Read A Manual for Creating Atheists Online
Authors: Peter Boghossian
It is
crucial
that the religious exemption for delusion be removed from the DSM. Once religious delusions are integrated into the DSM, entirely new categories of research and treatment into the problem of faith can be created. These will include removal of existing ethical barriers, changing treatments covered by insurance, including faith-based special education programs in the schools, helping children who have been indoctrinated into a faith tradition, and legitimizing interventions designed to rid subjects of the faith affliction.
Removing the exemption that classifies a phenomenon as an officially recognized psychiatric disorder legitimizes research designed to cure the disorder. These classifications also enable researchers to assess their treatments and to continue to build upon what works. Of course there will be institutional and social barriers discouraging research into controversial areas, but with this one change
the
major barrier—receiving approval from the IRB to disabuse human subjects of faith—would be
instantly
overcome.
There is perhaps no greater contribution one could make to contain and perhaps even cure faith than removing the exemption that prohibits classifying religious delusions as mental illness. The removal of religious exemptions from the DSM would enable academicians and clinicians to bring considerable resources to bear on the problem of treating faith, as well as on the ethical issues surrounding faith-based interventions. In the long term, once these treatments and this body of research is refined, results could then be used to inform public health policies designed to contain and ultimately eradicate faith.
INTERVENTION
On October 25, 2011, at Portland State University, I delivered a lecture for Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society. Sigma Xi is an organization comprised of professional researchers and academicians. This particular meeting was an interdisciplinary event attended by approximately two hundred science leaders throughout Oregon.
The original title of my lecture was, “Jesus, Muhammad, the Tooth Fairy, and Other Evil Creatures.” However, the organizer of the event politely asked me to tone down the title. I submitted the following, which was accepted without question: “Jesus, Mother Teresa, the Tooth Fairy, and Other Evil Creatures.”
After my talk, during the question and answer, an academician in the audience (AA) raised his hand.
AA: I’m very offended by what you’ve said here tonight.
(The room goes silent.)
PB: Your offense means nothing to me. If you have arguments or evidence I’d like to hear what you have to say. You saying that you’re offended carries no weight. Nor should it.
AA: My wife was healed by Jesus Christ.
PB: How do you know that? People get sick and recover from illnesses all the time. What would make you think that your god had anything to do with it?
AA: She was suffering from an incurable illness.
This is an example of Kazez’s “bullying ideas off of the table.” AA wanted to shut down the discourse, presumably because he didn’t think these issues should be discussed in public. And, in fact, not only did the room go silent, but I also saw virtually everybody hunch down as if they were trying to disappear.
Subsequent to this two attendees approached me to say that my not being cowed by his behavior was a seminal event in their lives. They’d never seen anyone stand up and voice their public opposition to a privileged faithbased claim. One young woman even told me that seeing me confront AA changed her life. She said it gave her hope.
DIG DEEPER
Themes Related to Parenting:
Books for Children
In the realm of children’s books that meet the criteria of instilling a sense of awe, wonder, and comfort with not knowing, three books standout. Each of these books starts children on an anti-dogmatic path to wisdom:
Richard Dawkins and Dave McKean,
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True
(Dawkins & McKean, 2011)
Annaka Harris,
I Wonder
(Harris, forthcoming)
Stephen Law,
Really, Really Big Questions
(Law, 2012)
Books on Raising Skeptical (Atheist) Children
Dale McGowan,
Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief
(McGowan, 2007)
Dale McGowan,
Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion
(McGowan, 2009)
Entertainment for Teens
Baba Brinkman (
http://www.bababrinkman.com/
): “Baba Brinkman is a Canadian rap artist, writer, actor, and tree planter. He is best known for his award-winning hip-hop theater shows, including
The Rap Guide to Evolution
and
The Canterbury Tales Remixed
, which interpret the works of Darwin and Chaucer for a modern audience.”
Online Resource
Atheist Parents (
http://www.atheistparents.org/index.php
): “We are dedicated to helping parents worldwide to raise well-educated, thoughtful, ethical, socially responsible, environmentally aware, and most importantly, godless children.”
Secular Camps
Camp Quest (
http://www.campquest.org/
): “Camp Quest provides an educational adventure shaped by fun, friends and freethought, featuring science, natural wonder and humanist values.”
Camp Inquiry (
http://www.campinquiry.org/
): “This is a place where kids can be themselves. We work toward helping youth confront the challenges of living a non-theistic, skeptical, and secular lifestyle in a world dominated by religious belief and pseudoscience. Grounded on the conviction that kids can begin establishing habits of the good and ethical life early on, Camp Inquiry adopts a three-part focus: The arts and sciences
,
the skeptical perspective, and ethical character development comprise an integrated approach to this ‘Age of Discovery.’ Campers, counselors, and teachers will address key issues around individual identity, forging trusting relationships, establishing a sense of local and global community, and living with respect for the natural world.”
Skepticism for Teens Magazine
Junior Skeptic (
http://www.skeptic.com/junior_skeptic/
): “Bound into every issue of
Skeptic
magazine,
Junior Skeptic
is an engagingly illustrated science and critical thinking publication for younger readers.”
Themes Unrelated to Parenting:
Books
Russell Blackford,
Freedom of Religion and the Secular State
(Blackford, 2012b)
Sean Faircloth,
Attack Of The Theocrats! How The Religious Right Harms Us All—And What We Can Do About It
(Faircloth, 2012)
Brian Leiter,
Why Tolerate Religion?
