A Manual for Creating Atheists Read online

  ADVANCE PRAISE

  “Peter Boghossian’s techniques of friendly persuasion are not mine, and maybe I’d be more effective if they were. They are undoubtedly very persuasive—and very much needed.”

  —Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion

  “Up to now, most atheists have simply criticized religion in various ways, but the point is to dispel it. In A Manual For Creating Atheists, “Peter Boghossian fills that gap, telling the reader how to become a ‘street epistemologist’ with the skills to attack religion at its weakest point: its reliance on faith rather than evidence. This book is essential for nonbelievers who want to do more than just carp about religion, but want to weaken its odious grasp on the world.”

  —Jerry Coyne, Ph.D., author of Why Evolution Is True

  “There is nothing else on the market like this book that helps atheists talk believers out of their faith. Every atheist interested in doing so, or who talks to believers about faith at all, should read it. It’s both needed and brilliant!”

  —John W. Loftus, author of Why I Became an Atheist and The Outsider Test for Faith

  “Boghossian has provided an indispensible chart book for all of us who must navigate the rising sea of magical thinking that is inundating America today.”

  —Victor Stenger, Ph.D., author of God: The Failed Hypothesis and God and the Atom

  “Excellent application of science, philosophy, and strategy for breaking through ideological and psychological barriers to freethought, all in terms anyone can understand and apply. Delightfully novel and controversial, this is the kind of thing I’ve long wanted and we need more of: bringing practical philosophy to the common man and woman.”

  —Richard Carrier, Ph.D., author of Sense and Goodness Without God

  “This book is a feisty, tough-minded attempt to undo what the author sees as the profound damage done to society by faith. There is something here that lots of people are likely to get angry about: liberals, academics, feminists, psychologists, politicians, progressives, and libertarians—and everybody in between. The book is a Molotov cocktail of ideas, arguments, policy proposals, thought experiments, encouragements, and denunciations.”

  —Steven Brutus, Ph.D., author of Religion, Culture, History

  “If we want to live in a world that is safer and more rational for all, then this is the guidebook we have been waiting for. Relying on extensive experience and a deep concern for humanity, Peter Boghossian has produced a game changer. This is not a book to read while relaxing in a hammock on a sunny afternoon. This is the how-to manual to take into the trenches of everyday life where minds are won and lost in the struggle between reason and madness.”

  —Guy P. Harrison, author of 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian and Race and Reality

  “Dr. Peter Boghossian’s A Manual for Creating Atheists is a precise, passionate, compassionate, and brilliantly reasoned work that will illuminate any and all minds capable of openness and curiosity. This is not a bedtime story to help you fall asleep, but a wakeup call that has the best chance of bringing your rational mind back to life.”

  —Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, the largest and most popular philosophy show on the Web: http://www.freedomainradio.com

  “A ‘how-to’ book for the ages. Boghossian manages to take a library’s worth of information and mold it into a concise and practical tome to guide through the murky waters of magical thinking, docking the reader safely on the shores of reason, logic, and understanding. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and highly recommend it.”

  —Al Stefanelli, author of A Voice of Reason in an Unreasonable World

  “This is a manual that we can use in our everyday interaction with those infected by the faith virus. The skills and concepts are both practical and learnable. As the founder and Chairman of the Board of RecoveringfromReligion.org, I recommend that all of our facilitators and leaders not only read and share this book, but actually learn how to use the questioning and dialogue techniques Dr. Boghossian illustrates. It will help you avoid common mistakes and give greater value to the conversations you have with the religious.”

  —Darrel Ray, Ed.D., author of The God Virus and Sex and God

  “The fact is, this book is perfect. It’s simple, and (most importantly) accessible. The same techniques it outlines can be used in all walks of life—from social justice issues to boardroom negotiations. It does what no other atheist/skeptic book has done in the past: it gives you somewhere to go to after you’ve read everything and said, ‘well, that was fascinating, where the hell do I go to now?’ It works. It really does.”

  —Jake Farr-Wharton, author of Letters to Christian Leaders

  “Since atheism is truly Good News, it should not be hidden under a bushel. Peter Boghossian shows us how to take it to the highways and the byways. I love it!”

  —Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation

  “A book so great you can skip it and just read the footnotes. Pure genius.”

  —Christopher Johnson, co-founder, The Onion

  “After the Four Horsemen comes the infantry—the army of evangelical rationalists making the world safe from faith. Boghossian’s book is both clarion call and roadmap for these heroic new battalions. Onward atheist soldiers!”

  —Tim van Gelder, Ph.D., Principal, Austhink Consulting, Principal Fellow, University of Melbourne, Eureka Prizewinner for Critical Thinking

  “I predict that within one week of the publication of this book it will be banned in at least 20 countries.”

