Currently reporting from a tiny, hip hotel at an undisclosed location on the West Coast. Of the various ways in which this establishment brands itself as edgy and unconventional, there is no standard-issue Gideon Bible tucked in a drawer somewhere in each room. Instead, one is presented with a small laminated Spiritual Menu — a list of texts that can be fetched up to your room by a quick call to the front desk. Options include:
- Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation
- Book of Mormon
- Buddhist Bible
- KJV Gift and Award Bible: Revised Edition, King James Version
- The Koran
- New American Bible
- Tao Te Ching
- The Torah: The Five Books of Moses, Standard Edition
- Book on Scientology
Probably, like me, you are wondering why there aren’t any options available for atheists. (Tedious explanatory note, since this is the internet: I am not really serious. Therefore, please to not respond with a lecture on why, when faced with a “Spiritual Menu,” the proper response for an atheist is simply to fast.) I mean, there have to be more of us than Scientologists, right? Although perhaps not among people who matter.
On the other hand, it’s not clear what would constitute an appropriate choice, as atheists have never been very big on sacred texts. I can think of a few possibilities. Something like The God Delusion wouldn’t be right, regardless of its various warts and charms, as it’s essentially reactive in nature — talking about why one shouldn’t believe in God, rather than celebrating or elaborating how to live as a cheerful materialist. Something like On the Origin of Species or Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems would be interesting choices, although they are too specialized to really fit the bill. You could make a very good case for a modern post-Enlightenment book like Richard Rorty’s Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, as a serious (if not especially systematic) attempt to figure out how we should deal with a contingent world free of any guidance from outside.
But I would probably vote for Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). As good empiricists, we should recognize that a classic text doesn’t have to get everything right, as our understanding continues to be revised and improved. So why not go for a true classic? Writing in the first century BCE, Lucretius (a Roman admirer of the Greek philosopher Epicurus) took materialism seriously, and thought deeply about the place of human beings in a world governed by the laws of nature. He advocated skepticism, dismissed the idea that life continued after death in any form, preached personal responsibility, and thought hard about science, especially the role of atoms and statistical mechanics. (Slightly ahead of his time.) And the book itself comes in the form of an occasionally-inscrutable poem, originally in Latin. Which adds a certain gravitas, if you know what I mean.
And, verily, those tortures said to be
In Acheron, the deep, they all are ours
Here in this life. No Tantalus, benumbed
With baseless terror, as the fables tell,
Fears the huge boulder hanging in the air:
But, rather, in life an empty dread of Gods
Urges mortality, and each one fears
Such fall of fortune as may chance to him.
It’s far from a perfect book — when it comes to sexuality, in particular, Lucretius stumbles a bit. But I’ll take it over any of the Spiritual Menu offerings, any day.
Shall we take up a collection to leave copies of Lucretius in hotel rooms around the world?
August 11th, 2008 at 9:49 am
In place of Gideon’s bible, I nominate this poem, one of my favourites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus
August 11th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Well, Sean… I won’t “lecture” you… But -being a religious person, myself - a little bit of skepticism does a lot of good, now and then… IM(NS)HO, they should offer a skeptic alternative to “believers”. If they are “true believers”, it won’t hurt them. In the other hand…
August 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I’ll have one with FSM, please.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:12 am
In place of Gideon’s bible, I nominate this poem by William Henley:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of Circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of Chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I think it should be Spinoza’s Ethics.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:07 am
h. g. wells ‘outline of history’
bertrand russell’s ‘history of western philosophy’ and
carl sagan’s ‘cosmos’
August 11th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Hiss! Boo! Not Lucretius! Those old greeks may have stumbled on the truth once in a while, and yes they advocated skepticism, but did they really practice what they preached?
As for a secular alternative to the bible - moral lessons and apocryphal tales with some factual science and natural history thrown in - I’ll take “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman” any day.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I’d nominate Godel, Escher and Bach.
