Common sense at its best!

books:

	• Natural Atheism David Eller American Atheist Press, 2004 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 42 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Natural Atheism

Absolutely wonderful book by a great author. This should be read by all who have an interest in living a meaningful life, whether one is a believer or not!

Common sense at its best!

A Natural view for the Natural person. A verbal breath of fresh air.

for more information click here

God is not the problem

David Eller misses the point entirely as do most atheist, god is not the problem.

Of course atheism is a reaction to theism, to the god belief, but god is no worse than Santa Claus or the Great Pumpkin, all of them are figments of human imagination. The problem is the clergy, that self-selected band of god representatives on Earth. They have taken a perfectly innocent fiction and have used it for their own vile purposes. The purposes, of course, are the accumulation of wealth and power as we can see in the Vatican and in other seats of religious power.

As David Eller points out, god and religion are part of human culture. If every culture has one or more gods then there must be a good reason for it. I figure that it was some kind of survival mechanism, a way to fill a void of knowledge. Our brainpower developed faster than out initial ability to fill it with facts and instead we filled it with superstition and myth including the god myth. As we developed science and our knowledge grew, we replaced myth with facts and we continue doing so. Atheism is just one more step in this path.

Natural Atheism aims to help the reader convert to atheism by first setting out a twelve step program and complementing this program with instruction about logic, reason, the burden of proof, history of religion, the founding fathers and many other topics that will help you argue with theists. But I'm not sure you want to argue with them, to what purpose? I mostly just avoid the subject. First of all, there is absolutely no need to justify ones atheist position to anyone. I'm an atheist because I decided I wanted to be one and no one on this whole Earth can deny me that. Second, most arguments about atheism center on religion. But if god does not exist, why bother arguing about god and religion? Think of it this way, the clergy is selling you a product you don't want or need. Would you get into a prolonged philosophical discussion with a salesperson in a store or would you simply say: "Thank you, I'm not interested." The clergy has no right to question you about your morality or about anything else, it's non of their business. But this is precisely the technique they use to intimidate you. Just say "No."

The only real problem that remains is morality. Morality is part of culture. Morality is not restricted to religion, religion does not have an exclusive or a trademark on morality even if the clergy would like to take that position. This is why I don't have a problem with most of the ten commandments, the ones that don't include god but only your fellow man. I'm happy not to be killed and I would be happy if you didn't seduce my wife if I had one. These are the laws that we have given ourselves over the centuries and they work quite well in my opinion.

If you still feel that you have to explain and defend your atheistic position to anyone you don't need to study atheism but assertiveness instead. The book that helped me a great deal in this quest was When I Say No, I Feel Guilty by Manuel J. Smith

for more information click here

Rational

Mr. Eller does a fine job of filling the gap often present in atheist literature; that gap being, coupling a through discussion of "rational thought" with the various discussions for or against the justification of god belief. The text was written in a clear and concise manner; was easy to read and simplified many complex concepts. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone.

perfect paganism

Natural Atheism is a brilliant book that effectively discusses everything a person needs to know about the conflict between religion and reason. A tribute to rational thinking and a handbook for those who have always been suspicious of fairy tales, superstitions, and all similar malarkey. Eller makes it clear that the burden of proof must always be borne by those making the outrageous claims, as opposed to those intelligent enough to be skeptical. A perfect book, and perhaps the final word on the issue, because once you understand that we're not obligated to prove that there's no such thing as Santa or the Easter Bunny, then there's not really a lot more that needs to be said about either, and the same principle applies to religion.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Books questioning conventional religion
Atheistic Religious Studies
h3nry's Reading List
My Book List
Atheism

search for books
natural atheism, atheism, natural

Impressum / about us