  —Kevin Boileau, author of Essays on Phenomenology and the Self

  “I was so impressed by your book, and have been using the techniques every time I go out against the street preachers on a Friday or Saturday night with my atheist group. The fact is, it’s perfect. It’s simple, and (most importantly) accessible. The same techniques you outline can be used in all walks of life, also, for social justice issues, to boardroom negotiations. Your book does what no other atheist/skeptic book has done in the past, it gives you somewhere to go to after you’ve read everything and said, “well, that was fascinating, where the hell do I go to now?” It works. It really does.”

  —Jake Farr-Wharton, author of Letters to Christian Leaders: Hollow Be Thy Claims, and host of The Imaginary Friends Show

  “A brave, clear book, crammed with useful insights. Boghossian’s call for honest, evidence-based thinking has implications far beyond its focus on debates about God and religious faith. A Manual for Creating Atheists is a strong challenge to ideology and propaganda, wherever we find them.”

  —Russell Blackford, author of Freedom of Religion and the Secular State and co-author of 50 Great Myths About Atheism

  Pitchstone Publishing

  Durham, NC 27705

  www.pitchstonepublishing.com

  Copyright © 2013 by Peter Boghossian

  All rights reserved.

  To contact the publisher, please e-mail [email protected]

  Front cover design by Corey Van Hoosen, coreyvanhoosen.com

  Author photo courtesy of Steve Eltinge

  Printed in the United States of America

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Boghossian, Peter G. (Peter Gregory)

  A manual for creating atheists / Peter Boghossian ; foreword by Michael Shermer.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-939578-09-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)

  ISBN: 9781939578150

  1. Atheism. 2. Rationalism. 3. Faith and reason. 4. Religion—Controversial literature. I. Title.

  BL2747.3.B587 2013

  2
11’.8—dc23

  2013019026

  To Michael Shermer and Sam Harris

  CONTENTS

  Foreword by Michael Shermer

  Born-Again Atheist

  Chapter 1: Street Epistemology

  Introduces Street Epistemology and the purpose of the book: To give people the conversational tools to talk people out of their faith and help them embrace reason.

  Chapter 2: Faith

  Clarifies and examines the terms “faith,” “atheist,” and “agnostic.” Articulates faith as an epistemology, underscores the fact that faith claims are knowledge claims, and then briefly articulates the problem and danger of faith.

  Chapter 3: Doxastic Closure, Belief, and Epistemology

  Describes the pathology of closed belief systems, how people’s belief systems become immune to revision, argues for the idea that faithbased beliefs can be changed, and explores the study of knowledge (epistemology) as it pertains to changes in belief.

  Chapter 4: Interventions and Strategies

  Draws from diverse peer-reviewed literature and provides broad conversational strategies readers can use when attempting to liberate subjects of their faith.

  Chapter 5: Enter Socrates

  Details and explains how the use of the Socratic method is employed to help people abandon their faith.

  Chapter 6: After the Fall

  Explains what goes in faith’s place once it’s been removed.

  Chapter 7: Anti-Apologetics 101

  Explores common responses in the defense of faith and explains effective answers specifically designed to facilitate belief change.

  Chapter 8: Faith and the Academy

  Discusses the failure of contemporary academia in dealing with faith, argues that educators should give faith-based claims no countenance in the classroom, and offers a roadmap to disabuse students of epistemological relativism.

  Chapter 9: Containment Protocols

  Reconceptualizes the problem of faith, sets goals, looks ahead, and suggests strategies to stop the spread of faith. Includes a section on how to raise a child with a skeptical mind-set.

  Acknowledgments

  Appendixes

  Glossary

  References

  About the Author

  Other Titles from Pitchstone

  FOREWORD

  BORN-AGAIN ATHEIST

  In 1971, my senior year at Crescenta Valley High School in Southern California, I accepted Jesus into my heart and became a born-again Christian, repeating aloud the gospel passage from John 3:16 (emblazoned on countless sporting event banners by faithful fans): “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

  Everlasting life. Wow. That’s quite a claim, and as we skeptics like to say, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Is there extraordinary evidence for the claim that accepting Jesus of Nazareth bestows upon the believer eternity? No. Is there even any ordinary evidence for this extraordinary claim? No. There is no evidence whatsoever, as to date not one person who has died has returned to report a celestial realm where a first-century carpenter resides with his father—God. Let’s think this claim through as a person of reason and science might:

  Christians claim that God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent—all knowing, all powerful, all present, and all good, creator of the universe and everything in it including us.

  Christians believe that we were originally created sinless, but because God gave us free will and Adam and Eve chose to eat the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, we are all born with original sin as part of our nature, even though we did not commit the original sinful act ourselves.

  God could just forgive the sin we never committed, but instead he sacrificed his son Jesus, who is actually just himself in the flesh because Christians believe in only one god—that’s what monotheism means—of which Jesus and the Holy Spirit are just different manifestations. Three in One and One in Three.

