in Vegas, Hollywood & Bethlehem: The Quest to Discover if God is Real by George Sarris
The following is a short list of what I regard as “the red pill” books.
These are "big picture" books that explain the ideas, values, and events that have shaped much of the modern world. They explain what we got right and where we went wrong (and some offer steps to be taken to correct the mistakes).
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. This book explains what is good about the social justice movement, but it also shows where the movement has gone wrong. Clear thinking and the freedom to express those thoughts are essential for people to be free. The following is a quote from the book:
There is a principle in philosophy and rhetoric called the principle of charity, which says that one should interpret other people’s statements in their best, most reasonable form, not in the worst or most offensive way possible.
Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson (This book puts the most recent pandemic in perspective.)
Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat by Os Guinness
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman. (John Anderson gave an interview with Trueman which is available on YouTube. Professor Carl Trueman | Hedonism and the Modern Psychological Self
Trueman’s book is very important for understanding the West's morality today, and how we got here. Many of the philosophers and theorists that have shaped the Western view of individualism and sexuality had a deep hatred of Christianity. Unfortunately, Trueman does not delve into the intellectual reasons behind this hatred. The West is in trouble because the beliefs on which the West were founded have been undermined. (Much evil has been done in the pursuit of "good" causes. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao believed that the crimes they committed could be justified because they were for the greater good. In Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov becomes capable of murder once he determines that the end justifies the means. The more westerners embrace the idea that the end justifies the means, the more capable of horrendous evil they will become. The emphasis on loving others and putting their needs before our own is being replaced with putting one's own needs and desires first. The more we return to the law of the jungle, the more rapidly Western society will collapse due to corruption and crime. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom." - Benjamin Franklin)
Many atheists are drawn to the character of Jesus, but they cannot accept a God who punishes the innocent and acquits the guilty. They also cannot accept that God truly loves people if he allows them to suffer endlessly. People will not bother to learn about the God of the Bible while they regard him as unjust or evil. The following two books look at these doctrines. (There are no good reasons for the Church to hold on to these doctrines. You do not have to believe them to be a Christian. See here and here.)
The Inescapable Love of God by Thomas Talbott
Atonement, Justice, and Peace: The Message of the Cross and the Mission of the Church by Darrin W. Snyder Belousek (For a brief overview of some of the arguments in this book see here. This is part one of three.)
Because most people would rather live in a wealthy country than a poor country under the control of a despot, I strongly recommend the following.
Wealth, Poverty, and Politics: An International Perspective, Basic Economics, Migrations And Cultures, and Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell ("Race, Culture, and Equality" was the speech by Sowell that first inspired me to start reading his books.)
The Government Against the Economy by George Reisman.* Chapters 6 to 8 of George Reisman’s book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics are based on that book. (These chapters are available for free online here. Reisman's article, Why Nazism Was Socialism and Why Socialism Is Totalitarian is the article that helped me to see that communism can never work, no matter how decent the leadership is. And it was that article that inspired me to read his book.)
The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution by Barry Asmus and Wayne Grudem (If you live in a poor country and would like to see your countries GDP increase, read this book.)
The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek
The following book is a must read if you have a daughter (or female friend) in her teens or early 20s.
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier
I recommend the following with some reluctance. It is certainly no Brothers Karamazov; but if you think America is fundamentally evil, and that it should be destroyed, you should at least understand what it is you are seeking to destroy, and what the results of your efforts will be.
How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps by Ben Shapiro
If enough Westerners do not admit that we have been heading down a dangerous path, and change the direction in which the West is heading, it is only a matter of time before we are under Communist Party rule, or Sharia, or some form of international mercantilism, where a wealthy few, own everything—and everyone.
Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World by Clive Hamilton
The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom by Mark Durie (For an example of Durie's sensitivity, clarity of thought, and ability to express those thoughts in writing, see here. His book Which God? looks at the similarities and differences between the God of the Bible and the Allah of the Quran.)
After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East by Elizabeth Kendal. Some samples from the book can be read on the following. Who Will Lead the Muslims Today?
Islam and Science by Pervez Hoodbhoy (This book explains why science rapidly advanced in the Islamic world, and why it no longer does.)
The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS by Robert Spencer
The War on the West by Douglas Murray
What about the Great Reset? Is it real? And if it is, should we be concerned? I’m not going to tell you what I've come to think about it, but I will say this, if you are not sure if it is real, and you want to know, read "An Offset for the Reset?" in Os Guinness' book Zero Hour America, and watch The Great Global Reset documentary which is available at Salem Now.
What about the Church? Many westerners are sickened by what they see in the Church today. Weakness and hypocrisy attract no one. They long for a Christianity which is characterised by courage, love, humility, and strength. That is why I recommend the following.
Prayer : Three "Unspoken Sermons" by the man who inspired C S Lewis (Prayer and the following recommendation—The Way—are both extracts from volume 2 of Unspoken Sermons.)
The Way by George MacDonald. (I also highly recommend his book Donal Grant, edited by David Jack. It contains the original text with an English translation on each page. “I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. Hence his Christ-like union of tenderness and severity. Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined.” - C.S. Lewis.)
The first five chapters of C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity, in the section entitled “Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe,” and the chapter "The Great Sin."
The Rational Bible: Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses by Dennis Prager
The Magna Carta of Humanity: Sinai’s Revolutionary Faith and the Future of Freedom by Os Guinness
The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England's Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus by Andrew Klavan
No book has shaped the Western world as much as the Bible.
No matter what your belief about the afterlife, you will find the following book worth reading, but if you can't get your head around challenging material, don't bother. This book is very deep.
Destined for Joy by Alvin Kimel (particularly the chapter “The Gospel as Story and Promise”)
And finally, a warning.
1984 by George Orwell. This is where we are heading if we don't wake up soon. It is for good reason that Orwell's book is banned in China. They don't want their citizens to think for themselves.
There are many other books I could recommend, but these are the most relevant for where we in the West find ourselves today. (They are also very important for societies that are following the West's lead.) If you read these books before reading the great works of literature, you will have a sound framework through which to view them. (And you will be less likely to be led astray by the skill of brilliant writers, some of whom believed some very foolish things.)
* “Every commentator on current affairs who is not a fully trained economist ought to read this book if he wants to talk sense. I know no other place where the crucial issues are explained as clearly and convincingly as in this book.” - F. A. Hayek, Nobel Laureate, in Economics for 1975, and author of The Road to Serfdom. (A sample of Reisman's writing can be found here.)