And for those who’ve read GEB, the almost unknown and non-existent in print:
Planescape Torment
http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html
August 11th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
How about the complete Winnie The Pooh collection?
It very astutely documents the beautiful pretend play of a child, but ultimately how we grow out personifying everything we can get our hands on, as comforting as it may be.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Jolly Bloger, calling Lucretius a “Greek” does not instill confidence that you are familiar with his work.
Spinoza would be an interesting choice — although the beginning of the book is all about the existence of God, so it’s a bit of a mixed message. (He really just means “Nature” or “the Universe,” but that might not be clear to tired travelers settling in to bed at night.)
I don’t think science books are really what we should be looking for; there is more to life than understanding how the physical universe behaves.
Winnie the Pooh is a great idea — although maybe a bit subtle.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Everyone, especially theists of any stripe, should read Joseph Campbell’s series: The Masks of God ( Vol-I - IV ).
Vol-I: Primitive Mythology: The primitive roots of the mythology of the world are examined in the light of (the most recent) discoveries in archaeology, anthropology and psychology. ( nb: This work bears a 1969 copyright )
Vol-II: Oriental Mythology: An exploration of Eastern mythology as it developed into the distinctive religions of Egypt, India, China and Japan.
Vol-III: Occidental Mythology: A systematic and fascinating comparison of the themes that underlie the art, worship and literature of the Western world.
Vol-IV: Creative Mythology: The whole inner story of modern culture, spanning our entire philosophical, spiritual and artistic history since the Dark Ages and treating modern man’s unique position as the creator of his own mythology.
The Vol descriptions are from the back flap except for my (nb) of course. This series should be required reading in the first 2 years of college if not sooner.
If that’s all too ambitious and idealistic then i suggest Thomas Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” for those shorter getaways. This one should be required reading in senior year of high school IMO. It might help undo the (usually permanent) damage high school Science education does to disenchant so many from choosing careers in Science.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Or perhaps,
‘Beelzebub’s tales to his grandson’ by Gurdjieff.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Actually I think Lucretius is a perfect choice.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Popular science books! A Brief History of Time, Your Inner Fish, The Selfish Gene. Granted, I try to make it a point to always take some new book to read with me when I travel, but I would definitely be in for texts like these at a hotel.
As cool as Lucretius was, having to fight for basic understanding of the words I’m reading never makes for a fun read for me…
August 11th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Actually, I think the athiest has a rather good choice that is already presented on the menu. The Tao Te Ching is much less concerned with spirituality and much more with the nature of man’s mind in relations to the world around him.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Sean–
A lot of eastern traditions (i.e., Taoism) really just mean ‘nature’ or ‘the universe’ when they talk about the divine. That doesn’t make them less deeply religious. Spinoza wold have seen himself as religious, though obviously not in complete agreement with contemporary rabbis.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I think Rabelais “The life of Gargrantua and of Pantgruel would be a sturdy stand-in
Reader, friends, if you turn these pages
Put your prejudices aside.
For really, there’s nothing here outrageous
Nothing sick,bad or contagious
Not that that I sit here glowing with pride
For my book: all you will find is laughter:
That’s all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you defeats you
I’d rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human and courageous.
BE HAPPY
August 11th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Pantagruel - sorry
August 11th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
If one supposes that heavier atoms on a straight course through empty space should outstrip lighter ones and fall on top of them from above, thus causing impacts that might give rise to generative motions, he is going far astray from the path of truth. The reason why objects falling through water or thin air vary in speed according to their weight is simply that the matter composing water or air cannot obstruct all object equally, but is forced to give way more speedily to heavier ones. But empty space can offer no resistance to any object in any quarter at any time, so as not yield free passage as its own nature demands. Therefore, through undisturbed vacuum all bodies must travel at equal speed though impelled by unequal weights.
Lucretius
August 11th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I’m guessing you are staying in the Hotel deLuxe in Portland. I was just there a week ago and they had a spiritual menu just as you described. It wasn’t terribly tiny, though, so maybe my guess is off.
