Atheism
Community Guide
Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.
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
Clark's third Law, basically.
replace "advanced technology" with "poorly understood natural phenomena", and you have it.
Specifically of miracles- You assume they actually happened. Jesus almost certainly did not heal the sick, and Lazarus almost certainly did not return from the dead. Keep in mind the gospels were written 50+ years after jesus's death, probably as the first generation of people were dying off, or more likely, the second generation.
As for modern miracles, none seem to have actually happened, or that prayer/divine intervention is the explanation given despite other things contributing to the "miracle". (often cited example: praying for positive medical outcomes and going to the doctor. people will thank their god for the positive outcome, even though it was the doctor's skill, knowledge and wisdom that caused it.)
Or like praying for a job while putting in the hard work to get a good job.
As for the euphoric experiences of the holy spirit coming down. it's basically a sort of mass hypnosis. through communal worship and such, people are put into a suggestible state. (or at least a few are,) You can even put yourself into that state. Then, the person leading the affair makes all kinds of suggestions and you just kind of go with it. This is not to say that the experience of euphoria is any less meaningful; or that the leaders are some how malicious and exploitive. (well, I'd say they are, but that's a different matter.)
Other "miracles" either didn't happen or just misunderstood an interpreted as something else. (The star guiding the 3 wise men would have been seen by literally everyone in the region, for example. They came a long distance, possibly from persia. even if there was something there... following it to a house is ridiculous.)
For a less loaded example, I work as a manager in contract security. i had an employee of the sort that believed ghosts were real. This belief led him to ascribe supernatural things to something that wasn't supernatural at all. Specifically, on his late-night rounds, there was a door that would keep closing on him. (it was a fire door being held open by the electromagnetic door holders. The EM holders shut off when the fire alarm is triggered.)
Turns out that it was a faulty door holder. But he was so very convinced that a ghost was closing it on him, so he didn't put it in his reports or notify maintenance peeps. Didn't even really bother to look into it. he'd just put the door back and go on his way.
The thing was, the magnet was old and it was loosing it's strength- it was just strong enough to hold the door with nothing going on, and it kept closing on him specifically because as he walked through, his wake would push on it and cause it to break free. It was an easy fix- the door holder was replaced and they wanted me to talk to the guy because apparently it was like that for months or more, but he knew it was happening.
The thing with religion is that it's designed to bypass your rational mind and gives you the easy answer. It's designed to make you stupid so that you don't get the real answer. It's designed that way because when you get the real answer, you usually stop paying your dues.