Are these the teachings of Atheism?

Question

This is right of the American Atheist site. This is what they claim Athiests Teach. Is this Right? Do you dedicate your time to teach this? To me this does not support what you have all told me previously and this is just the "teachings". I will post the "beliefs" next. It is much more of an agressive stance than those of you who have answered me have indicated. What's up?

Atheism Teaches That...

* There is no heavenly father.
Humankind must protect the orphans and foundlings, or they will
not be protected.
* There is no god to answer prayer.
Man must hear and help man.
* There is no hell.
We have no vindictive god or devil to fear or imitate.
* There is no atonement or salvation by faith.
We must face the consequences of our acts.
* There is no beneficent or malevolent intent in nature.
Life is a struggle against preventable and unpreventable evils.
The cooperation of humankind is the only hope of the world.
* There is no chance after death to "do our bit."
We must do it now or never.
* There is no divine guardian of truth, goodness, beauty, and
liberty.
These are attributes of humankind. We must defend them or they
will perish from the earth.

Sounds to me more like anti-religion than Atheism.

Hey guys, I'm not making this up. Go to Athiest.org. I got it right there. They are representing that is what you teach! Don't get down on me about it.

Okay, here's the link: http://www.atheists.org/visitors.center/because.html

I'm not making this up. I wish I were.

Answer 1

It is atheism,since it openly says NO God.
But atheism is same as Materialism, Positivism, Secularism, Pessimism, Skepticism, Pantheism.

From the information you have given, it is seen that they are negating so many things with their so many NO, namely,
NO heavenly... NO god, NO hell, NO atonement, NO beneficent...
and concluded that no divine guardian of truth, goodness, beauty and liberty and these are attributes of humankind and they say that they must defend them or they will perish from the earth.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has tried to show various faults of various atheistic philosophy in his "Tattva Viveka" as follows":-
Some excerpts:-
When one simply glances at them with the eyes of pure spiritual logic, one will reject these ideas as pathetic and untenable. Even ordinary material logic will show these ideas are untenable and should be rejected. This is seen in the following ways:
1. The philosophy of materialism searches for a single principle that is the root of all existence. This is a great folly. If one thinks the material atoms are eternal, the void is eternal, the relation between the void and the material elements is inconceivable, and the powers, qualities, and actions of the material atoms are also eternal, and all these things are eternal and beginningless, then he cannot accept that the material world was ever created. A person who accepts these ideas cannot reduce the material world to a single underlying principle. He must accept the simultaneous existence of many principles. What is time? That he has no power to say. In this way their attempt to find a single underlying principle that governs the material world is only the wild babbling of a child.

2. The philosophy of Materialism is unnatural and unscientific. It is unnatural because every nature has a cause. To assume that matter is eternal and is the cause of consciousness, which appears only as a by-product of matter, is very illogical. The presence of causes and effects is natural in the world of gross matter. Without causes and effects the material world would not be as it is. The philosophy of Materialism is unscientific because consciousness has the power to manipulate and control inert matter. Therefore the idea that consciousness is merely a by-product of matter is fiercely opposed to true scientific thinking.

3. Consciousness is naturally superior to inert matter. Only fools say consciousness is a by-product of matter. Professor Ferris has clearly explained all this.

4. Can anyone prove that matter is eternal? Professor Tyndall has clearly shown there is evidence to prove the eternity of matter. If someone claims that he has looked eternally into the past and eternally into the future and he has seen that matter is eternal, no one should believe him.

5. Buchner and Molescott claim that matter is eternal. That is an imagination that exists only in their heads. If in the course of time matter ceases to exist, their ideas will become lies.

6. Comte writes: "We shouid not try to discover the origin or the conclusion of the material world. That ettempt only childish curiosity." However, because the living entity is by nature conscious, he naturally curious to know these things. The living entity cannot perform a funeral rite to celebrate the death of his own natural curiosity. The search for causes and effects is the mother of all true knowledge. If Compte's idea is accepted, human intelligence will be destroyed in a few days. Of that there is no doubt. Then human beings will all become stunted, numbed, and unthinking.

7. No one has ever seen human consciousness created from dull material eleements. Only fools believe this will ever happen. In the book I hold in my hand, a history book describing three thousand years of human history, no one has ever seen an human being spontaneously manifested from inert matter. If human life is manifest from the spontaneous interactions of material elements, then in the course of all those years at least one human being would have been spontaneously manifested from inert matter.

8. The graceful and harmonious arrangement of human beings, animals, trees, and other living entities in this world points to a creator and controller. In this way it is seen that there must be a conscious supreme creator.

In these many ways the philosophy of Materialism is refuted even by ordinary logic. Only very unfortunate people accept the ideas of Materialism. They have no idea of spiritual happiness. Their desires are very petty.

