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.
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Oh that's nothing, there was a regular on DalNET IRC's #Atheism who believed in heaven. She was adamant both that there was no god and that there was a heaven. Strange lady.
So this was…what, a deist Heaven? How did “the universe” determine who got in and who didn’t? What was her position on souls? Hell?
Methinks there were too many holes in that one’s colander, if you take my meaning.
Don't ask me to defend her, I can't do that. Yes, she was not all there.
Neo-Platonism could give you a heaven without a deity in the traditional sense. Ironically, Plotinus’ work has been almost entirely co-oped as a Greek replacement for the Judaic foundation of Christianity by most modern Christians.
Honestly, it's my first time hearing about Neo-Platonism, but from a brief Wikipedia-fueled pseudo-education about the subject, my first impression is that "the One" seems like an archaic product from a time when our species' best philosophy was still somewhat indistinguishable from religion. I would agree it seems to essentially be the deist notion of "God." And "returning to the One" does sound like Heaven and reincarnation like Purgatory. I can see why the Christians leapt on it.
Still, how many people subscribe to that particular religious/philosophical belief structure today? I honestly think it's more likely the woman in question subscribed to some New Age bullshit.
Almost certainly the case for the woman in question, I just think Neo-Platonism is fascinating.
While Neo-Platonism is not directly represented in most Christian teaching, it is very much the lens through which most Christians have read and thought about the Bible for well over a thousand years.
Ever hear someone explain evil as simply the absence of good? Plotinus.
The existence of an immortal soul as a spiritual essence distinct from the body? Plotinus
The idea the spiritual things are good and physical are bad? Plotinus.
Most Christians accept these ideas all at face value even though they don’t come from the Bible.
On his podcast, The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, professor Peter Adamson notes that Plotinus is probably one of the top 5 most influential minds in Western thought and yet he’s largely unknown.
Personally, I believe it’s because of how Christian’s glommed onto Greco-Roman thought and incorporated it into their own beliefs.
Got the podcast's title saved in a notepad file now, and I'll definitely check it out later. Thanks for the reference.
Learning opportunity. We all have our blindspots.
There was something I noticed about myself a little while back. When I take my family to the beach about every half an hour or so I will make sure I get the entire family in one spot so I can see them. And the reason why I do that is because I think on some level that if I can see them all nothing bad can happen.
So yeah this isn't exactly a rational belief. No plans to stop doing it however haha.
Now that's a name I haven't heard in many years.
I used to be on IRC constantly.