The Atheist Guide to Christmas edition by Ariane Sherine Humor Entertainment eBooks
Download As PDF : The Atheist Guide to Christmas edition by Ariane Sherine Humor Entertainment eBooks 
42 atheist celebrities, comedians, scientists and writers give their funny and serious tips for enjoying the Christmas season.
When the Atheist Bus Campaign was first launched, over £150,000, was raised in four days - enough to place the advert 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life' on 800 UK buses in January 2009. Now dozens of atheist writers, comedians and scientists are joining together to raise money for a very different cause.
The Atheist's Guide to Christmas is a funny, thoughtful handbook all about enjoying Christmas, from 42 of the world's most entertaining atheists. It features everything from an atheist Christmas miracle to a guide to the best Christmas pop hits, and contributors include Richard Dawkins, Charlie Brooker, Derren Brown, Ben Goldacre, Jenny Colgan, David Baddiel, Simon Singh, AC Grayling, Brian Cox and Richard Herring.
The full book advance and all royalties will go to the UK HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust.
The Atheist Guide to Christmas edition by Ariane Sherine Humor Entertainment eBooks
(The following also appears on my blog, An Eclectic Mind.)A month or more ago, someone on Twitter tweeted a link to the Kindle version of The Atheist's Guide to Christmas for just $1. Like a lot of people, I consider a buck "why not?" money for anything that interests me. I followed the link and downloaded the book. It sat on my iPad for a while, half forgotten.
Sometime later, while I was eating alone in a restaurant in Phoenix, I cracked the cover (so to speak) and began reading it. It wasn't at all as I expected. It was so much better.
You see, I expected some sort of anti-religious rant against Christmas and everything concerned with it. Not sure why I expected this -- perhaps it's got something to do with the conservative media's perceived "war against Christmas" that crops up every year here in the U.S. If you believe the conservatives on FoxNews, etc., anyone who is not Christian hates Christmas and wants to destroy it. Following that line of reason, the folks who should hate it most are atheists, since they don't believe in any religious doctrines at all.
But that's not what this book was all about.
The Atheist's Guide to Christmas is a collection of 42 stories and essays from a variety of atheist scientists, comedians, philosophers, and writers. They include reminiscences (eg., Phil Plait's "Starry, Starry Night"), celebration suggestions (eg., Josie Long's "Things to Make and Do at Christmas"), scientific information (eg., Brian Cox's The Large Hadron Collider: A scientific Creation Story"), historical information (eg., Claire Rayner's "How to Have a Peaceful Pagan Christmas"), and tall tales (eg., Nick Doody's "How to Understand Christmas: A Scientific Overview").
Sure, there was the takeoff on Jeeves and Wooster by Richard Dawkins in which Woofter and Jarvis engage in a conversation about the existence of God, Jesus's part in the Holy Trinity, and bible inconsistencies. But that was just one small chapter in a very large book. Most of the book is very positive and uplifting, encouraging non-believers to enjoy the Christmas season the way most believers do: with decorations, big meals, gift giving, and gatherings of friends and family members.
The book makes it clear that you don't need to believe in God or religious doctrines to enjoy a holiday that just happens to coincide with the winter solstice. (Not exactly a coincidence, but try to explain that to a believer.) It also offers plenty of helpful tips and advice for getting along with believers during a holiday that may have some serious religious significance to them.
I'm about halfway through the book -- although I do admit that I began reading by using the interactive table of contents to pick and choose among the essays I wanted to read first. While some chapters are better than others as far as their relevance to my personal thoughts about Christmas, I'm certain that any atheist would find something of value in its pages. Likewise, I don't think any believers would be offended by its contents. As the book's introduction states, The Atheist's Guide to Christmas is an "atheist book it's safe to leave around your granny." Indeed, I'm certain that even believers would find a lot of content in this book to help make their Christmas celebrations more enjoyable -- without threatening their beliefs.
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The Atheist Guide to Christmas edition by Ariane Sherine Humor Entertainment eBooks Reviews
I enjoyed the book but really was hoping for a few more laughs and less sentamentality. I read the book after hearing about in on either the Savage Lovecast or NPR (how can I mix those up?). While I like it, I couldn't help being a little disappointed due to my preconceived (and admittedly unjustified) idea of it's humor quotient.
Great book!
I've only read 6 chapters thus far (out of order...I love that feature about this book). One chapter was one of the most hilarious things I've ever read, and a couple others were pretty darn funny. Some aren't so much funny as cute stories. For a $10.00 book, I'd say you more than get your money's worth in this one - definitely a good read for any agnostic or athiest.
