Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life?

Re:Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life? by onecommentman on Thursday December 24, 2020 @05:41PM (#25532188)

Atheist or hard agnostic?

Agnostic as in “I haven’t had an experience to suggest there is a God”.

Atheist as in “my faith-based initiative is to totally believe there isn’t a God”.

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Re:Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life? by mkl on Friday December 25, 2020 @09:10AM (#25536563)

Atheism is not generally faith-based. That's kind of the whole point.

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Re:Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life? by aronpye on Friday December 25, 2020 @11:53AM (#25537500)

Yes it is, you believe there isn’t a God if you’re an atheist. At this time there isn’t a way to prove there isn’t a God.

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Re:Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life? by mkl on Friday December 25, 2020 @07:54PM (#25540426)

Proof of absence is not required for lack of belief, and lack of belief in any god makes me an atheist [1]. There's nothing faith-based about it.

There are millions of other things I don't believe in too; it's the default position in many cases.

[1] That's the definition: "a person who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods" - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheist

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Re:Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life? by heintzsight on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @05:30PM (#25652113)

I'd argue that it is still a statement of faith.

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Re:Ask HN: What was a book that changed your life? by nicharesuk on Friday December 25, 2020 @07:42AM (#25536128)

To respond to this distinction and stay on topic, a book I'd recommend is Atheism: The Case against god by George H Smith.

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