Atheism
Community Guide
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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.
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I brought this up on a different post where somebody made an offhand joke about masturbation addiction. Like clockwork, somebody showed up and was like, "Nuh-uh! You can get addicted to anything!"
It's going to be a while until we leave that idea behind, because now, it's not just the religious parroting the pseudoscience. The hyper-masculinity grift has gotten in on it, too, with concepts like semen retention, sometimes even plagiarizing purity culture outright.
I'm still operating on outdated studies likening porn to have similar effects on the brain as cocaine, any ideas where to find the correct information?
Honestly? As much as I hate the parent company, any recent studies you can find on Google Scholar. That's a great place to start. And don't just go with what the title of the paper says. Even if the title looks like it's pro- or anti-sex-addiction, the abstract usually gives a more nuanced perspective.
And as you look at the papers, just remember that religion would love to be right about how they personally interpret what their god says is "the right way to do it." If a paper ever makes claims that it's definitively proven that sex addiction is real, check the source; it's probably religious.
Porn, sex, and masturbation may accompany an addiction, but excessive activity is almost always a symptom of or in addition to other, deeper issues. In the papers you'll find from Scholar, you'll see a recurring theme: "it's complicated." To put it another way, someone who chronically masturbates is likely coping with a deeper trauma(s). When the trauma is dealt with, they may no longer compelled to masturbate, because masturbating does not itself appear to be addictive. Same with porn and sex.
The issue arises that when people engage in these activities more than their peers, they may assume they're behaving abnormally. Add on religion that has dogmatic rules about what is allowed, and that feeling of abnormality may be internalized as addiction, whereas a professional may find nothing unusual.
I came from a religion that promoted purity culture, and the idea that sex is addictive is simply a grotesque misrepresentation of the facts. If the science changes based on the facts and indicates that sex is addictive, I'll change my tune accordingly.
Until then, the "sex addict" proponents do not have a rigorous, data-backed leg to stand upon.
Thank you so much, it makes sense about the deeper issues. I just want a conclusion before I destroy my brain more than it is lol