[extropy-chat] Atheist Hymn Book

[Emlyn]

Hi all,

I just watched those vids on youtube of Richard Dawkins talking about
his new book "The God Delusion" [1], and was inspired. Imagine someone
taking the case for Atheism out there in times like these, especially
in the US! What a legend. I haven't read the book yet, unfortunately,
still have to go get myself a copy.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about one of the big things that Atheism
lacks, which is the traditions and general apparatus of religion.
Holidays, ceremonies, teachings, community. Culture.

For those who don't know me, I'm a singer, and sing in a lot of
christian churches, solo and choral, but I've been an atheist all my
life  Actually by Huxley's definition I'm an agnostic, but in the hard
sense of "the existence of god is unknowable by definition", which is
in practice a hardline atheist (in that for me theism falls in the
santa clause, tooth fairy, etc camp, strictly unknowable and therefore
by Occam's Razor to be sliced out of any model of reality). Yet I
spend a lot of time in churches, as part of the church community,
because it is the institution that most supports a type of music that
I am involved in (church music, choral music, oratorio, etc). I don't
attend church as part of the flock, only as part of the show.

The culture that comes with religion is easy to deride, but I've been
seeing it in detail as an outsider for many years now. The
cultural/community side of the church clearly provides purpose and
meaning to many people, and the labours of people involved in it seem
to do an awful lot of good. There's a lot of feeding the poor, caring
about injustices, working for a better future, going on in the
grassroots of the churches (especially the old ones). I put this down
to the focus of religion, which is to think about the basis for and
reason for existence. Although they clearly get the answers dreadfully
wrong, this focus, and the associated devotion to at least a couple of
hours every week to getting together with other likeminded people and
ruminating on the big questions, seems to create groups of people who
can find it in their hearts to do something (even something miniscule)
to improve the lot of other people who need help.

Now, there are atheist equivalents of course - all secular endeavour
could be classed in this way. I'm not saying that atheists are
heartless uncaring bastards, far from it. However, there does seem to
be a gap there, no sense of the unity, the community and culture, that
religious people enjoy.

Again, as far as culture goes, that doesn't matter so much a lot of
the time, because all of secular culture counts as atheist culture by
default (does it?). However, the acknowledgement of a scientific world
view, and the way that ties in with the very human sense of wonder and
appreciation of the universe, is something that doesn't really seem to
get a run. Especially in a time when theists are more prevalent, and
at times more oppressive, than they've been in a long while (people in
the US might particularly resonate with this), it's a time when
atheism as a world view could do with a bit more unity, a bit more
cohesion. I think this requires some kind of establishment of
culture/community/tradition.

I think establishing atheist community is a hard problem. Dawkins says
in one of the videos that organising atheists is like herding cats,
and I believe there is a very good reason for this, which is that
Atheism is not a belief system, it is a lack of belief. Contrary to
many religious folks' contention that atheism is just another defacto
belief system (and hence equivalent to religion), it is this aspect of
it (that there is no culture/community) which most clearly shows that
it is not. I think in the end, it is very much harder for people to
rally around a lack of belief in something, than it is to rally around
a positive belief. Furthermore, the *only* tenet of atheism is to be
without god, so atheists differ greatly in their beliefs and values.

Nevertheless, I think it would be a worthwhile thing to try to
establish such community, now more so than ever. Atheism is a dirty
word these days, it's a scary time to stand up and commit to being
one.

To this end, in my own little way I'd like to try to add a bit of
celebratory culture, by way of some music. As I said above, I sing a
lot of religious music[2], and would love to have music that had the
same benefits (expressing the big issues of life) without the
drawbacks (fundamentally flawed premise).

So in my long winded way, I'm asking a question, which is, if there
were to be an Atheist hymn book, what would be in it? New music, or
existing songs, both are ok. What would the songs be about? What do we
have to celebrate, and how would you like to hear it expressed?

So, got ideas?

Emlyn
http://www.emlynoregan.com

[1] Reading of The God Delusion in Lynchburg, VA
http://richarddawkins.net/article,303,Reading-of-The-God-Delusion-in-Lynchburg-VA,Richard-Dawkins--C-SPAN2

[2] Godless Heathen (an article by me about why I sing religious music)
http://emlynoregan.com/wu_Generic.aspx?PageName=showarticle&AID=1