Atheist Bible

[StylesofBeyond]

cant say theres an atheist bible, but we dont really need a bible to help with morals and how to live. i try to be as honest as i can, do the right thing and not let people down. wasnt told it in a book, just brought up this way and figured it out for myself.

 

[Strong Intelligent]

Okay, I'm going to use this topic to describe why The Bible itself doesn't work.

If Heaven exists, then why is killing people wrong? Isn't it just putting more people into Heaven, populating this so called diety "God"'s home.

If the Garden of Eden were real, were is it? Essex?

If money weren't made, no-one would be depressed now or seventy years ago.

It's been two-thousand years. If every single religion was right, every hundred years or so a new prophet would be here. Why don't we have any prophets?

But to sum up, an atheist bible makes perfect sense and people will finally know my rare;y acknowledged views on the universe.

 

[seidlet]

If the Garden of Eden were real, were is it? Essex?

the mormons say around louisiana.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

Okay, I'm going to use this topic to describe why The Bible itself doesn't work.

If Heaven exists, then why is killing people wrong? Isn't it just putting more people into Heaven, populating this so called diety "God"'s home.

If the Garden of Eden were real, were is it? Essex?

If money weren't made, no-one would be depressed now or seventy years ago.

It's been two-thousand years. If every single religion was right, every hundred years or so a new prophet would be here. Why don't we have any prophets?

But to sum up, an atheist bible makes perfect sense and people will finally know my rare;y acknowledged views on the universe.

Dude... Get out.

We'd gone almost two pages in a thread about religion without disolving into a flame war.
But had to you ruin it.
Didn't you?

 

[Social Pariah]

We are not a common community any more than people who play tennis are... the most I'll organise for my Atheism is a nod and smile at my nearest Atheist for agreeing with me on one large point. Unless I find further common ground that is.

 

[starrman]

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.

Whilst I mostly agree with your post I would like to challenge the notion that atheism is a state of non-belief in god. I'm an atheist and after many long and arduous discussions with other atheists and theists alike I've come round to the idea that my atheism IS a belief structure, not a lack of belief.

I came to this idea by accepting that my atheism was initially a native state, that a belief in god is something learnt and until it is acquired one remains what I call a 'normative atheist', this is indeed a lack of belief. However, as soon as you become aware of the notion of god you begin making a choice, learning about god and deciding whether he's true or not. I'm a massive W.V. Quine fan and his work on auxiliary assumptions in global belief structures is something that has stuck with me. Basically what he says is that it is impossible to test a hypothesis without using auxiliary assumptions. Once I know about the notion of god I begin to take match him against my belief structure and all the assumed auxiliary assumptions, ticking them off one by one to see if he is compatible with any of them. When I meet an incompatibility I either discard god or I discard an auxiliary assumption and thus change my belief structure. Whichever one of these I do it is undeniable that what I am doing is reaffirming a belief of some sort. I have gone from normative atheism to 'acquired atheism' and it is that acquired atheism which I think has a belief content.

As to morals I err on the side of 'ought to do', so I suppose I lean somewhat towards Kant. If I wouldn't want someone else to do something then I oughtn't want to do it myself. And whilst I agree with other posters about the incompatibility of defined or absolute moral structures with atheism, I don't agree that atheism can't have a relativistic moral code which begins with some small imperative such as I've set out above.

As to the initial post about collating a tome I'd just say that, to my mind, institutionalisation of anything is a bad thing.

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

i have a rather Different view of religion in general
if they believe in a god, good, im happy they found something more from life, i don't like however them trying to Force there god on me,but running off the logic there is a god and he created everything, and everyone he did it for a reason, so by forcing your god on me, i would say they are going againsted god

 

[Graustein]

I'm fairly certain atheism precludes the need for ethics and beliefs on the whole. If something has a plausible and supportable scientific definition, there is no need for anything else. Ethics are socially accepted rules of overt behavior, while beliefs are obstacles in path of progress. There. No other definitions necessary.

So, I suppose the only belief I subscribe to, what small minds would call my religious system, is that there is nothing in the entire universe that cannot be fully understood, classified, and duplicated, provided enough knowledge and resources are available or procurable.

I feel happy and warm inside.

I'd have to go right out and say that atheism, in general, in no way precludes either ethics or beliefs. Atheism and rational thinking aren't synonymous and shouldn't be treated as such. While many, indeed maybe even most atheists may have arrived at their decision through rational thought, a great deal are just doing it for completely irrational reasons. Prime example: because of contradictions in The Bible ("The Bible is internally inconsistant, therefore there is no God" is just as much a logical fallacy as "proving" God's existance using only The Bible. The most you could conclude from this is that God specifically as laid out in The Bible doesn't exist, and that's hardly the only God people have believed in).

What I'm basically trying to say is that while atheism and the scientific process are often observed to go hand-in-hand, and many scientists are atheist, not all atheists are scientists or even rational in their reasons for being atheist. I've met Christians who are very rational in their belief in God (one of my best friends is one). Yours is just one brand of atheism, one that seems to preclude having beliefs and ethics for purely emotional reasons (correct me if I'm wrong); it's a fallacy to assume that all atheists think such. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your belief system (please don't even start an argument on whether or not it actually is a belief system - just humour me and pretend it is), I don't think it's my place to decide whether anyone's belief system is wrong or not unless it jars strongly against my morals, I'm just saying that the average atheist is no more rational than the average theist.

