10 Commandments for atheists: a guide for nonbelievers who want to explore their values

STANFORD, Calif. (RNS) An atheist, a humanist and an agnostic walk into a restaurant.

The hostess says, “Table for one?”

An old joke, yes, but its essence lies at the heart of “Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-First Century,” a new book by Lex Bayer and John Figdor.

Bayer, 36, is a Stanford grad and longtime humanist, and Figdor, 30, is the new humanist chaplain at Stanford University. The two met when Bayer, a venture capitalist and engineer, wrote a news story about Figdor’s arrival at Stanford. The two soon discovered they liked hashing out difficult ideas about the way people live.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/11/20/10-commandments-atheists-guide-nonbelievers-want-explore-values/

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442236790


Not sure we need any commandments, but do understand where they are coming from and people are being asked to write standard beliefs, which is very interesting, from the link below.


http://www.atheistmindhumanistheart.com/

I. The world is real, and our desire to understand the world is the basis for belief.

II. We can perceive the world only through our human senses.

III. We use rational thought and language as tools for understanding the world.

IV. All truth is proportional to the evidence.

V. There is no God.

VI. We all strive to live a happy life. We pursue things that make us happy and avoid things that do not.

VII. There is no universal moral truth. Our experiences and preferences shape our sense of how to behave.

VIII. We act morally when the happiness of others makes us happy.

IX. We benefit from living in, and supporting, an ethical society.

X. All our beliefs are subject to change in the face of new evidence, including these.

If number 5 is true why do you need a commandment to enforce it?

Don't know I agree with this; I've said before I believe there is a basic moral truth, at least where living things are concerned. Basically -- knowing what it is to be hurt, a human being should refrain from doing unnecessary harm to any living thing.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Don't know I agree with this; I've said before I believe there is a basic moral truth, at least where living things are concerned. Basically -- knowing what it is to be hurt, a human being should refrain from doing unnecessary harm to any living thing.

Define unnecessary.

sphinx wrote:If number 5 is true why do you need a commandment to enforce it?  

Never said it should be needed, I stated already I do not think an atheist commandments is needed.
Having said that, the command is a given, think about it?

sphinx wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Don't know I agree with this; I've said before I believe there is a basic moral truth, at least where living things are concerned. Basically -- knowing what it is to be hurt, a human being should refrain from doing unnecessary harm to any living thing.

Define unnecessary.

Not needed.

No, that would be "not needed" to stop that living thing from harming another living thing, or as part of a necessary biological process -- like raising animals for food. Obviously it's not fun for livestock to be slaughtered, but it would fall under a sort of "prey food" clause.

Otherwise, it's unnecessary to do harm to anyone who isn't doing harm.

i only really agree with 9 and 10

but i'm not an atheist