Atheist Bible

[Jenny Creed]

The grown-up Atheist would probably acknowledge there are many valid interpretations of Atheism. As such, many different Atheist writings of higher quality could be collected, forming a "Bible". I'd suggest looking into Percy Bysshe Shelley's poetry, for one.

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

Read anything by Darwin. How dare he be all logical and practical.. the douche.

Random fact: Darwin was Catholic, and trained for priesthood before traveling to the Galapagos islands. still practiced after he wrote his theory too

If that's true (I'm not saying it isn't) that is really awesome.

 

[ssjSephiroth]

Um, is it just me, or are the words "Atheist Bible" an oxymoron? What would have in there anyway? "Um...God doesn't exist. Thank you. The End." Maybe the theory of evolution, and a short bit about the Big Bang, but I can't see that it would end up being a thick book.

 

[RavingPenguin]

Many Escapists are Atheists.
Being an Atheist, i view this as a good thing.
But where is our moral tome, our compendium of all that we believe?

Didn't quite think this through did we?

 

[seidlet]

there are plenty of books that concur with my own code of morality, but none that instructs me morally. almost any book on stoic philosophy might be considered 'my bible' - meditations being my most frequent read.

 

[Knight Templar]

Atheist Bible, now there is a contradiction of terms.

 

[XenoZiden]

I got your Atheist Bible for you.

" There is no god, deal with it."

 

[traceur_]

I got your Atheist Bible for you.

" There is no god, deal with it."

yeh that about sums it up, but i just want to point out that Buddhism does not involve any worship of a god or other deity(don't waste space and argue that point, i was at a Buddhist temple 2 days ago and was told exactly that by a monk). So then atheism isn't just about not believing in a divine being. Anyway i don't think there ever will be an atheist "bible" (for lack of a better word) because if there was a set thingy that atheists "followed"(again for lack of a better word) then we could be classed a group with a common creed, and thus a sort of religion. sorry if it's not worded very well.

 

[NeverAiling]

I was simply trying to argue that if bible's bill themselves as containing the secret spells the rest of us don't know, then any attempt at science is holy, because it is an attempt to discover the nature of the universe, of some part of the universe, no matter how specific or esoteric.

And thus, all of science is a systematic attempt to author a true bible. A bible that is actually true. There is no need for science to disprove religion, or even acknowledge religion.

It must only seek the knowledge of the universe.

 

[Sane Man]

A huge number of atheists are already in a religion. The science fetishists as Vox Day calls them. They follow science and revere it as their new God, but understand incredibly little about actual science.

 

[sonidraw]

Maybe Atheists will start meeting in a building one day a week and select specific individuals to give talks at each meeting. And maybe they'll write down their thoughts in a series of books to be repeated to their children and their children's children for generations to come. Oh wait...

 

[NeverAiling]

Guys I want to take back everything I said early. That's right. Someone on the internet is making a retraction.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

[Glerken]

I'm a militant Agnostic... I don't know, and you don't either.

Exactly, this is the only logical answer. Saying you know there's no god is just as extreme as saying you know know there is a god.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

Argh! Fucking laptop! My post got deleted just as I finished it... And I was so proud of what I had written too.

I'll try to write it all up again, but I might not put much effort into it.
You have been notified.

Doubtless this has already been said, but doesn't having a set book for moral codes to follow sort of defeat one of the main purposes of being an atheist?

That's not to say that an Atheist can't, if he or she so chooses, decide to use a book or the words of someone to influence their decisions on morality. But you need to keep in mind that Atheists aren't an organisation or a religion. Atheism is simply the decision to reject the idea of religion, it is the decision of an individual, that person doesn't have to follow any other rules in order to be an atheist. Individual atheists can easily have no viewpoints in common aside from the whole religion thing. One atheist could be a kind hearted Samaritan working in a homeless shelter where they hold the position of "chief dispenser of hugs", while another atheist could (quite ironically) be a fanatical douchebag intent on spreading the knowledge of the "Master belief" to others though whatever means necessary. One atheist could be an environmentalist, while the other could be a working on a Japanese Whaling ship.
Having one tome to encompass the views of all atheists, from all walks of life and moral standings, will quite simply not work.

Besides, we do have moral codes, due to humans being rather more on the theist side of things historically, they happen to have been put into the bible.

While I don't think all of the ten commandments are really necessary (particularly the ones specific to worshiping god), the key things like (to simplify a bit) "Don't y'all kill a fool", "Stealin' is wrong" and "Don't be a dick to your neighbour and be all up in his space by doing stuff with his woman" are still relevant. Having a book just to place down what is accepted as common human decency to most people seems like a waste of time.

