Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart

Lex Bayer serves as a board member of the Humanist Connection, a humanist, atheist, and agnostic nonprofit organization serving Stanford University and Silicon Valley. His foray into the philosophy of belief began with an award-winning paper on religion while an undergrad at Stanford University. Lex is a technology entrepreneur and inventor holding more than twenty patents. As CEO and cofounder of his first company, he pioneered a payments platform that grew to service five million customers and was ultimately acquired by Visa Inc. John Figdor is the humanist chaplain serving atheist, humanist, and agnostic communities at Stanford University, where he organizes events and programs for both students and community members in the San Francisco Bay area. Figdor and his work have been discussed in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He speaks regularly around the United States on humanist topics. He holds a master of divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School and was previously the assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard. Visit their website at http://www.atheistmindhumanistheart.com/

Introduction: Questioning Everything
1Rewriting the Ten Commandments

Part I: A Framework for Facts
2The Paradox of Belief
3The Reasoning behind Reason
4Beliefs about the Unknown
5The Assumption of a God
6Putting Factual Beliefs to the Test

Part II: A Framework for Ethics
7From Beliefs to Behavior
8How “Ought” One Behave?
9Moral Happiness
10Societal Happiness
11Putting Ethical Beliefs to the Test
12Finding Your Own Non-Commandments

Acknowledgments
Appendix ACommon Religious Objections
Appendix BOur Ten Noncommandments
Appendix CTheorem of Belief
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Authors