Can You Help This College-Bound Atheist?

I’d say, don’t study atheism, study what you are interested in and see how religion and irreligion play out within that field. If you’re interested in gay and lesbian studies, then major in that (unless you come across something that looks better).

As a field of academic study, atheism is likely to come up in areas where religion is of interest. Take a minor in, or electives in, history, anthropology, philosophy, political science, or sociology for areas which touch on the role of religion and its absence in society, but you’re likely to find these as one facet of a larger subject rather than a field of study within itself.

In terms of philosophers to study, Hume is of course a good one, but you’d want to also at least touch on Kant, Bentham, and Nietzsche. Having a background in political philosophy, I’d steer you towards Rawls and Nozick as well.

And if I can be forgiven for shamelessly linking to myself, I have some other advice for a young person in your position which may be of interest to you as well.

What will a person do with a degree in Gay and Lesbian studies? Or any liberal arts degree other than teach with it? I would say reconsider your major into something employers need. Make your college time count with skills useful after college. Dont’ focus on your athiest and social issues as majors in college. Get the degree then get out there and make your changes and fight your battles in the real world where it counts.

Bob:

Not everyone wants a traditional job, and such an undergrad degree could lead to a lot of graduate degrees of use like public health or public relations.

And heck, what’s wrong with teaching?

I personally like Epicureanism, which Hume and others have written a good deal on. Marcus Aurelius is interesting particularly for his thoughts on morality without an afterlife. Thomas Paine was probably the most forward-thinking of his contemporaries.

(And don’t mind Bob and Joel.)

Check out both philosophy (ethics courses in particular) and religious studies (note whether they teach from a variety of viewpoints, e.g., Buddhist as well as Christian). It is possible that what you want can only be done in independent study so you need to figure out whether there are professors willing to guide that independent study.

I’ve just come across this site and it’s great! 🙂 As for the college-bound atheist in need, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of specific courses, but I would definitely suggest taking philosophy courses of any kind.

Indiana University-Bloomington has a lot of academic goings-on related to human sexuality, which you can now minor in. The Kinsey Institute is here. We have a growing Gender Studies department. And I think our Religious Studies major (which I majored in) is ranked #1 (according to whom/what I don’t know). I loved the Religious Studies courses at IU – and I hate school. There is a course called “Theism, Atheism, and Existentialism”. There is a large GLBT community here, too.

UC Irvine had a few atheist related courses while I was there, in the history department, surprisingly enough. I would not recommend anyone should go there for that reason, though.

… I haven’t been able to find any courses which focus at all on the idea of atheism …

The atheist conspiracy keeps the atheism major safely hidden under the name ‘Evolutionary Biology’ . I understand evolutionary biologists also promote the gay agenda.

Funny, I though for sure someone would have mentioned UC Berkeley by now…but since not, I guess here’s my chance to plug my school. I’m a double major in Middle Eastern Studies and Biology with a minor in Theater (and yes, I am sick of people telling me “what will you do with THAT”…just ignore those people, they aren’t very imaginative)

Our LGBT program is only a minor as I understand it, but there’s a pretty good Women’s and Gender Studies major and of course the design-your-own-major option. There’s a big LGBT community (hmm, proximity to San Francisco…) And, basically, it’s the best school ever. I don’t want to fill up too much space on how awesome it is, so feel free to get in touch with me for detailed info.

Also, honestly, I think the best place to be an atheist is at a diverse school where people have lots of different religious (and cultural, economic, etc) backgrounds. Based on the (limited) time I’ve spent in the Bible Belt, I think I would die there. Education is about challenging yourself, but I personally benefit from multiple perspectives, and the overwhelming, well, lack of diversity out there would be unbearably frustrating for a critical thinker.

Look for philosophy of science, or history of science.

What will a person do with a degree in Gay and Lesbian studies? Or any liberal arts degree other than teach with it? I would say reconsider your major into something employers need. Make your college time count with skills useful after college. Dont’ focus on your athiest and social issues as majors in college. Get the degree then get out there and make your changes and fight your battles in the real world where it counts.

You couldn’t be more wrong, especially since this sounds like an intellectually curious young woman. A four-year college isn’t a trade school, and you’re not just there to get a magic certificate that qualifies you for certain jobs. You go to college to be educated, not trained. Actually, it’s unfortunate that so many employers expect people to have college degrees even though the experience doesn’t give them useful job skills (nor should it).

Actually, I’ll give you one thing: “Gay and Lesbian Studies,” like most other things ending in “Studies,” isn’t a real major. It’s a nice idea to bring together professors who work in that area, but they make a mistake by creating an undergrad program around it. Much better to pick a more general program with a good solid backing, like English or History, and specialize by taking all the same classes you would have in G&LS. Just because there’s a major named after what you want to do doesn’t mean you should enroll in it – the name doesn’t count for anything, but the support offered by the department does.

my advice is don’t pick a school for one course, and I’d be shocked if you could find more than one course on atheism at any school in the country. You can always read about whatever you want on your own, or even do an independent study if you want formal credit and interaction with a professor.

I would definitely suggest anyone study science rather than philosophy or english or something. Learning to think rationally and scientifically is the most important thing you can get out of a college education, and philosophers are pretty bad at that. Psychology could be a good major, as many schools will offer courses on psychology of sexuality and/or psychology of religion.