I'm currently undecided as to whether I'm atheist or not, but I'm most definitely agnostic (to clarify, I believe that it's impossible for anyone to know right now, maybe ever), and that's a position I arrived at through (what I hope was) extensive rational introspection. And I will happily admit that, regarding ethics, I believe the way I believe based on a gut feeling, an emotional response.

 

[starrman]

This has just reminded me of the 'types of atheist' discussion I had with friends in the past which yielded the following, some serious, some less so:

Strong Atheism: "I believe god doesn't exist"
Wrong Atheism: "I believe god exists"
Thong Atheism: "I'm too sexy for a belief in god"
Cheech and Chong Atheism: "Hey, man, god's like, putting a downer on my vibe."

Weak Atheism: "I have no belief in god"
Bleak Atheism: "There's no point in god"
Bleet Atheism: "My friends don't believe in god so I won't"
Fleet Atheism: "I don't believe in god today, tomorrow is another day though"
Street Atheism: "God's way uncool, dude"
Meek Atheism: "I secretly don't believe in god, but I'm scared what people might say"
Eek Atheism: "Ahhh! God?!!?! No!"


I'm sure there were others, but I've forgotten the rest.

 

[Gamine]

Ive always said it, Atheism is an absolutely useless mass,

For a bunch of people that believe God doesnt exist, you sure as hell love to think and talk about the non-Existent. .

Heck! i dont believe the tooth fairy exists, but i didnt become an "insert name here" to proclaim the non-existence of the fairy..i live my life like it aint there..zilch..nothing..zappa!

 

[Graustein]

Ive always said it, Atheism is an absolutely useless mass,

For a bunch of people that believe God doesnt exist, you sure as hell love to think and talk about the non-Existent. .

Heck! i dont believe the tooth fairy exists, but i didnt become an "insert name here" to proclaim the non-existence of the fairy..i live my life like it aint there..zilch..nothing..zappa!

That's how most atheists act. These are the atheists you never see.
The thing is that religion is so prevalent many atheists feel the need to speak out and make their views known. Those are the atheists everyone sees. They're a minority, but an incredibly loud one. I should point out that lumping all atheists together in this "absolutely useless mass" isn't helping matters at all.

 

[GloatingSwine]

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

Church of England (protestant), not Catholic.

Also, his faith waned as his life progressed, due to the early deaths of some of his children, and the many parasitic species he discovered as a naturalist like the ichneumon wasp, which lays it's eggs in the living bodies of paralysed caterpillars, which the larvae eat alive as they grow.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I don't understand why some athiests take it upon themselves to hate religion.

If it was something they don't believe in then why would they be so anti-religion about it? I've found most of the athiests who flame religious people, do it with far less respect than the religious people who try to preach on other people.

The last time I had a Joho on my doorstep I simply and politley said I wasn't interested in religion and would prefer not to discuss it. He thanked me for being respectful and off he went.

Nothing like a bible should bind athiests together because to be an athiest is to dis-believe in God, not to believe in something else entirely like scientologists do.

 

[Reokue]

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.

I got a better opening:

"In the beginning there was the big bang."

 

[Galletea]

I have nothing much to say on the matter. However I would like to point out one thing: All of you people saying that atheists despise all religion, stop it. Those people are anti-theists. We're not one and the same, they aren't "hardcore atheists". It's a small point perhaps, but it does annoy me that people assume that I hate religion if I say I'm atheist.

 

[Hookman]

It would be one page long with one line: God does not exist...the end.

 

[starrman]

I don't understand why some athiests take it upon themselves to hate religion.

If it was something they don't believe in then why would they be so anti-religion about it? I've found most of the athiests who flame religious people, do it with far less respect than the religious people who try to preach on other people.

The last time I had a Joho on my doorstep I simply and politley said I wasn't interested in religion and would prefer not to discuss it. He thanked me for being respectful and off he went.

Nothing like a bible should bind athiests together because to be an athiest is to dis-believe in God, not to believe in something else entirely like scientologists do.

That is the exact opposite of my experience with religious people and especially with Jehova's Witnesses.

However, if atheists do come across as hating religion (which I don't believe is the average atheist anyway), perhaps it's because religion infects a great many parts of the world in which it has no place being: politics, education, lawmaking etc. Someone's religious beliefs should be their subjective decision which they are free to practice and should not, IMO, be part of any objective criteria for state governance.

 

[bmf185]

Fuck this. Just be good for the sake of being good.

The very notion of an Atheist "bible" is stupid and is exactly what Atheists are against.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

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.

I got a better opening:

"In the beginning there was the big bang."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre

 

[Specter_]

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.

Quoted for truth.
But then I'm agnostic and I despise organized religion, so anyone can shove their "Atheist Bible" where the sun never shines.