A Manual for Creating Atheists by Peter Boghossian

by cofty 188 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  cofty

  A Manual for Creating Atheists offers the first-ever guide not for talking people into faith--but for talking them out of it. Peter Boghossian draws on the tools he has developed and used for more than twenty years as a philosopher and educator to teach how to engage the faithful in conversations that will help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason. - Amazon...

  "Boghossian has provided an indispensible chart book for all of us who must navigate the rising sea of magical thinking that is inundating America today." --Victor Stenger, Ph.D., author of God: The Failed Hypothesisand God and the Atom

  "Up to now, most atheists have simply criticized religion in various ways, but the point is to dispel it. In A Manual For Creating Atheists, "Peter Boghossian fills that gap, telling the reader how to become a 'street epistemologist' with the skills to attack religion at its weakest point: its reliance on faith rather than evidence. This book is essential for nonbelievers who want to do more than just carp about religion, but want to weaken its odious grasp on the world." --Jerry Coyne, Ph.D., author of Why Evolution is True

  I haven't read it but if anybody gets a copy be sure to share your thoughts.
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  whathappened

  Thanks! I am going to look into getting this book. It may help me get my daughter out of JW the easy way.
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  Diest

  I consider myself and Evangelical Atheist. I like to preach the word of non-belief. So far I have one convert and I sleep well knowing that I saved her three daughters from being raised as Independent Fundamentalist Baptists.
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  Oubliette

  Looks intriguing. Thanks for sharing.
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  slimboyfat

  Well that's one stage on the journey I suppose.

  I'm waiting for the manual for creating perspectivists to come out.
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  Xanthippe

  I'd rather let an atheist evolve.
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  BackseatDevil

  @Xanthippe AGREED.

  "Creating Atheists" is a bit of an oxymoron. Contrary to JW (and other religious) beliefs, we are not born with a NEED to worship a higher being. Some of us are born with a need to understand and to have answers, and sometimes that "answer" comes in the form of a higher power, but that is something that has to be instilled INTO someone. Atheists are not something that is "created" as it is un...creating, LOL. It's an unburdening, a development, a psychological evolution each person must achieve on their own... IF they are to achieve such.

  No true person of faith will ever be helped to "value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their religious beliefs, mistrust their faith, abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason" via conversation. It takes a lot more, or else they were not "faithful" believers in the first place.

  It's not like there are THAT many Christians that actually act like Christians anyway. LOL.
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  yadda yadda 2

  How about "Creating Ancient Alienists". I wanna visit Erich von Daniken's new ancient alien mega tourist attraction in Germany.

  
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  cofty

  How can helping people to, "value reason and rationality... abandon superstition and irrationality, and ultimately embrace reason " even be considered controversial?
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  Apognophos

  I don't think anyone was questioning that it would be a nice idea to teach people those things. But how do you do it? In my opinion, hope is all but lost if you don't teach these things to people in childhood. Get them early or they get way too engrained in a belief system to be able to reach. Yes, as adults we did change our beliefs after a while, but it took a long time and had to come from within. You can't reason someone else out of their faith. JWs and fundies in general are great examples of how people can blind themselves to facts that surround them.

  BackseatDevil mentioned that people turn to religion for "answers" but let's not forget that people usually turn to God for personal help, not for broad philosophical answers to the problem of evil. We all feel overwhelmed sometimes, and if we can't turn to our parents for something, an imaginary father in the sky is a tempting recourse.

  After that study recently found that more-educated people are less likely to be religious, one researcher cautioned that this didn't mean that "smarter = more skeptical", but rather that people who are well-educated are more likely to succeed in life, and thus feel less of a need for God. This tends to poke a big hole in the balloon of "creating an atheist through the power of going down a checklist of facts". You'd have to first show someone how they can succeed in life and quit their bad habits and overcome emotional turmoil without God. Then you could get around to the facts.