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Atheism in a Post-Religious World

What is atheism? Lack of belief in gods and, in some cases, a rebuttal of the god-concept. But atheism is not a purely academic concept, even if the social power of religious thought has reduced it to an academic concept. To see its importance and power, we must look beyond the traditional questions and debates - affirm the power of science and Reason, pierce the veil of religious language, face the moral consequences of theism with honesty.

To be an atheist does not only mean to disparage points of Christian doctrine. It also means to live in an atheistic world, a scientific world, a naturalistic world. To have the courage of looking behind the curtain and finding out what really matters, what values we want to establish. Affirm morality and spirituality on our own terms.

This anthology is the beginning of such a dialogue, from me to you. Let's talk!

Table of Contents

I. The immorality of religion

Christians are no different
The moral superiority of Christianity is disproven once again by a recent Barna study.

Mental terrorists
Belief in an afterlife can be mentally damaging, and ultimately lead to disaster.

Pick-and-choose religion
A reconciliation of the contradictory characteristics of religious pseudo-morality.

Hatred of good and evil (I)
In this first part about moral judgment, I discuss why atheism and its related ideas are hated : because they are a threat to religious comfort.

Hatred of good and evil (II)
In the final part of this article, I examine the arguments for and against anti-theism.

Outlaw religion!
Should religion be outlawed ? A case can be made for the positive.

II. Beyond the bibles and the priests

Know gods, no gods
A strong-atheist refutation of the existence of gods.

Deus Extra Machina (I)
The first part of this article discusses the argument from design.

Deus Extra Machina (II)
The last part of this article discusses the implications of God as a causal agent.

The intellectual poverty of Creationism
The debate between neo-Darwinism and Biblical Creationism is in no way a debate between equals.

In Vitro Prayer
I examine whenever the effect of prayer, outside of religious context, can be claimed to have any validation.

The choice of Heaven or Hell
How good is Heaven ? How bad is Hell ? These questions have heavy consequences for the Christian worldview.

You dirty materialist !
Supernaturalism still has a great hold on today's philosophies.

III. Man in a post-religious world
The Gallup International Millenium Survey A recent worldwide survey about religiosity gives us good and bad news.

The god inside
An examination of the discovery of the God Module, and its consequences for atheism.

The God Module and humanity - Interview with Matthew Alper
My interview with Matthew Alper, author of "The God Part of the Brain".

The hopeless atheist
Are atheists necessarily hopeless, wretched creatures ? The evidence does not bear this out.

Attacking the rainbow
Why spirituality is no longer the domain of the religious.

Book Review by Sam Vaknin

Is ours a post-religious world? Ask any born again Christian fundamentalist, militant Muslim, orthodox Jew, and nationalistic Hindu. Religion is on the rise, not on the wane. Eighteenth century enlightenment is besieged. As the author himself often admits, atheism, as a creed, is on the defensive.

First, we should get our terminology clear. Atheism is not the same as agnosticism which is not the same as anti-theism.

Atheism is a religion, yet another faith. It is founded on the improvable and unfalsifiable belief (universal negative) that there is no God. Agnosticism is about keeping an open mind: God may or may not exist. There is no convincing case either way.

Anti-theism is militant anti-clericalism. Anti-theists (such as Tremblay and myself) regard religion as an unmitigated evil that must be eradicated to make for a better world. This treasure of a book - it is incredible how much the author squeezed into 50 pages! - is about anti-theism.

Tremblay labels religion a swindle and mental terrorism and explains, convincingly, why he chose these epithets. He demonstrates the inextricable link between the belief in the afterlife and immorality and...more

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