Athiests

[SStu]

With all do respect, do you also believe in the following:

Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth-fairy and Unicorns? In their original versions not interpreted.... ????

only in the sense that those entities (and countless others) have a real impact on some people (especially children) and every day life for most of us. :)

[Iwar]

Atheist here. Both my parents are Atheists too.

Just finished "God, No!" by Penn Jillette and "the God delusion" by Dawkins actually. I'm contemplating picking up Hitchens' "God is not great" next. Anyone read it?

[Petri Aspvik]

I read God Delusion few years ago (audio book actually) and realised Im just too kind to be such an aggressive atheists :D

[Jake]

I'm contemplating picking up Hitchens' "God is not great" next. Anyone read it?

Yes. It's an enjoyable book. Hitchens is a bit snooty and condescending towards believers but it's still a good read.

[Kev]

I like Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[RoryQ]

@Iwar

If you've already read some Hitchens and are looking for more of the same then maybe try Sam Harris' 'The End of Faith'. Dawkins possibly lays out his reasoning a little more neatly ('The God Delusion' could be on a reading list for undergraduate philosophy of religion) but Harris is the better polemicist.

I can understand why people sometimes feel alienated by so-called 'militant' atheists like Dawkins and Harris, although it sometimes seems to me that people usually dislike their tone , which can feel a little mean-spirited, as opposed to being able to point to flaws in their arguments.

Personally I think some of the best writing on this topic was by Carl Sagan (RIP). His 'The demon-haunted world: Science as a candle in the dark' is one of the best books I've ever read, and many of the essays it contains have a bearing on some of the topics discussed in this thread.

[Petri Aspvik]

Yes, Demon... Is one of THE books to read. Cleanses your mind. And I dont see any flaws in Dawkins stuff, I just have better things to do than militantly find religions flaws. Just too much time spend with the whole thing, and why would you if you (Dawkins) dont wan to have anything to do with it ;)

[Petri Aspvik]

This is a must see. I drifted of from Dawkinses "passion" after stuff like this

YouTube - Richard Feynman - The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out

[Jaycel Adkins]

Feynman was a great man.

Personally, whether God exist or not, is a dead end question.

I live my life by a certain code. If there is a God, then I hope it's enough. If not, well....probably wasn't my kind of crowd to begin with.

[Hunter Morrow]

Atheist here. Both my parents are Atheists too.

Just finished "God, No!" by Penn Jillette and "the God delusion" by Dawkins actually. I'm contemplating picking up Hitchens' "God is not great" next. Anyone read it?

God Is Not Great is a wait for it...wait for it...

Great book.

I particularly enjoyed his revised, 21st Century Edition smashing of Mother Theresa.

[Reyeslv]

Yes. It's not God that created man in his own image, its the other way around.

Got it! Thanks!

[posterboy7596]

I've listened to about 2/3rds of God is Not Great, and I'm currently about 1/2 way through real reading of The God Delusion right now. I agree with a lot of people that Dawkins' and Hitchens' tone is a bit harsh at times. I really admire their fervor though. I live in eastern Kentucky in the US where being open atheist can be somewhat like being black in Alabama in the 60's so it's encouraging to feel that there are like-minded people in the world. I very much like their harsh tones myself. I grew up Southern Baptist and these, and other, rather militant atheists are what finally led to my coming to question things and start to find peace of mind about how I feel about a lot of things. I think next I would like to read something from Stephen Hawking.

[Petri Aspvik]

Posterboy

Read Carl Sagans Demon haunted world. I promise you will like it.

[Jaycel Adkins]

I live in eastern Kentucky in the US where being open atheist can be somewhat like being black in Alabama in the 60's so it's encouraging to feel that there are like-minded people in the world.

Ummm....no offense, but doubts they are hanging 'Strange Fruit' in eastern Kentucky these days....

[HaydenRose]

For those of you interested in Dawkins and/or Hitchens, this entire roundtable discussion on religion is really interesting. I remember watching part of it (like an hour or so--the whole thing is 2 hours) in a philosophy course. If anyone has 2 hours to kill, I'd highly recommend it.

[posterboy7596]

Ummm....no offense, but doubts they are hanging 'Strange Fruit' in eastern Kentucky these days....

Very true... that's what I said "somewhat" ;-)

[Jaycel Adkins]

Very true... that's what I said "somewhat" ;-)

:p Or rather, 'not at all.'

[Kev]

Posterboy

Read Carl Sagans Demon haunted world. I promise you will like it.

Just bought it- I better like it because you promised!;)

[PhilB]

In the mean time, my artist is drawing up my upcoming "religious" (to me) tattoo: My Sleeve of Science! DNA helixes wrapping around my arm, brain cells, all kinds of cool stuff!

[irezumi]

My Sleeve of Science! DNA helixes wrapping around my arm, brain cells, all kinds of cool stuff!

26 pages of science/nerdy tattoos

The Loom | Discover Magazine

including Darwin with a mohawk

Billy, a psychology major, writes: “I love all forms of science, my favorite being evolutionary biology. So I decided to get this tattoo of Charles Darwin with a mohawk. I put a mohawk on him because I love punk rock music, and view him as revolutionary.”

[Hunter Morrow]

I always thought this was a pretty good 3 minutes about Argument of Ignorance/God in the Gaps. I think of it this way: "I can't understand something, therefore God exists."

The conversation involves a segment in which an American political commentator, Bill O'Reilley, was invoking things that have been understood for quite some time as evidence of a God.

The examples he used were "How did the Moon get there?" and "How do the tides work?" which ironically involve one another.

HowStuffWorks "What causes high tide and low tide? Why are there two tides each day?"