  The only way to avoid eternal punishment for sins we never committed from this all-loving God is to accept his son—who is actually himself—as our savior. So …

  God sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself. Barking mad!

  And why do we need to be saved? Because of that original sin thing, which stems from commandment number 3 of the decalogue: “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” Yikes! The sins of the fathers are to be born by their children’s children’s children? What sort of justice is that? This goes against half a millennium’s worth of Western jurisprudence.

  This all sounds positively daft, but when you are in the religious bubble everything makes sense and there is no such thing as chance, randomness, and contingencies. Things happen for a reason and God has a plan for each and every one of us. When something good happens, God is rewarding us for our faith, our good works, or our love of Christ. When something bad happens, well, God does work in mysterious ways you know. As Brian Dalton said through his character “Mr. Deity” in explaining to “the boy” Jesse/Jesus who upbraided Mr. Deity for erasing most of the prayers left on his voice mail:

  Look, if somebody prays to me and things go well, who gets the credit? Me! Right? But if they pray to me and things don’t go well, who gets the blame? Not me! So … it’s all good. I’m gonna mess with that by steppin’ in and putting my nose where it doesn’t belong?

  Inside the bubble the explanatory filter works at every level, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from career opportunities to parking spots. I thanked God for everything, from getting me into the Christian-based Pepperdine University (my grades and SAT scores were unspectacular) to finding a parking place at theaters and restaurants. In the Christian worldview there is a place for everything and everything is in its place, and believe it or not when you are committed to that belief system it is internally consistent and logically coherent … as long as you don’t look too closely and you are surrounded by others who are also in the bubble.

  When you step outside of the bubble, however, and encounter people who employ reason and science in their lives, the internal logic unravels. I’m talking about the kind of reason and logic called “Street Epistemology” by the philosopher Peter Boghossian in his brilliant treatise on creating atheists. Peter Boghossian’s book is precisely what I—and millions of other people who were born again during this period of American history that saw the rise of the Religious Right and the evangelical movement—needed to cut through the obfuscating jargon of what is called Christian apologetics, which I swallowed hook, line, and poisonous lead sinker.

  Sure there were academic treatises and philosophical tomes on the arguments for and against God’s existence and the central tenets of the Christian religion, but there was nothing like the book you hold in your hands, aptly titled A Manual for Creating Atheists. Had I read this book when I was a neophyte Bible-thumper I would have saved scores of people from my incessant door-to-door evangelizing, and spared my patient and loving family members (who were surely at their wits’ end with me) endless mini-sermons about Jesus and the Good Book that carried his gospel. If I started reading A Manual for Creating Atheists as a Christian I would have been an atheist by the time I finished it.

  Peter Boghossian’s A Manual for Creating Atheists is the perfect companion to Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. They should be bundled like an atheist software package to reprogram minds into employing reason instead of faith, science instead of superstition. Religion is still a powerful force in the world and the majority of humans still adhere to one faith or another (but which is the right one?). But this is changing thanks to rational thinkers and brave activists such as Peter Boghossian, who has helped lead the fastest growing religious movement in America called the “nones” —those who check the
box for “none” when asked about their religious faith. We are the nones, and we are growing, and in the long run we will triumph because we have on our side reason and science, the best tools ever devised for understanding the world.

  —Michael Shermer

  Altadena, California

  CHAPTER I

  STREET EPISTEMOLOGY

  street /strt/

  Noun: A public thoroughfare.

  e·pis·te·mol·o·gy /i-pis-t-‘mä-l-j/

  Noun: The study of knowledge.

  This book will teach you how to talk people out of their faith. You’ll learn how to engage the faithful in conversations that help them value reason and rationality, cast doubt on their beliefs, and mistrust their faith. I call this activist approach to helping people overcome their faith, “Street Epistemology.” The goal of this book is to create a generation of Street Epistemologists: people equipped with an array of dialectical and clinical tools who actively go into the streets, the prisons, the bars, the churches, the schools, and the community—into any and every place the faithful reside—and help them abandon their faith and embrace reason.

  A Manual for Creating Atheists details, explains, and teaches you how to be a street clinician and how to apply the tools I’ve developed and used as an educator and philosopher. The lessons, strategies, and techniques I share come from my experience teaching prisoners, from educating tens of thousands of students in overcrowded public universities, from engaging the faithful every day for more than a quarter century, from over two decades of rigorous scholarship, and from the streets.

  Street Epistemology harkens back to the values of the ancient philosophers—individuals who were tough-minded, plain-speaking, known for self-defense, committed to truth, unyielding in the face of danger, and fearless in calling out falsehoods, contradictions, inconsistencies, and nonsense. Plato was a wrestler and a soldier with broad shoulders. He was decorated for bravery in battle (Christian, 2011, p. 51). Socrates was a seasoned soldier. At his trial, when facing the death penalty, he was unapologetic. When asked to suggest a punishment for his “crimes,” he instead proposed to be rewarded (Plato, Apology).