(Leiter, 2012)
Darrel Ray,
The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture
(Ray, 2009)
Al Stefanelli,
Free Thoughts—A Collection of Essays by an American Atheist
(Stefanelli, 2012a)
Katherine Stewart,
The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children
(Stewart, 2012)
Online Article
Ryan Cragun, “How Secular Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States” (Cragun, Yeager, & Vega, 2012)
Suggested Academic-Community Partners
The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF;
http://www.randi.org/site/
): “The James Randi Educational Foundation was founded in 1996 to help people defend themselves from paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. The JREF offers a still-unclaimed milliondollar reward for anyone who can produce evidence of paranormal abilities under controlled conditions. Through scholarships, workshops, and innovative resources for educators, the JREF works to inspire this investigative spirit in a new generation of critical thinkers.”
The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS;
http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org/
): “The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.”
Secular Student Alliance (SSA;
http://www.secularstudents.org/about
): “The mission of the Secular Student Alliance is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics. We envision a future in which nontheistic students are respected voices in public discourse and vital partners in the secular movement’s charge against irrationality and dogma.”
The Skeptics Society and
Skeptic
Magazine (
http://www.skeptic.com/
): “The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) scientific and educational organization whose mission is to engage leading experts in investigating the paranormal, fringe science, pseudoscience, and extraordinary claims of all kinds, promote critical thinking, and serve as an educational tool for those seeking a sound scientific viewpoint. Our contributors—leading scientists, scholars, investigative journalists, historians, professors and teachers—are top experts in their fields. It is our hope that our efforts go a long way in promoting critical thinking and lifelong inquisitiveness in all individuals.”
Secular Legal Support
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (
https://www.au.org/
): “Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.”
Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF;
http://ffrf.org/
): “The history of Western civilization shows us that most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion. In modern times the first to speak out for prison reform, for humane treatment of the mentally ill, for abolition of capital punishment, for women’s right to vote, for death with dignity for the terminally ill, and for the right to choose contraception, sterilization and abortion have been freethinkers, just as they were the first to call for an end to slavery. The Foundation works as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church.”
Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF;
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/
): “The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”
National Engagement Opportunities
American Atheists (
http://atheists.org/about-us
): “Since 1963, American Atheists has been the premier organization laboring for the civil liberties of atheists and the total, absolute separation of government and religion. It was born out of a court case begun in 1959 by the Murray family which challenged prayer recitation in the public schools… . Now in its 50th year, American Atheists is dedicated to working for the civil rights of atheists, promoting separation of state and church, and providing information about atheism.”
Center for Inquiry (
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/
): “The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. To oppose and supplant the mythological narratives of the past, and the dogmas of the present, the world needs an institution devoted to promoting science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is that institution.”
Council for Secular Humanism (
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php
): “The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to advocate and defend a nonreligious lifestance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics and to serve and support adherents of that lifestance.”
Foundation Beyond Belief (
http://foundationbeyondbelief.org/
): “ To demonstrate humanism at its best by supporting efforts to improve this world and this life, and to challenge humanists to embody the highest principles of humanism, including mutual care and responsibility.”
Freedom From Religion Foundation (
http://ffrf.org/
)
Secular Coalition for America (
http://secular.org
): “The Secular Coalition for America is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization whose purpose is to amplify the diverse and growing voice of the nontheistic community in the United States. We are located in Washington, D.C. for ready access to government, activist partners and the media. Our staff lobbies U.S. Congress on issues of special concern to our constituency.”
Entertainment
It is not a coincidence that depictions of a godless world commonly occur in television and movies that take place in the future.
Babylon 5
Blake’s 7
Farscape
Stargate Universe
Star Trek
NOTES
It is possible for religious language to fall into disuse. Witness the women’s movement—words and titles have, in one generation, been changed—Mrs. to Ms., spokesman to spokesperson, stewardess to flight attendant, fireman to firefighter, etc.
What figures like Nietzsche teach us is that the sense of meaninglessness is a result of millennia of dependency on mythological thinking. When myths are shown to be false, the result is a sense of despair because we’ve been dependent upon them for so long. The step out of meaninglessness should not be dependency on a new myth (the New Age movement, Scientology, Mormonism), but self-sufficiency and a tough-mindedness that is weary of resting the sense of meaning on what someone else has said or done or promised. We have to earn meaning for ourselves.
The sequence of escaping myth is: dependency, despair, reawakening, and self-sufficiency that embraces the value of tough-minded living.
Many people are willing to picket an event, but few are willing to organize an event. Find someone who’s willing to organize an event and tell them you’ll attend.
But beyond this, these partnerships enable me to find students who are passionate about, and committed to, spreading reason and rationality. It’s an amazing opportunity for students to improve their writing, delve into a topic in great depth, and have a competitive advantage when they apply to graduate schools.
We need to institutionalize the way we deal with cognitive contamination by virulent epistemologies. Future generations will likely view the eradication of epistemological contagions in the same way that previous generations viewed the importance of eradicating smallpox and polio.
Whether or not we can be successful in helping people see value in epistemological rigor is an empirical question. I have my own speculation that this can be accomplished through pop culture—for example, comic books and TV shows for children that personify new heroes, Epistemic Knights, and new villains, Faith Monsters.