Atheist Guidebook

About this site

Hi, I'm an atheist.

I grew up in a household where the subject of religion or atheism never came up. Not that my parents went to any effort to avoid the subject, but they didn't seem to have any strong beliefs. I never went to church services as a child, was never taught about it, and never had any religious friends. I knew it existed, it's hard not to when it's all around you, but I never really thought about it until I was an adult.

When I did start to think about it, prompted by news reports and fervent believers encountered on internet forums, the whole thing looked very odd. The more I thought about it, the more I learned and talked to believers, the more absurd and bizarre it seemed.

It was clear to me that religious belief was based on nothing more than comforting fairy tales, and fantastical ones at that. So, how to explain why so many people believe something so absurd to be true? I couldn't understand it, and still can't.

People are basing their lives on these beliefs, making decisions that affect themselves and others on the assumption that these old stories are true. Every year thousands of people die either directly or indirectly because of these beliefs.

In a way, I find this everyday insanity fascinating. From the slippery evasions of apologists on Christian websites, to the incoherent ramblings of religious crackpots who post on atheist forums (such as the now defunct evilbible.com forum) hoping to teach ignorant atheists the truth.

I'd like to give those theists the opportunity to learn the truth as I see it. I'd like to give them somewhere to learn more. I'd like to have somewhere I can refer anyone who has questions on the subject. But most atheist sites aren't really up to the job.

Some of them, like Why Won't God Heal Amputees concentrate mostly on a single argument, unaware that this argument is based on verses that more educated theists regard as are spurious, having been added to the Bible at a later date. Others list large numbers of "errors" (or contradictions) in The Bible, but many of these "errors" are small enough to have been created by transcription or translation errors. Many more of these "errors", if interpreted differently, aren't necessarily errors at all. Identifying so many explainable errors in the list, most theists are likely to assume that there are no real errors listed.

In the spirit of "if you want something done right, do it yourself", I have created this site to be a useful resource that doesn't begin with the assumption that theists are idiots to believe what they do.

If I try, and I think about it in just the right kind of way, I can sort of see where the more rational theists are coming from and why they believe. But the interesting challenge lies in trying to present my views in a way that will let believers look closely at their own beliefs, and see them the same way I do, if only for a moment.

It's a puzzle and a challenge, and that's probably the only thing that keeps me interested in the subject. Personally, it makes no difference to me if you believe strange and absurd things, but I'll enjoy the challenge of trying to convince you to re-evaluate your belief from a different perspective.

And naturally, I expect you to try and convince me to re-evaluate mine.

Yours Sincerely,
Brian-M

Atheist Guidebook Buttons

Put these buttons on your website or in your email/forum signature by copy/pasting the HTML code below. I created the second button specifically for use as a signature and gave it a transparent background, so it should blend in with the background color of the forum or email reader.

(Note: Copy/pasting HTML directly into the post might not always work, as some editors automatically reformat your posts. It's a good idea to send a test-post to make sure it works.)

Index