Another Atheist in Recovery by SpikedUp Frog

Another Atheist in Recovery, SpikedUp Frog. self-published, 2014. eBook, 107 pps.

@SpikedUpFrog on Twitter (tm)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/SpikedUp-Frog?store=allproducts&keyword=SpikedUp+Frog


     Yes, this one is also mine, written under my Twitter (tm) alias. Unlike Up the Rebels!, this one is not fiction. It is about my experiences as a recovering non-theist addict in 12 step programs and also how I had to re-write the steps in order to remain clean. 

     Many people "in the rooms" object to changing the literature in any way. Bill Wilson was actually the first one to give approval to modifying the steps to the first A.A. group of atheist Buddhists in New York City. Some deaf folks years ago modified the twelve steps into a form that they related to better-- these were the twelve ideas of A.A. Charlotte Kasl, in her book Many Roads, One Journey presents several ways in which the steps have been modified for groups of people. And I've been reading books put out by AA Agnostica up in Toronto that illustrate how other atheists and agnostics work the steps, complete with their revisions.

     Another Atheist in Recovery presents the steps in the way that I work them. If you don't like that sort of thing, then stay away from this book. Ditto if you are not interested in addiction matters.

     The deal is that for me to use again is to die. I have done and will continue to do whatever I have to in order to stay abstinent. I don't have an ax to grind with believers. I respect that other people have religious practices. If you are an atheist with sincerely held non-beliefs and you are in recovery-- especially if you are new-- then yeah, Another Atheist in Recovery is for you.

     I am in the midst of my second NaNoWriMo but I will endeavor to post more reviews of stuff I've been reading within the next couple of days.

     Sail Strong!

How I Unfriended God by Joel Douglas

Average Joe(l): How I Unfriended God, Volume 1, Joel Douglas. self-published, 2014. e-book 15 pps.


     "Why do people believe in god?"

     That was the question asked of a religious instructor who was teaching in Average Joe's classroom of captive children. That got him thinking. He began asking himself why he harbored that belief. As a teacher, he knew he had never researched this question or even read the bible totally through.

sapphoq reviews says: I hope to read more by Joel Douglas. Although short, How I Unfriended God makes several good points about why people believe [it's easier, for sure] and what happens when an adult turns a critical eye towards religion [nothing is guaranteed, anything can happen]. Highly recommended for those who want to read about atheism for everyday people.

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." Issac Asimov said it. I took the picture of the garden spider and altered it using my copy of legally obtained software. You may download the picture and save it to your "My Computer," rename the picture for your files, upload it to the internet at will. No credit or link-back is necessary to use this picture. Copyright trolls and copyright monopolists, you are not welcome here. Go away. Far far away. 

     

Spiritual Snake Oil by Chris Edwards

Spiritual Snake Oil: Fads & Fallacies in Pop Culture, Chris Edwards. Tucson AZ: See Sharp Press, 2011. e-book, 148 pps.


     Spiritual Snake Oil is a very thorough and readable book. The author takes on the New Age and much of the silliness [and outright fraud] to be found there. The first chapter explains why debunking is important. The rest of the book takes on individual guru types and their specific "teachings" or "revelations." Many of the sellers of feel-good snake oil use their gross misunderstanding of science and specifically quantum physics to pedal their wares. Vibrations, secret antiquated manuscripts, and a dressing up of the pseudo-christian prosperity gospel are popular. Chris Edwards holds each item to a high standard: what is the evidence for each claim?

sapphoq reviews says: I really liked this book. Spiritual Snake Oil demonstrates the dangers of wrapping crap into palatable formats. Highly recommended. Suitable for teens as well as for adults.

The Forgery of the Old Testament and Other Essays by Joseph McCabe

The Forgery of the Old Testament and Other Essays, Joseph McCabe.  Buffalo, N.Y.:  Prometheus Books, 1993.  e-book, 139 pps.


Joseph McCabe (1867-1955) was an Franciscan priest in the U.K. who after a time found his faith lacking and turned atheist.  He was a prolific writer of scholarly critiques on religious subjects.  His many essays appeared in a series of "little blue books".  The essays in this book were first published in 1926 and 1927.


     This book presents Joseph McCabe's thoughts-- and a bit of his research-- on the Bible, the question of eternal life, and the truthfulness of religious scholars.  He proposes that monks and scholars had their hands and inkwells close by the books that we now know of as the bible and that these books were significantly altered.  Joseph McCabe was proficient at reading Hebrew.  He stated that some of the Old Testament was plucked from Babylonian legends or Persian legends, some was a re-manufactured rendition of historical events which become quite something else in their re-telling, and that the older manuscripts demonstrate several versions of Hebrew and thus were written in different time periods.  He correctly pointed out that Old Hebrew, Middle Hebrew, and Modern Hebrew-- similar to Old English, Middle English, and Modern English-- were clearly distinguishable from each other.  Because they appear to follow each other in some number of Old Testament books [or Hebrew Bible as it is referred to today], the supposition that each book was written by one author during a specific time period cannot be supported.  What most people think they know of the early Hebrews and development of Judaism ain't necessarily so.  Religious scholars attempt to appease the masses by pointing out what McCabe referred to as "kernels of truth."  History has been falsified throughout the Old Testament.  Anyone who uses the Hebrew Bible as an accurate history would do well to read some Joseph McCabe. 


