• The Atheist Bible
  • • This Book
    • Book formats
    • Structure
    • Contents

This Book

This book describes a world view without gods and the supernatural. Different from a number of other books, it does not merely argue that God does not exist or that religion would be harmful. Rather, it offers an atheist view on life, the universe, ethics, truth, and the meaning of life. It also discusses the history, the functioning, the tenets, the diversity, the benefits, and the liabilities of the major world religions. It thus aims to be a handbook of “what the educated atheist has to know”.

Structure

The book consists of 6 parts. Each part contains several chapters. Each chapter contains several sections. Each section consists of several articles. Each article has a number, and the articles are linked by cross-references (indicated by a small number).

All articles are self-contained: every article can be read in isolation from the others. For this, the articles have to contain a certain redundancy, and the book may thus not be suitable for reading it cover to cover. Not all chapters may be interesting to all readers. Rather, you can jump directly to the articles or chapters that you find interesting. For example, the chapters that I (the author) found most interesting when writing them are:

• Chapter 4 “The Universe”
• Chapter 7 “Gods”
• Chapter 11 “The World Religions”
• Chapter 14 “Memes”
• Chapter 16 “Christianity”
• Chapter 20 “Conclusion” (summarizes the entire book in half a page)

Contents

Atheism and Atheists

• Chapter 1 “Atheism”: Defines and describes what atheism is and responds to common criticisms. The chapter also introduces humanism.
• Chapter 2 “Atheists”: Explains what it means to be an atheist, and addresses common stereotypes

The World

• Chapter 3 “Truth”: Discusses the concept of truth.
• Chapter 4 “The Universe”: Gives an overview of what science knows about the universe.
• Chapter 5 “Morality”: Discusses morality and ethics from a secular humanist point of view.
• Chapter 6 “The Meaning of Life”: Treats “the” principal question of humanity: What is the meaning of life? We also discuss where atheists go when they die.

Gods

• Chapter 7 “Gods”: Introduces an atheist view on gods.
• Chapter 8 “Proofs”: Discusses proofs for the existence of gods.
• Chapter 9 “God of the Gaps”: Discusses the idea that God would be the explanation for the unexplained.

Religion

• Chapter 10 “Religion”: Formally defines religions and gods, and shows the diversity of today’s religions.
• Chapter 11 “The World Religions”: Traces the history of religion from ancient rites to today’s world religions.
• Chapter 12 “Founding of Religions”: Discusses factors that may lead to the creation of a religion.
• Chapter 13 “Following Religions”: Discusses factors that may make people believe in religious statements.
• Chapter 14 “Memes”: Analyses strategies that religions have developed in order to survive.

The Abrahamic Religions

• Chapter 15 “The Abrahamic God”: Discusses the god of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Spiritualism, and the Bahai Faith.
• Chapter 16 “Christianity”: Discusses the Christian world view.
• Chapter 17 “Islam”: Discusses the Muslim world view. For security reasons, this chapter is not available here.

The Effects of Religion

• Chapter 18 “Criticism of Religion”: Criticises the effects of religion on people, society, and mankind.
• Chapter 19 “Benefits of Religion”: Discusses positive effects of religion on people, society, and mankind.
• Chapter 20 “Conclusion”: Contains a summary of this book, as well as an outlook and end titles.

In times of rising fundamentalism and fanaticism, this book wants to remind the reader of the values of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment has given us the rule of law, tolerance towards other creeds, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of science, freedom of religion, freedom of the arts, the emancipation of disadvantaged groups, freedom in the choice of a partner, and freedom in general, as long as the freedom of others is not engaged.