Natural Religion: A None’s Journey of Religious Discovery (Wipf and Stock, 2025) is a personal and philosophical exploration of what religion can mean without supernatural beliefs. Baird grew up without any formal religion and would today be described as a “none” (someone without religious affiliation). His grandfather, Earl Clement Davis (1876-1953) was a Unitarian minister. Baird, who was born after his grandfather’s death and never knew him, inherited a trunk full of his writings. Through these writings Baird found a version of religion rooted in human experience, ethics, and scientific understanding rather than divine revelation or any other supernatural source.

Thing Knowledge: A Philosophy of Scientific Instruments (University of California Press, 2004) challenges the traditional view that knowledge is primarily expressed in words, formulas, and propositions. Instead, the book argues that scientific instruments themselves embody knowledge—“thing knowledge.” These instruments aren’t just tools used to support theory; they are forms of scientific knowledge in their own right. The book uses a wide array of historical case studies—from 18th-century mechanical models to 20^th century cyclotrons and spectrometers—to show how instruments shaped science. Instrument development often drives science forward in ways that precede or outlast specific theories.

Inductive Logic: Probability and Statistics (Prentice Hall, 1992, and reissued as Inductive Logic: Inferring the Unknown by Pearson, 1999) is a philosophical textbook covering several common methods of statistical inference including the science behind polling, decision theory, IQ tests, and drug trials.