Atheist Group Writes Their Own 10 Commandments

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[Sociology]
Atheists have written their own version of the ten commandments. These commandments were chosen from submissions to Atheist Mind Humanist Heart’s (AMHH) Re-Think Prize, a crowdsourcing project.

In November Adam Savage announced he would be a judge in the ReThink Project, the host of MythBusters (one of only two, these days), caused a new surge of interest and awareness for the contest. Read on to see the selected 10 Atheist Commandments...

As part of the crowdsourcing project, submissions were submitted to Atheist Mind Humanist Heart’s website. The submissions for new commandments were reviewed by the contest judges — Adam Savage was one of 13 judges — and ten submissions were chosen that were deemed worthy of being called commandments. The ten writers of the chosen submissions split a prize of 10,000 dollars.


  1. Be open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
  2. Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.
  3. The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
  4. Every person has the right to control over their body.
  5. God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.
  6. Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
  7. Treat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective.
  8. We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.
  9. There is no one right way to live.
  10. Leave the world a better place than you found it.


The question may be asked why it was decided to hold such a contest to rewrite the ten commandments. Lex Bayer, an executive at AirBnB, and John Figdor, a humanist chaplain at Stanford University, had created their own 10 “non-commandments” in a book they co-wrote: “Atheist Heart, Humanist Mind.” Bayer said the book forced him to clarify and articulate his own beliefs, and he thought others could benefit from doing the same.

In their Reddit AMA, they explained there was a need to establish what atheists believe as there is a growing percentage who count themselves as non-religious.

“Did you know that polling shows forty-five million Americans consider themselves non-religious? This number is on the rise, with a third of adults under the age of thirty self-identifying as non-believers. With atheism replacing religion for so many, the question arises: what do atheists believe in?”

“We used a philosophical approach grounded in logic and evidence to determine how to live a reasonable, ethical, and happy life without God, and we wrote a book about it.”

The ten chosen were among 2,800 total submissions.


 

10 Commandments For Atheists
Posted by Mars Bonfire on 2015-01-19 03:07:30
Just what group of freethinkers decided that scientific conclusions based on critical analysis was he same as puerile satire and mimicry? Raise your hand if you think the sum total of all IQs involved in this action barely reach 3 digits?
How many freethinkers want to be members of a 'religion' for anti-deists - complete with a self-appointed 'virtual Moses' and a 10 commandment dogma? No? I'll pass, thanks.
Since "..copying is the highest complement.." I see this 'joke' as short in humor and long in repercussion. Ask yourselves this: 1) In what way does this prove that atheism and freethinking result in a better world? 2) How does mocking, low-brow satire convince mindless deists to drop their religions?
In my 60+ years as a critical thinker and analyst I must say that this is silly and one of the finest examples of mongoloid reasoning I have ever encountered. Atheism has long promoted a better world free of religious dogma & deity worship. Its really about NO religions and NO commandments. Ever. Not even as a lark. So, in the words of my favorite atheist these actions are "..the zenith of mongoloid reasoning..". Count me out because a rose by any other name is still a rose.
Mars Bonfire

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