NASA: "You're the one who gets to read all the accusatory letters we get sent demanding we release 'alien booty' from Area 51, which isn't even owned by us"
Chief of UFO Research: "I better get good mental health insurance."
this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
38 points (95.2% liked)
Atheism
3970 readers
1 users here now
Community Guide
Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.
Statement of Purpose
- This is a support and conversation community for people who don't believe in gods.
- Superstition hucksters have no reason to subscribe or post here at all.
- If you are looking to debate or proselytize, options will be linked lower in the sidebar.
Acceptable
- Honest questions or conversations.
- Discussions on parenting or advice.
- Struggles, frustrations, coming out.
- Atheist memes. We can have fun!
- News headlines relevant to atheism.
Unacceptable
Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.
- Anything against site rules.
- Illegal and/or NSFW material.
- Troll posts and comments. There will be no attempt to explain what that means.
- Leading questions, agenda pushing, or disingenuous attempts to bait members.
- Personal attacks or flaming.
Inadvisable
- Self promotion or upvote farming.
- Excessive shitposting or off-topic discussion.
Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.
Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.
~ /c/nostupidquestions
If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!
Connect with Atheists
- Matrix: #atheism:envs.net
Help and Support Links
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- The Secular Therapy Project
- Secular Students Alliance
- Black Nonbelievers
- The Clergy Project
- Atheist Alliance International
- Sunday Assembly
- Atheist Ireland
- Atheism UK
- Atheists United
Streaming Media
This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.
- Atheist Debates - Matt Dillahunty
- Rationality Rules
- Friendly Atheist
- Making Sense with Sam Harris
- Cosmic Skeptic
- Genetically Modified Skeptic
- Street Epistemology
- Armored Skeptic
- NonStampCollector
Orgs, Blogs, Zines
- Center for Inquiry
- American Atheists
- Humanists International
- Atheist Republic
- The Brights
- The Angry Atheist
- History for Atheists
- Rationalist International
- Atheist Revolution
- Debunking Christianity
- Godless Mom
- Atheist Freethinkers
Mainstream
Bibliography
Start here...
...proceed here.
- God is Not Great (Hitchens)
- The God Delusion (Dawkins)
- The End of Faith (Harris)
- Why I Am Not a Christian (Russell)
- Letter to a Christian Nation (Harris)
Proselytize Religion
From Reddit
As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
For a minute I thought this was the sad update to their potential evidence of life on K2-18b.
Thankfully, that is still a tantalizing possibility.
As a biologist, I think there’s a pretty good possibility that extraterrestrial life exists. What I mean by that is that there is a reasonable chance that ecosystems that have no relationship to terrestrial life exist on other planets. We do not have enough information to speculate about how common it might be, but we do have an idea about what kinds of conditions might be necessary to evolve what we would consider a loving ecosystem.
By the same line of reasoning, I am very skeptical that anything we classify as UFOs - or any sign of technological civilization in general, actually exists.
I am among the people who believe multiple intelligences exist - that octopuses and ravens and dolphins and chimpanzees are all intelligent for any meaningful definition of the word. I think theory of mind is widespread and has multiple evolutionary origins, and that these things are best thought of as continuous variables rather than Boolean.
That said, in 4.5 billion years we’ve evolved a single line that went on to produce cities and spaceships. That says to me that it’s not a statistically likely line of development. The fact that it’s been so off-the-charts successful in terms of ecosystem resource domination tells us that it’s a very, very good idea. The fact that it’s happened once says it’s hard to get to.
It’s going to take more than fuzzy videos and the testimony of a handful of people to convince me. I want cell samples. I want to know what they use for DNA. I want to know their physiology and their ecosystem complexity and their evolutionary history.
When o think about what might be possible for extraterrestrial life, I think about what evolved early (eg cells), and what evolved multiple times (eg eyes). The further you get from that, the less confident I am.