I’d say any Jesuit University. I went to Fordham U and am pretty sure the Jesuits are actually atheists who are trying to infiltrate Catholicism from the inside. I have wonderful memories of my sophomore “religion” class in which we learned that the New Testament was written to be the most digestible propaganda at the Council of Nicea (think that’s the one). Anyway, if anyone promotes free thought, it’s them. I entered college considering myself Catholic and left as a missionary atheist.

-Tom N

Admittedly I didnt read all the above comments but here is some advice from a philosophy major: study philosophy.

Not necessarily as a major, but do take some basics. It will help provide you with the arsenal you will need for atheist arguments. General courses will be fun, but a course on Ethics which includes some ethical theory is a must. The hardest thing for theist to get past is “bible = morality.” having the knowledge on ethical theory will help significantly.

A classical philosophy course is good for understanding how bronze age people thought (a lot of them were really smart, just no one listened to them).

A very important course to take is philosophy of science. Understanding empiricism is a very important part of many atheist claims. Whenever you say “there is no evidence for gods” you should understand and be able to explain why that is important.

One of the best things I did was take some religion courses. A great ‘argument’ against theists is simply explaining to them what their religion is about. If you set forth an understanding of their beliefs, they are more willing to listen to your reasoned arguments for why faith/religion fails.

Lastly, SCIENCE! Science is awesome and has become the core for neoatheism. Best to know what the heck you are talking about.

Good luck in college! its the best four years of your life, enjoy!

I minored in sciences (biology and human anatomy), which gave me a good basic understanding of how evolution is a viable and probable and elegant explanation for the origin of life on earth. But the real excitement came when I studied astronomy and statistics, and saw how both made any type of godlike creature very unlikely.
However, I decided to follow my other interests and majored in Women’s Studies. While it’s not directly marketable (as per Bob’s suggestion), all my employers have valued my critical thinking skills, and my research and writing skills were significantly enhanced as well.

And has been already stated, atheism applies to any subject. In this case, you could focus on the amount of damage done to women historically due to religion, or in modern day for that matter. You could focus on the women who stood strong against religious superstition, or those who influenced and advanced religion.

Trurly, you need to follow your heart and your interests. Learn as much as you can, and you will then find a way to market the skills you’ve learned.
Have fun!

Look for a school that offers a Logic III class focusing on either computation and metatheory or modal logic and you will have found a school with a good population of atheists.

Remember: ennumeration theorem, base case, and for every n if n has P n+1 has P is the way to go.

I second a good anthro class, and offer that Philosophy classes are awesome, and that you should take a class in Ethics. I took Ethics with an awesome lady who, as a good Ethics teacher should, never shared her own personal views. The class was fantastic because it approached the question of what we should do and looked at facts rather than religious tradition.

Astrophysics. It’s usually on the first page of a prospectus so it’s easy to find and looking out at the universe stops you contemplating the petty little religions that we humans are so fond of making up. Plus you get to play with telescopes and that’s always fun.

Social Psychology, or Social Services might be good majors. With minor in Ancient and medieval history so you can learn how religions evolve through history. Its really quite amazing to see how religions evolve and die due to social and political changes.

The Social Services and social psychology ‘might’ put you into a position professionally to help Gays and Lesbians. But I can’t say for sure since I’m a computer professional.

NikolaHalcyone: I am a religious studies major at the University of Nebraska-Omaha in (duh) Omaha, Nebraska. Not only is there a course on Atheism offered (with required reading including “The God Delusion”)…

I’m looking over the UNO religious studies cousre offerings and I don’t see a course with “atheism” in the title. There are two course, 4300 and 8306 entitled “Existentialism and Religious Thought.” Is that what you’re talking about?

Is the course you mentioned philosophical, historical, or cultural? If it’s philosophical, there are better titles they could chose than TGD.

Or, as another example, how many of you have heard of the Carvaka (various spellings, including Charvaka) school of thought in India? There is an atheist tradition going back 3000 years. And how many of you have heard of Charles Bradlaugh? Baron D’Holbach? The history of atheism remains largely untold. You are fortunate to live in an age where you can learn about these things through the Internet, but it would be nice to have more courses available.

Jesika,

You’re in a really exciting but sometimes scary part of your life. You have some important decisions to make, so take your time and be honest with yourself about what you want, but on the other hand, look at all the support you have, just in the form of four dozen people at current count giving advice. And here’s mine:

1) Focus your studies on another subject, not just atheism. You seem focused on making a difference, which is great, so if you want to make a career out of activism, I would recommend law, education, or political science. We need more atheist lawyers and politicians!

2) Go to the best school you can get into for that career. This means both in terms of the program itself as well as the networking opportunities. Yes, you’re young and not sure exactly what you want to do, but if you decide to change later, you can always transfer, and schools are allowed to be good at more than one thing.

3) Don’t let the location of the school influence you overmuch. If the school happens to be in the Bible Belt or Red America, GREAT! Get to work out in the community! If not, you can be a part of the ever-growing atheist network.

Good luck Jesika, and don’t forget to have fun and report back to us. -Mike

Jesika,

By now, you may have discerned that atheism is not one single thing. Study anything based on evidence and reason, in other words, a reality-based curriculum. Atheism is about what is; religion is about what is not.