Answer 2

Atheists have no values at all just from being atheists. Atheism is a belief, based on total lack of evidence, that no god exists. That's all. Consequently all atheists can do is live in the world as we find it and make it the best place we can. That's just being ourselves, who are mostly nice anyway as a result of evolution - if we hadn't evolved with some concern for each other the species wouldn't have survived. This life is all we have so it only makes sense to make it the best it can possibly be, right here and now. And a lot of people just naturally do like to be helpful - the very reason I answer questions here. That's actually very selfish as I get a kick out of it, but is it wrong because of that? What really scares me is the religious people who say that you need religion to be moral. Are they really saying they would be murdering and raping if god didn't exist? Thanks for the question - possibly the most thoughtful and sensible one I've seen here in a long time.

Answer 3

You're right, you did take that directly off of www.atheists.org (link below).

I think that statement is a pretty close match to my beliefs. But atheism is not like religion in that there is no organized teachings. I had never visited atheists.org before seeing your post. I spent just enough time with an Google advance search to verify that the text you quoted actually existed on their site, and then another two minutes browsing. I suppose I'm glad the site is there, but I have no strong inclination to spend further time on that site.

If atheism seems like anti-religion to you, then so be it. Most atheists think that organized religion is harmful, and wish it would go away completely. But most atheists are pragmatic enough to know it won't happen in our lifetimes, and our main goal is just to prevent the loss of our freedom to live without religion forced on us and our children.
---- Edit ---
Yes, we all have beliefs. Beliefs are the basic units of thought that we have in our brain/mind that we use to model the world we live in. But most of our beliefs are backed up with evidence, and if we are lucky, with theories that provide a consistent framework to explain broad classes of observations, and make predictions. Some of our beliefs do not have any evidence. These are called faith(s). Some people hold faiths that are contradicted by evidence. I call these irrational faiths.
I believe that the Hebrew Bible is myth. That the God of Abraham is no more worthy of serious consideration that Zeus. I think there is quite a bit of evidence to support this belief, and no verifiable evidence to contradict this belief. I also belief that there is no supernatural creator of this universe. That belief is purely faith, since I have no evidence for (or against) that belief.

Answer 4

Athiesm is the absence of a belief. You do not teach about things which are not true, you teach about that which is true, as such athiesm, not being a either a religion or a philosophy is only an observation of truth. The above are a particular group's point of view and not necessarily the view of all athiests.

Answer 5

You see something 'aggressive" ? , as if it were a "stance" in those listed views? You think atheism is being 'taught'..like math, or history or religions?
man, if atheists have declared they could not swallow the fantasy's of religions, that dosent mean you are qualified to condemn them. Just because you dont/wont/or refuse to invest your own mental energy's in a search of what is in fact DOUBTFULL, and at best, a bit like mythology..dosent improve your chances of being 'better', or more holy, or likely to be favored by your god-concepts.
The enmity between religious folks and non believers is semantic..in the end what ever 'god' might be to our intellect is a spiritual relationship between our 'life' and our 'understanding'.
I would rather debate an atheist than a religious zealot, simply because the zealot is predictable...and i loose interest in what ever the matter was about.
Religion satisfies what personal intellectual curiosity is avoiding..
and, atheism satisfies what personal intellectual curiosity realizes.. but when all is sead and dune, [in eather view], the realization that we are liveing a spiritual life as a human is unavoidable.
I invite you to consider that 'god' is life...that 'life' is god...
that puts 'god' in the moment...
that puts 'god' in perspective...
that puts perspective in religons, too
that puts perspection in aeithests,..as well..

Answer 6

From my understanding atheism does not TEACH anything. There is not a book or a class you take to learn about atheism. Half of what you put on here saying atheism teaches does not make sense anyway. "We must face the consequences of our acts"....well yea everyone does, doesn't matter about religion. "We must do it now or never"...do what??
"Humankind must protect the orphans"...yea we must and we do.

Answer 7

There are about six million American atheists, and only about 2200 of them are members of American Atheists. That's about .4 percent. They don't represent American atheists just because that's their name.

Answer 8

They are teachings in the same sense that their opposites are the "teachings" of the Christians.

I don't see it as anti-religion, necessarily... just a different belief system. (And atheism IS a belief system, no matter what they tell you. It is a BELIEF that there is no god, no need to be saved, and so on.)

Answer 9

No, atheism has no teachings. American Atheists is an extremely small group and they in no way speak for the majority of atheists.

Answer 10

Uh... atheism doesn't teach anything, kiddo.

Atheism is ONLY a lack of belief in the existence of gods.

Atheism may IMPLY other necessary truths, but it doesn't TEACH any.

Ok... this is posted at an atheist website... I wasn't aware that they advertised "THIS IS WHAT WE TEACH". Thanks for letting me know. And by the way... a group of atheisTS may teach this as their understanding of the world, but atheisM itself does not. Again, atheism is nothing more than lack of belief. Anything else comes from individuals or groups of individuals.