This volume is a compilation of essays by those who may label themselves atheist, or at least agnostic. So what do they have to say about Christmas? Actually, there are a number of entries which are very relevant to the spirit of Christmas (atheist or not) and the historical significance of the date itself. Even Christian scholars are likely to agree that Jesus was not born on December 25th. In fact, he probably was born two to four years BC. Anyhow, those subjects are broached, but others too. Many of the chapters are very good reads, but I would warn you that most are very "British." Some of the humor may be tough to get by an American. There are times when I really had to think about what was being said and then I realized the writer was being funny. There are times when some of the writers refer to things that I was completely ignorant of because I don't watch BBC 1,2,3 or 4 (or whatever). One chapter of particular interest to astronomers was contributed by American astronomer Phil Plait. He addresses the issue of the star of Christmas, if indeed that is what it was. He also reveals much about his own history, which may be of interest to his thousands of bloggers. Many of the contributions are thought provoking, whether you agree with them or not. There are a few chapters which I think, had they been left out, would have made this volume better, and shorter.
very nice!
Lightened up my crabby attitude at Xmas time.
It was hard to rate, though - some entries are stellar, some I just skipped because I was falling asleep. As one would expect of any semi-random group, the comedians/philosophers/scientists/authors/etc who wrote the chapters are split about half and half between those who enjoy Christmas and those who don't.
My favorite chapter is "How To Escape From Christmas" by Andrew Mueller. People who try to opt out of Christmas dinners are usually either dismissed as Scrooges or immediately invited to the house of everyone with an extra chair, which means instead of guiltlessly staying at home by the fire with your feet up, a good book, and a cup of cocoa, you now have to delicately explain that you don't WANT to spend Christmas with your generous-but-misguided friend (in case it requires explanation, "misguided" here means they've just been told you want to spend Christmas by yourself, and assume you're angling for a dinner invitation).
I LOVE Mueller's suggestion for dealing with this - get on a plane late on December 24th that will be refueling in some conveniently non-Christian spot, and arrive in Australia on December 26th for beaches and sunshine. I think I'll try this next year.
(The following also appears on my blog, An Eclectic Mind.)
A month or more ago, someone on Twitter tweeted a link to the version of The Atheist's Guide to Christmas for just $1. Like a lot of people, I consider a buck "why not?" money for anything that interests me. I followed the link and downloaded the book. It sat on my iPad for a while, half forgotten.
Sometime later, while I was eating alone in a restaurant in Phoenix, I cracked the cover (so to speak) and began reading it. It wasn't at all as I expected. It was so much better.
You see, I expected some sort of anti-religious rant against Christmas and everything concerned with it. Not sure why I expected this -- perhaps it's got something to do with the conservative media's perceived "war against Christmas" that crops up every year here in the U.S. If you believe the conservatives on FoxNews, etc., anyone who is not Christian hates Christmas and wants to destroy it. Following that line of reason, the folks who should hate it most are atheists, since they don't believe in any religious doctrines at all.
But that's not what this book was all about.
The Atheist's Guide to Christmas is a collection of 42 stories and essays from a variety of atheist scientists, comedians, philosophers, and writers. They include reminiscences (eg., Phil Plait's "Starry, Starry Night"), celebration suggestions (eg., Josie Long's "Things to Make and Do at Christmas"), scientific information (eg., Brian Cox's The Large Hadron Collider A scientific Creation Story"), historical information (eg., Claire Rayner's "How to Have a Peaceful Pagan Christmas"), and tall tales (eg., Nick Doody's "How to Understand Christmas A Scientific Overview").
Sure, there was the takeoff on Jeeves and Wooster by Richard Dawkins in which Woofter and Jarvis engage in a conversation about the existence of God, Jesus's part in the Holy Trinity, and bible inconsistencies. But that was just one small chapter in a very large book. Most of the book is very positive and uplifting, encouraging non-believers to enjoy the Christmas season the way most believers do with decorations, big meals, gift giving, and gatherings of friends and family members.
The book makes it clear that you don't need to believe in God or religious doctrines to enjoy a holiday that just happens to coincide with the winter solstice. (Not exactly a coincidence, but try to explain that to a believer.) It also offers plenty of helpful tips and advice for getting along with believers during a holiday that may have some serious religious significance to them.
I'm about halfway through the book -- although I do admit that I began reading by using the interactive table of contents to pick and choose among the essays I wanted to read first. While some chapters are better than others as far as their relevance to my personal thoughts about Christmas, I'm certain that any atheist would find something of value in its pages. Likewise, I don't think any believers would be offended by its contents. As the book's introduction states, The Atheist's Guide to Christmas is an "atheist book it's safe to leave around your granny." Indeed, I'm certain that even believers would find a lot of content in this book to help make their Christmas celebrations more enjoyable -- without threatening their beliefs.
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