Atheists don't have a rulebook.

The BBQ Pit
1

Se we are not all the same, cannot all be asked questions about atheism because the answers will be different.

atheism is not a religeon. (as far as I am aware)

If it is a religeon then I am not an atheist, because I am not religeous.

I have morals, I know right from wrong, so leave me (us) alone.
thankyou.

2

Friedo’s Atheist Rulebook:

  1. Be nice to people.
  2. If you need to not be nice, see rule #1.

I am unfortunately an imperfect being, and sometimes break The Rules. But I believe The Struggle is more important than The Goal.

3

You forgot:

  1. Kick puppies and scowl at children.
4

So an atheist can believe in God then?

5
  1. Put Darwin Fish on your car.
  2. Make jokes about how you are geting coal in your stocking
  3. If all christmas hoopla annoys you, refe to youerself as the grinch, and award a custom title"Grinch of Insufficient Light"
6
  1. Everytime you mean a Christian, start quoting Gould, Darwin, Sagan, Leibniz and Dawkins even if they cleary do not care.
7
  1. Degrade persons of faith with condescending comments about “sky pixie”.
8

Depending on what you mean by “God” and what you mean by “atheist,” sure.

As an example, you could say that the “god” of Taoism is the harmonious balance of Nature. But Taoism doesn’t have any singular, discrete gods or deities of any sort, IOW, no theism. So Taoists, then, could be said to believe in a type of God while still being atheists.

9

That’s not very nice.

10

Atheists don’t have a rulebook? Weird…I thought everybody was issued the Standard Atheist Bible. Maybe you are the wrong denomination of Atheism?

11

I don’t understand. Give us some context. What is a sky pixie?

12

I think he/she/it is referring to the “Magical Sky Pixie” or “Invisible Pink Unicorn.”

Lobsang, you should not have brought this up. You know that discussing the religeon [sup]TM[/sup] with Outsiders is forbidden. The Godless Elders will be coming to take you away soon…

13
  1. (or 10. depending on how many rule #6’s you want to count) Never Put Salt In Your Eyes.
14
  1. Jack Chick doesn’t approve of Dungeons and Dragons!!!
15

That’s all we need; (un)holy wars between different denominations of Atheists over which version of non-belief is correct. I can hear it now:

“Die, infidel dog! The Invisible Pink Unicorn is the only true instrument of ridicule. I spit on your Magical Sky Pixie!”

16

This recently came up in another thread, but I’ll be danged if I can remember which one. At any rate, I’d argue against the OP’s assertion (though not against his/her point). Just as theists don’t have a single, overarching rulebook, but are composed of many discrete and/or overlapping groups, each with one or more (or no) “rulebooks,” atheists are no different. While many are quite independent and some even opposed to the idea of living by a shared doctrine, many other atheists belong to groups of one kind or another with shared beliefs and ethics. Some examples are the Freethinkers, Humanists, Bertrand Russel Society, and Rationalists. The rulebooks may be as simple as a statement of belief and/or ethics, but I think that counts.

But more to the OP, it’s only fair to say that there’s a lot of diversity in atheists, just as there is in theists. What a news flash, eh? And guess what else? Some of them are really great people, and some are in-your-face, my-way-is-the-only-way jerks…just like theists.

Oh, and now I remeber the thread. It was Are the odds really that crappy? (nice religious people).

17

Ahhh…

You see, I had been reading that as “Always Put Salt In Your Eyes.” This might go a long way toward explaining both my inability to discern surface details and my generally poor disposition.

18

Atheists don’t have a rulebook

We do, however, have a cheat-sheet…

[sub]and it’s worked well so far :smiley: [/sub]

19

Oh, now you tell me. Amazon.com kept telling me the rulebook was on back-order.

20

I perfer “Big Bully in the Sky” myself. Just proves the OP’s point, I guess.