sapphoq reviews says:  Joseph McCabe's work has certainly earned its place in the library of any knowledgeable skeptic interested in religious questions.  Although bits of the vocabulary is outdated by virtue of when he lived and published, there is much to be gained from reading his words.  His arguments demonstrating exactly how Christianity's most sacred books came into being and how playing loose with the truth had a hand in the creation of those books certainly deserves a careful perusal by skeptics, rational thinkers, non-theists and Christians alike.  Highly recommended.

Daylight Atheism by Adam Lee

Daylight Atheism, Adam Lee.  self-published via Smashwords.com under Bigthink.com, 2012.  e-book, 609 pps., with footnotes beginning on page 532.

note: Adam Lee's blog can currently be found here at:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/
and Adam Lee himself can be found on Twitter as @DaylightAtheism.


Atheists certainly aren't winning any popularity contests [as of yet].  There is an assumption that only a belief in a deity can provide an individual with a moral compass; that the atheist is void of any sense of goodness or direction.  Atheists are denied the right to run for public office in some places, and sentenced to death in others.  The atheist knows that false perceptions are harmful.  Adam Lee has a blog from the perspective of an atheist and has followed up with a book by the same name.

Here in Adam Lee's own words, on pages 6 -7 from the Prologue of Daylight Atheism, are what an atheist is and what an atheist is not:
   
          Yes, I am an atheist.  No, I don't kick puppies or steal
    candy from babies.  I don't hate God, but I don't have
    any secret desire to worship him either.  Nor do I worship
    Satan.  I haven't had any bad personal experiences with a
    church, nor did a religious person do something to hurt me
    at some time in the past, nor did I have a bad relationship 
    with my father.  I don't hate any country, and I'm not a
    communist, an anarchist, a nihilist, or a moral relativist.
    I don't want to outlaw religion.  I'm not angry or depressed.
    In fact, I'm a person just like you.  You probably wouldn't
    recognize me as an atheist if you passed me on the street.

       But I am indeed an atheist.  What this means, very simply,
    is that I don't believe in any gods. ...they're all imaginary--
    mere products of the human imagination and nothing more. 

Adam Lee goes on to address the objections to atheism-- apologetics, superstition, synchronicity of all belief systems into an uneasy product and why that fails, which god, facts and interpretations, logical fallacies-- and also the advantages and hope that atheism holds out to the world.  It is heady stuff.  Adam Lee handles many threads of information rather well.  His arguments are logical and easily understood.  He is knowledgeable about both religions and atheism.

sapphoq reviews says: Fans of Adam Lee's blog Daylight Atheism will feel quite at home here with his book.  Those who tend toward fundamentalism more than likely will not find anything good in its pages and that is a pity.  Those mystics who scour the internet for references to Jesus and anti-Jesus in order to defend their god against "personal" attacks will likely want to stage a book burning with this book as the center.
     Folks who might be interested in gaining a better understanding of what it is like to be an atheist in today's present-day society would do well to read this book.  Common myths are easily shattered.  The disadvantages to using mysticism as a basis for belief along with literal interpretations of old texts are carefully delineated here.  
    Atheists as a whole tend to be well-informed about various religious teachings and sects and their sacred books-- sometimes better informed than the believers.  There is no use of ad hominem in Daylight Atheism.  Athough some believers on Twitter and elsewhere degenerate into name-calling on a regular basis, Adam Lee sticks to arguments from reason.
     Highly recommended for thinking high school students on up to the most ardent believer and the most dedicated atheist alike.           

Atheist Manifesto by Michel Onfray

Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, Michel Onfray.  New York, Arcade Publishing: 2007, 2008, 2011.  e-book, 210 pps.

Michel Onfray is a French atheist whose writing should be better known in the States than it is.  His writing is scholarly and his grasp on history is immediately clear.  Atheist Manifesto is engrossing.  Onfray addresses the bloody parts of history that the institutions of the peoples of the book have orchestrated, the political scene behind the figure of Jesus, and the forgeries and fakery inherent in the whole mess.  I was amazed to learn that Dewey was anti-intellectual-- this is a factoid that the folks teaching the teachers neglect to mention when covering him.  I was aware that William James was a bit on the whoo-whoo side but Onfray's writing really brings this home.  A lot to learn in this volume, even for the seasoned atheist.

sapphoq reviews says:  Michel Onfray's Atheist Manifesto should not be ignored.  It is a definitive work and points up why the old "you can believe what you want and so can I" is intellectually dishonest.  This book should be required reading in divinity schools.  It is deconstruction of monotheisms at its very very best.  Highly recommended.