They also had a pillow menu which I was a bigger fan of.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I think Atheists should just go for the real thing and order a Chocolate Cake.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Wow! A collection of quotes like these would make excellent reading for theists and atheists alike. A mind, like Lucretius’s, that can discover such things so far ahead of his time, is truly worthy of emulation.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I would cast my vote for “The Unexpected Universe” by Loren Eiseley. Full of poetry and a sense of wonder, well-grounded in scientific understanding, encountering reality and its implications for human beings on its own terms — perfect elements of a book of reflection for atheists.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Come on guys, the answer’s obvious. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam!
Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and–sans End!
Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare,
And those that after a TO-MORROW stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
“Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There!”
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d
Of the Two Worlds so learnedly, are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.
Oh, come with old Khayy
August 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Collin237: A mind, like Lucretius
August 11th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Secular Wholeness: A Skeptic’s Paths To A Richer Life by David Cortesi is an attempt to explain the primary benefits of religion (community, meditation, moral focus, etc) and how to obtain them without the religion itself. It would be perfect for filling this role.
August 11th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I think atheists should choose whatever they want to read themselves and should not be satisfied with a convenient choice offered by the hotel.
What is “Buddhist Bible” anyway?
August 11th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
scientology ? does the hotel get a kick-back on every pay-per-view tom cruise movie that they show
August 11th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Perhaps the phone book is atheist’s spiritual tome. Or the room service menu. Both lead to enlightenment. And pizza.
August 11th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
My vote is for the Particle Data Book.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I reckon they should provide the Rubber Bible.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godel_escher_bach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale
or, as ever, from PZ Myers,
AN ATHEIST’S CREED
I believe in time,
matter, and energy,
which make up the whole of the world.
I believe in reason, evidence and the human mind,
the only tools we have;
they are the product of natural forces
in a majestic but impersonal universe,
grander and richer than we can imagine,
a source of endless opportunities for discovery.
I believe in the power of doubt;
I do not seek out reassurances,
but embrace the question,
and strive to challenge my own beliefs.
I accept human mortality.
We have but one life,
brief and full of struggle,
leavened with love and community,
learning and exploration,
beauty and the creation of
new life, new art, and new ideas.
I rejoice in this life that I have,
and in the grandeur of a world that preceded me,
and an earth that will abide without me.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
No, but we could ask for a “Non-Spiritual” menu for some balance.
Determining the items on this menu would of course require thoughtful selection.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Interesting irony about “materialism” - as modal realists explain, we have no way to logically specify what it means to “really exist” in a material sense versus just being a “model world” with logical specifications but no “substance.” It is ironically “ineffable” like defining consciousness, and maybe time. OK, maybe our world really isn’t just like a model world but that itself becomes a sort of ineffable way to be different, so getting beyond pure logic has to come in somewhere.
A good book talking about all this and the concept of God/First Cause etc. in modern scientific and philosophical terms would be The Mind of God by Paul Davies. I also suggest Seven Mysteries of Life by Guy Murchie, which I think is hard to come by.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I suggest Mark Twain, Douglas Adams, or Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. They offer so much deep insight into the true nature of humans, the Universe and everything, along with a sober assessment of religion (’Letters From the Earth’ is brilliant). Also, there is much consolation in their writing - both through a good laugh, and through the companionship they offer every time they share the grievances of their day which, as it turns out, have not changed a bit.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Three things are certain in this world: death, taxes, and Neil B saying something about modal realists or modal realism (and that goes for all of Neil B.’s counterparts in other worlds).
As for the thread topic, I distinctly remember an article about a hotel which had taken out the Gideon bibles and replaced them with safe-sex kits. So, that would be my choice since I don’t like reading in hotel rooms anyway, but if Sean is going to pass a hat, then I’ll throw in a couple of bucks for Lucretius.
August 12th, 2008 at 12:45 am
This begets a great idea.
Hotels already have pay-per-view movies right?
Are there Hotels with pay per rent libraries?
Can everyday libraries start opening home-delivery accounts for hard-copy books?
