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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 5:05 am
(February 21, 2017 at 4:49 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: I was an atheist long before reading any atheist literature. I've read a few in the last ten years, but except for Hitchens, who imo was a gifted writer, the crop of books makes for dreary reading.
Ditto this, the only 'atheist' literature I have is Dawkins The God Delusion, which I was given one xmas because I was an atheist in the first place. I found it a smidge tedious.
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 5:19 am
(February 21, 2017 at 4:49 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: I was an atheist long before reading any atheist literature. I've read a few in the last ten years, but except for Hitchens, who imo was a gifted writer, the crop of books makes for dreary reading.
Sounds like a cliché, but I became an atheist from reading the Bible.
I've, after became an atheist, read Atheist Universe, The God Delusion and Losing Faith in Faith.
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 6:16 am
Life deconverted me.
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 6:19 am
By the time the "New Atheists" came out with their famous books, I had been an atheist for 15 years. I just read the God Delusion for light amusement.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 11:19 am
The so-called "New Atheist" books are very poor on so many levels. If you must read atheist literature, then I would look first to Sartre. Reading Nietzsche properly requires a LOT more background knowledge than one would suppose.
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 11:21 am
(February 21, 2017 at 11:19 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: The so-called "New Atheist" books are very poor on so many levels. If you must read atheist literature, then I would look first to Sartre. Reading Nietzsche properly requires a LOT more background knowledge than one would suppose.
Can you be more specific what e.g. concrete criticisms of The God Delusion would be that make it poor on many levels?
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 11:30 am
I've read them all, although I had been an atheist for decades before they ever came out. I just read a lot and not only have I read common (and a lot of not-so-common) atheist books, I've read tons of religious apologetics as well. I don't know that I ever learned anything from any of it, but I like to read so it wasn't wasted time.
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 11:36 am
Reading Ehrman can be pretty tough on the god theory too . . . .
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 12:05 pm
I've never read any of the literature. Atheism is not a religion. I am not required to read any holy books. I feel no shame in not having done so.
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RE: Atheists who have never read common atheist literature
February 21, 2017 at 1:29 pm
(February 20, 2017 at 11:24 pm)Huggy74 Wrote: (February 20, 2017 at 8:38 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: No need to feel ashamed for not reading atheist literature.
Just not believing theist's claims that a god exists is as far as you need to go, to be an "atheist in good standing".
Although, reading a few atheist books did help me hone my arguments a bit better to more easily refute theist's arguments. Not that tough to be sure.
What arguments did you refute?
Cosmological, Teleological, Ontological, TAG...
I didn't mean to imply that I refuted them on my own, just the utilized previous thinkers refutations to integrate.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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