Atheism
Community Guide
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Statement of Purpose
- This is a support and conversation community for people who don't believe in gods.
- Superstition hucksters have no reason to subscribe or post here at all.
- If you are looking to debate or proselytize, options will be linked lower in the sidebar.
Acceptable
- Honest questions or conversations.
- Discussions on parenting or advice.
- Struggles, frustrations, coming out.
- Atheist memes. We can have fun!
- News headlines relevant to atheism.
Unacceptable
Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.
- Anything against site rules.
- Illegal and/or NSFW material.
- Troll posts and comments. There will be no attempt to explain what that means.
- Leading questions, agenda pushing, or disingenuous attempts to bait members.
- Personal attacks or flaming.
Inadvisable
- Self promotion or upvote farming.
- Excessive shitposting or off-topic discussion.
Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.
Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.
~ /c/nostupidquestions
If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!
Connect with Atheists
- Matrix: #atheism:envs.net
Help and Support Links
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- The Secular Therapy Project
- Secular Students Alliance
- Black Nonbelievers
- The Clergy Project
- Atheist Alliance International
- Sunday Assembly
- Atheist Ireland
- Atheism UK
- Atheists United
Streaming Media
This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.
- Atheist Debates - Matt Dillahunty
- Rationality Rules
- Friendly Atheist
- Making Sense with Sam Harris
- Cosmic Skeptic
- Genetically Modified Skeptic
- Street Epistemology
- Armored Skeptic
- NonStampCollector
Orgs, Blogs, Zines
- Center for Inquiry
- American Atheists
- Humanists International
- Atheist Republic
- The Brights
- The Angry Atheist
- History for Atheists
- Rationalist International
- Atheist Revolution
- Debunking Christianity
- Godless Mom
- Atheist Freethinkers
Mainstream
Bibliography
Start here...
...proceed here.
- God is Not Great (Hitchens)
- The God Delusion (Dawkins)
- The End of Faith (Harris)
- Why I Am Not a Christian (Russell)
- Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris)
Proselytize Religion
From Reddit
As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.
view the rest of the comments
I will never understand why some atheists are so keen to proselytize. We're not saving souls, we don't get 10%, what's the point?
The point is open discussions on a topic that too many people view as untouchable, unassailable, unquestionable.
When I was raised religious, hearing the slightest critique of my religion filled me with irrational frustration, I was utterly unable to have those conversations with anyone, in part because to have doubts felt like some kind of sin.
But hearing others have those conversations helped me realize that some of my doubts were shared and that I wasn't alone. Hearing others have those conversations honestly, and with empathy and intelligence made me realize my own fears were a kind of cognitive dissonance that prevented me from actually forming my own opinions instead of parroting the opinions I was raised with; and for those conversations I am eternally grateful.
It's not always about the conversation between two people; it's also about the audience who listens to both sides to form their own opinions.
We make decisions based on our beliefs, ranging from who we vote for to flying airplanes into buildings. Having a method that can let us examine our reasons for holding a belief is worth exploring. Street epistemology is a method of asking someone to explain their reasoning for believing something and letting them come to their own conclusion, so I'm not sure that would be considered proselytizing.
You're saying that being atheist makes you more rational and being more rational causes better (more moral) decisions? I have problems with both of those premises.
Their are perfectly secular reasons to do all the horrible. The Young Turks instituted a new government in what was left of the Ottoman Empire that was explicitly secular. Then they did the crime that coined the term genocide. The least religious country in the world is erasing a culture right now. I've watched online secular communities slide into alt-right ideology.
I'm of the school of thought that believes normative ethics can't be arrived at or justified with reason. So it doesn't really follow that reason leads to ethics. Claims like "human life is valuable" or "stealing is wrong" inevitably rely on other normative claims, and trying to burrow down logically on these questions is like a dog chasing it's tail.
The difference is that those secularists are shitty people in spite of their beliefs not because of them.
We can draw direct correlations between religion and shitty behavior. Rape and slavery are explicitly ok in the Bible.
Show me one "atheist text" that says anything even remotely similar. You can't. There are none. There is no aspect of atheism you can point to and say that thing is bad.
I can point out something horrible nearly every religion has done and is predicted on the belief that that horrible thing is ok when they do it.
You just made a huge false equivalency.
Atheism is not a religion or belief "system". It is laughing at you when you say you believe in a sky genie.
No one is saying atheists are better people or can't be bad people. We are saying religion didn't make is that way. But that is what religion does.
I haven't said anything here about being atheist or morality. Street epistemology focuses on the reasons and or decisions that may have led someone to a belief not the actual belief itself. When we try to explain why we really believe something lots of times people come to realize they may not have a good reason to hold a belief. This goal isn't to change someones.mind on the spot, rather to get someone thinking and to reflect on why they believe something.
in fairness, this is the atheist community
I get that but, he was saying I said something when in fact I had not, he was either making assumptions or purposely misrepresenting what I was saying.
So in order to have ethics we have to invent nonsense or believe in it?
Reducing the number of shitty believers is a value in itself.
I think it's just trying to be helpful. You realize you woke up from the matrix and want to help unlock others. But not everyone wants to be disconnected from the matrix.
probably different for those of us who were never in it to begin with.
Probably is.
As someone who was raised in a cult, having voices willing to publicly challenge the orthodoxy does way more than it appears to unplug people and get them to acknowledge the abuse