(with centralised real-time databases and everything)
August 12th, 2008 at 1:26 am
My top choice would be Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
A version of the bible with better SNR might be useful as well. I’d imagine that to be the “wisdom” books of the old testament
August 12th, 2008 at 2:56 am
“If Madame would prefer a menu d
August 12th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Simon Critchley’s Very Little, Almost Nothing - a beautiful exploration of mortality from a completely irreligious point of view.
Includes a chapter on ‘Atheist Transcendence’ which manages to make that a serious possibility, rather than a contradiction in terms…
August 12th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
As an atheist, I’d prefer a Calvin and Hobbes book to be placed on the menu.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I think that spirituality becomes a topic where reasonable people can find common ground when it’s looked at from a non-doctrinal standpoint. Oftentimes, “New Age” stuff substitutes “alternative belief systems” for traditional ones, but I see no more hope for consensus around them than for accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior. Religious beliefs are not logically or empirically demonstrable.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Heh, Sad: I’m actually a bit disappointed that google for “neil b” + “modal realism” only gets eleven hits. BTW google for “quantum measurement paradox” and a post of mine is at number three and number four! That’s doing damn good for a subject google, baby, and it matters to me more than “modal realism.” About the latter, try the site http://www.modalrealism.com/. Isn’t that cool?
PS: I’d like to think that *some* other versions of me don’t care about modal realism, but it is so cool an idea that maybe they wouldn’t really be “Neil B’s” unless they got off on thinking about stuff like that. But I hope you aren’t disappointed that I don’t actually believe in modal realism, since I think our world is *not* just a mathematical structure!
Neil B.; extraordinary something or other …
August 12th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I would refer you to Penn Jillette’s “There Is No God”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015557
“I believe that there is no God. I’m beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God”
August 12th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Yes! I was reading this book (De Rerun Natura) when I was working on my thesis and was just looking for a few ‘cool sounding lines’, for a quote…but the whole book is just extremely good and ended up reading the whole thing. Of course, it doesn’t read like a ‘regular’ book, as the style is ancient and poetic.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Let’s not conflate “scientific” and “atheistic”.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Hmm. Galileo… not an atheist.
In fact, many of the well-regarded scientists you might name weren’t atheists, because science and atheism do not necessarily go together. There are plenty of scientific atheists, scientific theists, nonscientific atheists, and nonscientific theists. The theist/atheist spectrum is independent of the scientific one, because theism/atheism are not amenable to scientific evidence.
It might actually help many atheists to separate their scientism from their atheism, at least for the purpose of helping theists understand that their morality can be independent of their theism.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Atheists don’t have a bible. That would be counter-productive.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
If you click on my name, you can find my favorite bits from Lucretius, as well as a few other snippets of Latin poetry.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Isn’t part of the point of atheism that no one book, no matter how brilliant or historically relevant it may be, be looked at with undue reverence? If nothing is divinely inspired, everything is, ultimately, just a book. Adding atheism to the book list implies that it is a way of thinking akin to religion, which it most certainly is not.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:51 am
August 14th, 2008 at 7:25 am
It’s not, for people like Sean. It is, for people like Richard Dawkins.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I’m not an atheist, so it’s a bit strange for me to be offering an opinion. But I appreciate Sean’s call for discussion of what might be considered timeless atheist texts. One might reach for Hume’s “An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding,” but of course he was really agnostic. Maybe that shouldn’t bother atheists, I don’t know.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:05 am
I would strongly recommend “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark” by Carl Sagan and “On Human Nature” by E. O. Wilson as the two texts that most perfectly encompass Atheism today. I was shocked that no one had mentioned them before.
Additionally in answer to the Buddhist bible question I would suggest The Bodhichary?vat?ra, which is a fascinating read.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:05 am
I am not an atheist either: I simply do not see the point of having a belief that can never be verified or falsified.
