Lex Bayer - Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century

Praise for Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart

It is welcoming and refreshing to see a book on atheism that is not a polemic but a respectful and reasonable discussion of how a nonbeliever might engage the large questions that every human faces. Readers might discover that believers and humanist atheists share more in common than they think.

Dudley Rose, associate dean at Harvard Divinity School

Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart delivers compelling answers to the simple question of what we should each believe. This easily understandable yet profound guide will leave you inspired to define your own beliefs.

Peter Boghossian, Portland State University, author of A Manual for Creating Atheists

The authors approach their very readable and engaging refurbishment of the Ten Commandments with wisdom, intelligence, accessibility, lucidity, and almost pious sensitivity. However, to increase the sum of human happiness, I would add one non-commandment to their ten: Thou shalt read this book!

Peter Atkins, Lincoln College, University of Oxford

Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart exemplifies a welcome new trend in secular Americathe turning of attention from all thats wrong with religion to a positive vision of what nonreligious people can be for and about. With clear heads and good hearts, Lex Bayer and John Figdor articulate a way to be secular that is not just rational but also compassionate and devoted to expanding the public good.

Tom Krattenmaker, USA Today contributing columnist, author of The Evangelicals You Dont Know

What a smart and joyful readlike a flight over the terrain of my own mind and heart with intelligent guides to point out what Ive never noticed before.

Dale McGowan, 2008 Harvard Humanist of the Year, author of Parenting Beyond Belief , Raising Freethinkers , and Atheism for Dummies

Conversational, thoughtful, inviting. A very reasonable, very sound, and at times quite visionary offering.

Phil Zuckerman, Pitzer College, author of Living the Secular Life

An excellent book; worth reading regardless of ones religious or a-religious inclinations. Delicate, fair, courteous, the authors are expressing their humility and courage, not confrontation or condemnation. They face every issue in a penetrating, transparent, and down-to-earth way. It is unreservedly honest, written with genuineness, and holding nothing back.

Raymond F. Paloutzian, coeditor of Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality , 2nd Edition

Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart is a wonderful exploration of life as a religious skeptic. Truth, meaning, and fulfillmentBayer and Figdor show that there is much awaiting those who step away from superstition and embrace life in the real world.

David Niose, president of the Secular Coalition of America, former president of the American Humanist Association, author of Nonbeliever Nation

Ive devoted my adult life to encouraging everyone to check societys work: How do you know there is a god or gods? What makes you think that democracy is the best form of government? Figdor and Bayer have done a beautiful thing in Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart as they have presented their moral theory. They have shown their work. In doing so, they have presented moral problems as something that all people must and can engage personally. I love it!

August E. Brunsman IV, executive director of Secular Student Alliance

With more and more young Americans abandoning organized religion today, toward what values and institutions canand shouldthey turn to construct a morally coherent world? This gently voiced but finely crafted book offers answers that may surprise you and will certainly engage you. If you are among those who want to know more than what you dont believe, Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart offers a rich opportunity to discover whats worth believingand whyin a world moving past traditional religious institutions and creeds.

Richard Parker, Harvard Kennedy School

Starting with a simple question, What do I believe? the authors take us on a delightful journey to uncover the truth behind what forms our core beliefs.

David Silverman, president of American Atheists

This book is NOT the Ten Commandments 2.0. Its what you get when you use the tools of reason and humanism to rationally craft and promote better ways of life for everyone in the modern world and beyond.

David Fitzgerald, author of Nailed and The Complete Heretics Guide to Western Religion

Okay, so youve become an atheist. Now what? Read this book. Thats my recommendation. It will help you build a new foundation for thinking and living a good life without God.

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

Atheists need to begin constructing positive principles to live byand Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart provides a thorough demonstration of how to do just that.

Paul Chiariello, cofounder of Yale Humanist Community, editor of Applied Sentience

Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart

Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century

Lex Bayer and John Figdor

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

16 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BT, United Kingdom

Copyright 2014 by Lex Bayer and John Figdor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bayer, Lex.

Atheist mind, humanist heart : rewriting the Ten commandments for the twenty-first century / Lex Bayer and John Figdor.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3679-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-3680-6 (electronic)

1. Atheism. 2. Conduct of life. 3. Ethics. I. Title.

BL2747.3.B39 2014

211'.8dc23

2014025506

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

In tribute to:

My father, who taught me to have a curious mind

Lex Bayer

My parents, for the education and encouragement they gave me

John Figdor

Contents

Introduction: Questioning Everything

In order to determine whether we can know anything with certainty, we first have to doubt everything we know.

Descartes

Lex Bayer

I was standing in my high school synagogue in South Africa, waving my clenched fist in a circle above my head. Seven times we were supposed to wave a coin above our heads while chanting a special prayer.

I was fulfilling the Jewish practice of Kapparot. On the morning preceding Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, tens of thousands of Jews perform this ceremony. The ritual is supposed to transfer ones sins from oneself to the coin.

There I was, performing this ritual, surrounded by nearly nine hundred other students all twirling our hands above our heads and loudly chanting the same ancient prayer. Peering around at all those waving hands, my own twirls began to slow. What am I doing? I asked myself. Why am I doing something so weird?

I slowly lowered my hand. I just couldnt do it anymore.

The school was a secular Jewish day school. Science and literature were as much a part of the syllabus as Jewish studies. What had caused me and all these other well-educated, rational young adults to do something so strange, simply because we had been told to do so? As it turns out, the ritual is even more bizarre in its original (and still practiced) formthe believer swings not a coin but a live chicken. Yes, the picture in your mind is correctthe more religious Jews swing a live chicken above their heads to rid themselves of their sins. The coin is just a modern alternative for those without ready access to live poultry.