I've decided to become an atheist activist for my generation. Any advice?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Roy on February 12, 2012 at 7:20pm

Evil bible link

I think you will enjoy that link.  There is so much more to find just in the bible alone.  I didn't need anything more then that to convert me to atheism.  

The book "the End Of Faith" by Sam Harris is all about how dangerous religion is to all of us.  The movie "Religulous"  is about that too. 

I wish you well with your project.  Hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by Joseph P on February 12, 2012 at 7:28pm

Biggest suggestion I have is to just stick with it until you get through the Pentateuch.  It gets pretty mind-numbing about half way through Exodus, and it remains so most of the way through Deuteronomy.  The real sucking doesn't begin until Numbers.

After you get out of the first 5, is picks up rapidly.  The Histories are written in a more tolerable narrative-style.

Permalink Reply by Chris Dodds on February 12, 2012 at 10:41pm

Great, One way to gain some information is probably to study the bible and how it compares to rituals and stories of other faiths.  There are many parallels between the story of Jesus and those of other mythological characters such as Zeus, Hercules, and Osiris.

In forming the actual group, I would suggest getting in touch with other, more national or statewide Atheist groups, such as the American Atheists organization.  They could definitely give you some pointers.

Permalink Reply by Tony Minoldo on February 13, 2012 at 3:27am

Hello Kaila G,

I think you're doing what you need to be doing (and I'll try to do regularly): reading the bible paying attention to detals, and confronting, if you have the possibility, with other versions of the bible, because they differ. In an ideal world, the best solution is to read it in the original languages it was written, but that's beyond many of us.

Reading carefully the bible, both the old and the new testament, will provide you with many examples contradictions, besides adultery, genocide, bribery, lying, scientific improbability and impossibility, etc and historical mistakes.

You might or might not know there are not historical (chiristian or not christian) references to any "Jesus" during the historical period the christians claim him to have been alive. The first notices appear at about 70 maybe more years of his "dead", seemingly from a Greek source.

You could also use the excellent book which is "The god delusion", by Richard Dawkins, as a guide to many paragraphs in the bible which are good examples of actions the christians either ignore, or prefer not to mention maybe because there are too embarassing for them.

There are also the gospels the church decided they "weren't good enough" to be part of the official bible, therefore not in the bible. A quick google research could address you to those, although I always recommend research books.

I hope these informations help you.

Good luck!!!

Permalink Reply by Madhukar Kulkarni on February 13, 2012 at 5:00am

This world needs persons like you who find an ideal soon in their life and then also take a timely decision to work for their ideal. I hpoe you will really do it and succeed in your objective. I also hope that you will find like-minded people who will strengthen you. Wish you best luck!!

Permalink Reply by Sam Kay on February 13, 2012 at 12:46pm

I'm not sure why you guys seem to think that it's a choice between the bible and atheism. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam aren't the only religions out there, and I don't think a person is an atheist just because he or she has realized that the bible is full of ridiculousness.

Anyway, Kaila, I think you will quickly become disenchanted with the intellectual capacity of most people. If you're looking to connect with like-minded people, that's cool, but don't think that you're going to convert others. Religious thinking is so deeply ingrained in people that it doesn't matter how ridiculous it is, people will blindly believe. Most Christians that do realize how absurd the bible is will tell you that it was written by people and not by God, so it doesn't really matter all that much. What their faith is then based on, I can't tell you, they just say that it's faith in God and Jesus that matters most.

Permalink Reply by Lilium Mitchell on February 13, 2012 at 4:12pm

The Gnostic Gospels may help you as well. Revelations 22:16 is an interesting passage. You have to show them that their own faith is flawed. I'm not sure if you noticed but in Genesis there are two creation stories with two different Gods and people.

I hope this helps as well.

ProfMTH 

Happy researching <3

Permalink Reply by Lilium Mitchell on February 13, 2012 at 4:20pm

Center for Cognitive Liberty

Permalink Reply by Reason Being on February 13, 2012 at 7:14pm

One of the things I would do is an internet search to see if there are any atheist groups in your area.  They could be a great resource for you.