Nonetheless, I believe that there are some books that everybody should read, independently of faith and cultural background. These books include, but are not limited to:
The Logic of Scientific Discovery, by Karl Popper (anything that Popper wrote is highly recommended);
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles MacKay;
Learned Optimism, by Martin Seligman;
English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, by Martin Wiener;
the Icelandic Sagas.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Snorri, maybe you should consider that much of what we take for common sense fact (world exists independently of observer, world is “real” in a way distinct from (alert!) modal realism’s notion of all possible worlds, and probabilities (can never be falsified since any outlier can eventually occur) etc. I wonder why those who say that verifiability matters so much, don’t spend more time picking on those (like Jason Dick) who consider the multiple-worlds postulate a game point. Where the hell are those other worlds?
BTW I believe there’s something more “behind” the universe’s existence because of insights about contingent existence etc, whether I can be “sure” or verify it or not. What proves the notions about what we should or should believe or is sensible etc, claims that something is meaningless unless verifiable are themselves based on arguments as ultimately non-empirical as the existence of God. Finally, Penn’s arguments are so pitifully simple-minded: by definition “God” is whatever the universe’s existence is contingent on if such be needed, so comparing it to a random entity like “an elephant in a trunk” with no ontological function (that can be defined w/o just being a smart-aleck ass) shows the man’s philosophical illiteracy. Well, he’s just a performer, but I can’t imagine what the excuse is for like-minded “philosophers” who offer such puerile rubbish.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Why the hell do hotels feel obliged to provide religious books for their clients in the first place? Why not books about various political stances, or about cooking, or about art, or about science? This kind of antiquated mentality that puts religious beliefs on a pedestal doesn’t need to be broadened to (illogically) include atheism, it just needs to go away.
—
On a completely different topic, I want to reply to the second paragraph of Neil B.’s comment 56. Defining God as “whatever the universe’s existence is contingent on” is the sort of tactic that makes atheists like me conclude that theologians and their fans are fundamentally dishonest. What if the thing that the universe’s existence is contingent on was a cellular automaton? Would you call it ‘God’? What if the thing that the universe is contingent on was something akin to a plant whose pollen develops into universes? Would you call it ‘God’? What if the thing that the universe is contingent on is a team of alien scientists (whose species evolved in another universe) who designed a universe-simulation? Would you call them ‘God’?
If you would call any of those things God, you’re being dishonest, because that’s not what people usually mean by the word. There is an infinity of things that our universe could be contingent upon that can’t be called God. A hypothesis’ number of rival hypotheses is what determines how a priori unlikely it is. Therefore, using analogies like a teapot orbiting the Sun beyond Mars’ orbit, or an invisible unicorn, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster is perfectly warranted.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Why the hell do hotels feel obliged to provide religious books for their clients in the first place? Why not books about various political stances, or about cooking, or about art, or about science?
Hotels are businesses, they are not there to try and influence the world view of their customers
August 16th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Neil B: your 1st paragraph would hardly be comprehensible with matching parentheses; with an unmatched parenthesis, it’s beyond me.
Anyway, as far as I can make out, your reply has little or nothing to do with what I said, which is that I do not see the point of having a belief whose truth or falsity will not affect me in any way. I was referring specifically to atheism, because, clearly, a belief in atheism would not change my behavior (except for motivating me to spend valuable time trying to convert others to atheism, maybe); while a religious belief would.
I do NOT believe that “verifiability matters so much”, or else why would I put Popper in my list?
BTW here are a few more books that I should have put in the list:
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie;
Winning the Games People Play, by Nathon Myron (probably the most underrated);
The Prince, by Niccolo’ Machiavelli;
The Art of War, by Sun Tzu.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:20 am
[…] of you scoffed last week when I mentioned that Lucretius had been a pioneer in statistical mechanics. (Not out loud, but inwardly, there was scoffing.) But […]
August 21st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
The Tao is a great read for this atheist.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Perhaps just a line of two from Shakespeare:
“A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Or…
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
August 28th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
If there were any good translations around, some poems of Norwegian humanist Arnulf