The Atheist F.A.Q. (PDF)

A couple weeks ago, I asked for short and sweet responses to various questions that atheists get asked. You responded in droves (thank you!) and I finally sorted through the answers.

Here is a PDF that combines some of the best responses.

I hope you enjoy the background image.

And let me take a moment to highlight some answers I didn’t use, but that made me laugh:

What is the meaning of life?

The worst of the Monty Python movies. (Via HeIsSailing)

Weren’t some of the worst atrocities in the 20th century committed by atheists?

Yep. Give us another couple milennia and we might catch up. (Via Misanthropic Bastard)

How could billions of people be wrong when it comes to belief in God?

How could half of America vote for George W Bush? (Via Jen)

How do you deal with the historical Jesus if you don’t believe in his divinity?

He never calls me, so it isn’t much of an issue. (Via Everyday Atheism)

What happens when we die?

You stop pestering me with questions. (Via Alex)

If we’re lucky, we live on through a Wikipedia entry. (Via The Popcorn Gallery)

[tags]atheist, atheism, FAQ, Monty Python, God, religion, George W. Bush, Jesus, Wikipedia[/tags]

The Barefoot Bum

Looks like you completely ignored everyone who posted the answers on their own blogs. I’m so totally not surprised.
FriendlyAtheist

Looks like you completely ignored everyone who posted the answers on their own blogs. I’m so totally not surprised.

I didn’t! I read everyone’s comments, included those who wrote about it on their own sites 🙂 Some of the funnier comments mentioned in the post were from those very people!
Salim Fadhley

How disappointing – none of the funny answers were in the PDF. They were much better than the serious ones.

🙂
Rasputin

You should definitely post a list of the funny ones. We like funny.
FriendlyAtheist

You should definitely post a list of the funny ones. We like funny.

The ones listed are the best ones. Though in the future, we’ll do something funnier 🙂
Susan

I’m not comfortable with the answer to #1. The question “Why don’t you believe in God?” is often answered in this way, with some variation of “Why don’t you believe in Zeus/Thor/The Flying Spaghetti Monster?” and in general I think it’s a nice parallel, but the problem I foresee is that religious people often have a different reason for disbelieving in Zeus, etc. Many religious people might say something like, “God has told us that he is the one true god, and that there are no others. That’s why I know Zeus doesn’t exist.” Therefore, they’ll miss the point, since that is certainly not the reason atheists don’t believe in ANY god.

On the other hand, you did include the fact that there is no credible evidence for god, which is in my mind the main reason why most atheists don’t believe. I’d rather see this expanded to another sentence, and not bring up Zeus/Thor/FSM at all.
Kelly

Very nice. I’ve printed it out for future reference. Although I think I have better answers (perhaps just answers that focus on my particular beliefs better) on some of the questions, I think this was a great idea.
h3nry

Hi Hemant, since it seems like you haven’t got much else to do 🙂 I thought the idea of compiling a list of fun and humorous yet accurate answers is a great one. Harmless humour can work very effective and is often thought-provoking, good for the general public who wonder about atheism. Keep up the great work.
Tao Jones

I thought the original assignment was great, but the greatest part about it was the variety of answers for any given question. Choosing a “best answer” for each question seems to diminish the value of the exercise. Perhaps a few different good answers to each question would keep some focus on the diversity.

I’m with Susan about the selected answer for #1. That answer was good, but I don’t see it enabling anyone to leave their faith. “Lack of evidence” isn’t going to do the trick either since some people have different standards of evidence. I mean, sure, there isn’t evidence, but there are still billions of believers. Some of the other answers were quite personal, and I think that’s the best approach to the question. Lets focus on the pull factors.
Pamela

Nice. Thanks. Will share.
NYCatheist

I like it! For the next version:

1. Is it possible to get a smoother “A” for the background image?

2. Which “God” are you talking about in the first question? And why do you capitalize “Gods” there too?

I usually think of the capital G god as a specific god in the context of that particular discussion, which in America is usually Yahweh. If we were talking about Hinduism maybe then I would use “Gods”.

3. Saying there is no ultimate meaning is to me a claim unrelated to atheism. Who knows if that claim is true or what the question really means.

The rest looks good to me! Thanks for compiling this.
Reed Braden

Hey! I liked Monty Python’s Meaning of Life! Mr. Creosote is one of my favourite sketches of all. Also, Every Sperm is Sacred and Christmas in Heaven were GREAT songs!
rudropol

we now just need a war to erase all the religions from this earth.we shall be succeeded.the ancient lie shall be vanished.the new light shall illuminate the earth.i don’t agree all the ideas of the f.a.q.we don’t need religion in any way.it is just wasting our civilization.we have to get rid of this bullshit(religion).god shall be killed.we are the creator of god and now we shall destroy it.
Noadi

The answer to #1 should be 42.
Freelance Guru

Oh Noadi,
As any good Atheist knows (not that I’m tarring us all with the same brush or anything) is that 42 is the answer to ‘the Ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.’

And as it is written, it must be true…
Sanctus

Now that we know the true meaning about life and how it ALL began, I think it’s fair for us to concentrate on something else now, like the cure to AIDS and cancer, the world needs us, after all we are full of fact and theories. We are smart people and should use our intellect for good. I’m tired of proving our theories to my Christian friends when these brainwashed buggers just won’t listen. Let’s work on something else, I had enough attention through attacking Christianity, let’s work on AIDS, Cancer, and save a little time to attack the Muslim religion because they getting bigger then Christians today.