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?
In place of Gideon’s bible, I nominate this poem, one of my favourites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus
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… 😀
I’ll have one with FSM, please.
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.
I think it should be Spinoza’s Ethics.
h. g. wells ‘outline of history’
bertrand russell’s ‘history of western philosophy’ and
carl sagan’s ‘cosmos’
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Or perhaps,
‘Beelzebub’s tales to his grandson’ by Gurdjieff.
Actually I think Lucretius is a perfect choice.
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…
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.
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.
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
Pantagruel – sorry
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
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.
I think Atheists should just go for the real thing and order a Chocolate Cake.
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.
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.
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
Collin237: A mind, like Lucretius