Atheism

See also my blog posts under the religion category.

I am an atheist, in the sense of not believing in God or a higher power.

Strictly speaking, I am agnostic, but I don’t ascribe equal probabilities to the existence or non-existence of divine powers. Further, with respect to most leading religious doctrines of God, including those found in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and most polytheistic religions, I am confident that their claims to divine inspiration are false. If there do exist “divine” or “supernatural” agents, then they have yet to be discovered.

On the question of whether religion is a positive influence on individuals and society, I am strictly agnostic, and I think that the answer may be yes in some cases and no in others. My view that a religious adherence to God and a belief in divine grace is a liability in today’s world, but this view is not strongly held and I am still exploring the issue. However, I do not see positive claims about the utility of belief in God as adding any weight to the arguments for the existence of God.

What atheism is and isn’t

Atheism is not the same thing as militant atheism, which can better be characterized as actually trying to speak out for atheism in public. Many atheists are not militant atheists and some are against militant atheism.

Atheism is not synonymous with multiculturalism, cultural relativism, or secular humanism. It is true that most secular humanists are atheists, and many atheists are secular humanists. However, being an atheist does not necessarily involve being a part of or agreeing with the specific goals and worldview of the organized secular humanist movement.

As for multiculturalism and cultural relativism, the correlation with atheism is very tenuous. Many multiculturalists tend to be “religious liberals” rather than atheists. In fact, militant atheists have been at the forefront of bashing religions, unlike many multiculturalists who often take pride in showing sensitivity to religious traditions.

Other people have laid out atheistic positions better than I have, and links to these are provided below. NOTE: I do not endorse all the views presented in the articles/videos linked to and referenced here, but I think that together they give a reasonable idea of the typical arguments and rationales used by atheists. No single one should be construed as representative.

Videos laying out the case for atheism

• Clash Between Faith And Reason: Sam Harris gives a talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival. A transcript is available on the page.

• Militant atheism: Richard Dawkins lays out the case for militant atheism on TED.

• Letting Go Of God by Julia Sweeney, a TED talk where she performs a segment of her show with the same name.

• Religion is Bullshit by George Carlin.

More TED coverage on religion and atheism is available here.
Videos bashing religion

• Pat Condell’s channel (lots of videos): Condell, a Britisher, spends most of his time bashing Islam, particularly its rise in Europe, but he devotes plenty of time to Christianity-bashing and to laying out the case for aggressive atheism.

Debates between atheists and people of faith

• A debate between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan on belief: part one (6 pages, with each page containing back-and-forths between Harris and Sullivan) and part two (2 pages).

• Christopher Hitchens versus Dinesh D’Souza (video debate).

• Daniel Dennett versus Dinesh D’Souza (video debate).

• Michael Shermer versus Dinesh D’Souza (video debate).

• Peter Singer versus Dinesh D’Souza (video debate).

Web-based writings related to religion and atheism

• Graveyard of Dead Gods by H. L. Mencken.

• Michael Shermer on atheism: Why I am an atheist (June 2005) and rational atheism (September 2007).

• Blog posts by Amit Varma on atheism: What’s consolation for an atheist?, atheism as the absence of belief, the negative proof fallacy, Bhagat Singh on atheism and death, atheism = not collecting stamps.

• Rules for Atheist Radicals: Ideas and Tactics for Atheist Activism, Politics by Austin Cline on about.com.

• Isaac Asimov on religion and atheism.

• Albert Einstein on science and religion.

• Bryan Caplan: Why religious beliefs are irrational, and why economists should care by Bryan Caplan as an opening statement to a debate; and What life experience taught me about religion, a blog post by Bryan Caplan.

• The Problem with Atheism by Sam Harris, a transcript of a talk delivered to atheists.

• Rational Wiki: Atheism FAQ for the Newly Deconverted.

More collections of historical writings on religion here.
Websites for atheists

Note: Being an atheist does not mean endorsing the views expressed on these websites or becoming a part of these organizations.

• Atheist Alliance International.

• Positive Atheism.

• Atheist Bus Campaign — official website.

Other philosophical stances that are often correlated with atheism and their websites:

• Secular Humanism (most secular humanists are atheists, but this doesn’t mean that agreement with the tenets of secular humanism is a litmus test for nonbelief).

• Skepticism about the eyebrow-raising: see Skeptic Magazine (United States), and Australian Skeptics.

Books that “preach” atheism

• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

• Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris.

• The End of Faith by Sam Harris.

• Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett.

• God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens.