Why Is There A Market For Anti-Religious Books?

Steven Levitt asks the question:

I’m not religious. I don’t think much about God, except when I am in a pinch and need some special favors. I have no particular reason to think he’ll deliver, but I sometimes take a shot anyway. Other than that, I’m just not that interested in God. I’m definitely not interested enough to go out and buy books explaining to me why I shouldn’t believe in God, even when they are written by people like Dennett and Dawkins, whom I greatly admire. If I were religious, I think it would be even more likely that I would go out of my way to avoid books telling me that my faith was misplaced.

So who is making these anti-God books best-sellers? Do the people who despise the notion of God have an insatiable demand for books that remind them of why? Are there that many people out there who haven’t made up their mind on the subject and are open to persuasion?

Let me put the argument another way: I understand why books attacking liberals sell. It is because many conservatives hate liberals. Books attacking conservatives sell for the same reason. But no one writes books saying that bird watching is a waste of time, because people who aren’t bird watchers probably agree, but don’t want to spend $20 in order to read about it. Since very few people (at least in my crowd) actively dislike God, I’m surprised that anti-God books are not received with the same yawn that anti-bird watcher books would be.

Read the whole thing.

Here are a few thoughts:

1. This market is not new -- atheism and anti-religion/anti-God books and ideas have been around as long as religious ones have.
2. There is a very high correlation between strength of religious belief and politicial affiliation in the US.  I think there are a lot of emotions that cross both boundaries and similar people buy both sets of books.  There is probably some consumption of anti-religious (and religious) books that is driven more by political identification than by level of religious belief.
3. The majority of people around the world believe in religion in some form.  In the West, most people do believe in God at some level.  Those who do not are in a small minority and these books may help them to give support to one another in maintaining their beliefs in a society that is very different from them. 
4. I too am puzzled by what motivates a die-hard anti-God/anti-religion sentiment.  Religious belief carries with it belief in rewards/punishments for certain behaviors and beliefs.  It is easy to understand how religion motivates people if they think it is true.  What is perplexing is understanding what motivates the irreligious?  Certainly if there is money to be made selling books and taking on speaking engagements there is sufficient incentive for the supply of authors, but where does the demand come from?  As Levitt asks, who are the consumers and what motivates them?

Levitt is not the only non-religious person I've read who asks this type of question.  Megan McArdle is also very puzzled by evangelical atheists.