Atheism

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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

Streaming Media

This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.

Orgs, Blogs, Zines

Mainstream

Bibliography

Start here...

...proceed here.

Proselytize Religion

Convince an Atheist

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a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

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Pastor Protests Elementary School With Anti-Santa Sign - Joe.My.God. (www.joemygod.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Thank you for your candor! And no, I don't believe in freewill either.

Ever read Dr. Peter Watt's novel Blindsight? Fiction of course, but written by a very smart biologist. Two of the main questions are, is freewill real? And, what is the use of consciousness?

Both absurd questions on the surface! But are those really dumb questions?

It's a first contact novel, and the captain of the ship sent to investigate is a vampire. Really. Using current human and discovered DNA, we've resurrected extinct hominids from the Pleistocene. Book does a great job examining what an obligate homo sapien carnivore would look and act like, how they might evolve. It also examines near post-human possibilities and what those might look like.

I'll stop now. If I start quoting the cool parts, I'll just end up quoting it all. Worst complaints I've heard are people not relating to the characters. Well, they're not "baseline" humans, they're cutting edge so to speak. We're not meant to understand them completely. And the narrator is unreliable. People have bitched about that, but he pretty much admits it from the first chapter.

Anywho, it's free to read/download from the author's site. If you like that one, the only sequel, Echopraxia is a worthy follow up.

Give the prologue a spin y'all. If that doesn't suck you in, no hurt feelings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Thank you. I look forward to reading it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Excerpt From The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr.

Beneath the level of consciousness we’re a riotous democracy of mini-selves which, writes the neuroscientist Professor David Eagleman, are ‘locked in chronic battle’ for dominion. Our behaviour is ‘simply the end result of the battles’. All the while our confabulating narrator ‘works around the clock to stitch together a pattern of logic to our daily lives: what just happened and what was my role in it?’ Fabrication of stories, he adds, ‘is one of the key businesses in which our brain engages. Brains do this with the single minded goal of getting the multifaceted actions of the democracy to make sense.’ …

Our multiplicity is revealed whenever we become emotional. When we’re angry, we’re like a “different person with different values and goals in a different reality than when we feel nostalgic, depressed or excited. As adults, we’re used to such weird shifts in selfhood and learn to experience them as natural and fluid and organised. But for children, the experience of transforming from one person to another, without any sense of personal volition, can be deeply disturbing. It’s as if a wicked witch has cast an evil spell, magicking us from princess to witch.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

I just finished reading it. I’m not sure I understood all of it, but I enjoyed it.