If an atheist really needs to suckle at the warm inviting teat of a book for moral guidance, might I suggest that they go back to being religious? As they clearly aren't cut out for this whole "Think for yourself" thing.

 

[roflmao113]

The thing that bothers me about hardcore Atheists is that they all seem to be flaming assholes and delight in launching ad hominem attacks against Christianity all the time.

On the other hand, I have met some pretty wacky Christians that hate Atheists with their guts. But I've also met some extremely friendly and nice radical Christians that treat Atheists with respect.

I have literally never met a (hardcore) Atheist who does not have a sense of intellectual superiority to his Christian fellows. And that is how you get zoologists who like to go on TV bashing religion and writing books about philosophy without having even touched the subject.

(Come on Dawkins, infinite regression is the ultimate proof that God does not exist? You have to try harder)

 

[Horvic]

I thought the thing atheists hated most was "organized religion"
which makes me wonder why they team up and organize meetings or rallies, or stuff like this.
and the topic: "atheist Bible" just screams oxymoron.

like "microsoft works". Sorry I just love saying that.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

The thing that bothers me about hardcore Atheists is that they all seem to be flaming assholes and delight in launching ad hominem attacks against Christianity all the time.

On the other hand, I have met some pretty wacky Christians that hate Atheists with their guts. But I've also met some extremely friendly and nice radical Christians that treat Atheists with respect.

I have literally never met a (hardcore) Atheist who does not have a sense of intellectual superiority to his Christian fellows.

That's because "hardcore" is just another word for "asshole."

The reason the nicer, less inflammatory atheists never get noticed is because they don't say anything.

It's the same thing from the other perspective, Atheists can quite easily only notice the "hardcore" religious people when they wave their book in our face, but there are plenty of religious people who don't do that. A vast majority of them in fact.

I suppose one thing that does give atheism a larger base of "hardcore" people would be the fact that for some, especially the younger ones, atheism isn't based on a well thought out descision. It's done purely to either piss off authority figures, or because religion is too "conformist" for them and they want to be baddass rebels.

Note: "Badass rebels" is also another word for "Asshole"
(when it is a self proclaimed title, not in the case of Liam Neeson for example, who truly is a badass rebel)

 

[starrman]

Read anything by Darwin. How dare he be all logical and practical.. the douche.

Random fact: Darwin was Catholic, and trained for priesthood before traveling to the Galapagos islands. still practiced after he wrote his theory too

That's just not true and is the sort of thing that theists bandy around to claim something back on the subject of creation. Darwin was bought up in a family whose tradition was Unitarian, though both his father and grandfather were freethinkers. Darwin himself trained to be an Anglican, but after his voyage to the Galapagos became unhappy with the balance of his own experience and the creation story from the bible. He still supported his local church, but stopped going on Sundays. As time went on he moved into self termed Agnosticism.

 

[Jovlo]

Read anything by Darwin. How dare he be all logical and practical.. the douche.

Random fact: Darwin was Catholic, and trained for priesthood before traveling to the Galapagos islands. still practiced after he wrote his theory too

That's just not true and is the sort of thing that theists bandy around to claim something back on the subject of creation. Darwin was bought up in a family whose tradition was Unitarian, though both his father and grandfather were freethinkers. Darwin himself trained to be an Anglican, but after his voyage to the Galapagos became unhappy with the balance of his own experience and the creation story from the bible. He still supported his local church, but stopped going on Sundays. As time went on he moved into self termed Agnosticism.

Exactly.
Darwin used to be a very religious man but he lost his faith when his darling daughter died a horrible death by a terrible disease.
He didn't become an atheist though, but stayed agnostic. I agree with Darwin that agnosticism is the only way to go.

 

[seidlet]

I'm a militant Agnostic... I don't know, and you don't either.

Exactly, this is the only logical answer. Saying you know there's no god is just as extreme as saying you know know there is a god.

most atheists i know don't say they KNOW, for an ABSOLUTE fact, that there is no god. we just find it so incredibly improbable that we have no reason to acknowledge the idea that a god might exist. no one absolutely knows that unicorns or faeries or dragons don't exist, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who considered themselves an agnostic in regards to any of those mythological creatures.

Another reason a lot of atheists seem like assholes is because most of the world seems to have a problem with something so apparently nihilistic. Speaking from experience, people who choose this more disillusioned route in their lives have to weather a lot of pressure from the groups they leave behind. It makes one very quick to defend oneself at the slightest hint of personal attack. I know a lot of people who behave as elitists simply because they have a need to reaffirm their beliefs on a regular basis by thinking themselves "better than" the opposition. That goes for the religious extremists too.

i have never understood the viewpoint that atheism is nihilistic. just because i don't have the ego to think that my life has some kind of grand purpose on a universal level doesn't mean that it isn't incredibly meaningful to ME.