2/08/2006
Here’s an article that I like. I hate it when people tell me that I have no moral values or that I’d be the first to do something unethical just because I have no religion.
I am an atheist.
And no, I don’t kick puppies or steal candy from babies. I don’t hate
God, but I don’t have any secret desire to worship him either. Nor do I
worship Satan. I’m not angry or depressed; I’m quite happy as I am,
actually. In fact, I’m a person just like you. You probably wouldn’t
recognize me if you passed me on the street.
But I am indeed an atheist. What this means, quite simply, is
that I don’t believe in any gods. Not Jesus, not Yahweh, not Allah, not
Vishnu, not Odin, not Zeus, not Gaea, not Quetzalcoatl, not Marduk, not
Ahura Mazda, nor any other of the thousands and thousands of deities
humanity has invented throughout its history. I don’t single out any of
them - I treat them all the same, and lack belief in each one equally.
As far as I’m concerned, they’re all imaginary - mere products of the
human imagination and nothing more.
In this respect, I’m probably not that different from you. After all,
most theists reject all but one of the many gods humans have invented.
I just reject one more god than most people do.
I’m not an atheist because I hate God. To hate God I would first have
to believe in him, and then I wouldn’t be an atheist anymore. Nor am I
an atheist because I hate my father or any other authority figure; I
don’t. I’m also not an atheist because I had a bad experience with the
church, or because I want to live a hedonistic life free of moral
restriction, or because I’m too proud to acknowledge the possibility of
something bigger than me. None of these things are true. Simply put,
the reason I am an atheist, and the reason most people are atheists, is
the complete lack of convincing, credible evidence for the claims of
any religion. This is not the only reason not to believe, however. Some
people have become atheists after seeing the terrible harm caused by
religion, the malice, cruelty and suffering inflicted in God’s name.
Others have deconverted after coming to the realization that a loving
god would not allow pain and suffering. Still others may simply have
been raised without religion; after all, atheism is our default state.
No one is born believing in gods - we have to be taught that. (For a
more comprehensive list of reasons not to believe, see "The Necessity of Atheism"; for more on why evil is incompatible with the existence of a loving god, see "All Possible Worlds".)
Atheism is a much more consistent and unified position than the swamp
of squabbling sects that is theism. However, it does come in various
flavors. Some atheists prefer to call themselves freethinkers or
humanists; the former term emphasizes free, unrestricted thought and
the forming of opinions based on evidence and reason rather than
tradition and authority, while the latter advocates the essential
liberty, dignity and freedom of humanity and the need to take
responsibility for one’s own life. Other descriptive terms include
rationalist, empiricist, naturalist, secularist, skeptic, and so on.
Another term was coined by the originators of the "Brights"
movement, who proposed this word as a positive and optimistic
description of those who hold a naturalistic worldview. Yet another
subgroup of atheism is the agnostics, who hold that the answer to the
question of God’s existence is unknown and perhaps unknowable. There is
considerable overlap between these groups, of course. For example, I
consider myself both a freethinker and a humanist, and I sympathize
with the goal of the Brights movement, but I generally call myself an
atheist.
In addition, there are two subgroups of atheism itself. There
are the weak atheists, who state that they do not believe in gods,
while strong atheists go further by asserting that gods do not exist.
The difference is subtle but important. Most atheists are weak, some (a
few) are strong, while others may be weak atheists in general but
strong with respect to certain gods (such as those whose attributes are
defined such as to make their very existence self-contradictory and
thus impossible). I personally consider myself a weak atheist, though
this should not be taken to imply that I am uncertain about my
position. It is merely that I recognize that a supernatural being that
did not want to provide evidence of its existence could never be ruled
out. On the other hand, there is no evidence for such beings either, and I believe only in propositions for which there is a reasonable quality of evidence.
The only ironclad requirement for atheism is a lack of belief in gods.
Almost invariably, however, atheists lack belief in supernatural
phenomena in general, including psychic powers, angels and demons, or a
soul that survives the physical death of the body. Like gods, we hold
these things to be superstitious fantasies, invented by primitive
groups of people for a variety of reasons and still in existence today
mainly because of human credulity and their potential to allow a
privileged few to make money from or rule over and oppress others.
Other than a lack of god-belief, however, there are no requirements for
being an atheist. Atheism has no dogmas - it does not impose a moral
code, set rules of behavior or demand obedience to a central authority,
and individual atheists are free to form their own opinions on whatever
topics they choose. There are atheists from all walks of life, atheists
of all ages, genders and ethnic backgrounds. Some atheists are liberal,
some are conservative; some are pro-choice, some are pro-life; some
support communism, others support socialism, and others support
capitalist republican democracy.
In short, atheists are ordinary people, just like everyone
else. We hold jobs, pay taxes, raise families, and do all the other
things that normal people do. We don’t ask for much, either. I fully
respect the right of people to hold and practice whatever beliefs they
want, as long as they don’t attempt to force those beliefs on me or use
them as justification to cause harm to others. What that means is
strong separation of church and state: no teaching of religious myths
in public school science classes, no religious commandments posted in
public school classrooms or courthouses, no taxpayer money going to
fund churches, no state-supported prayers, and no religious litmus test
of any sort for any public position; in short, no government preference
of one religion over any other or religion in general over
non-religion. We also ask for the freedom of speech to disseminate
information about our position free of censorship, freedom of
conscience to think and believe as we feel best, and the freedom to
pursue happiness in whatever form we find it so long as doing so does
not interfere with the equal rights of others to do the same. I feel
that these rights are nothing more than what we should expect from a
modern, enlightened democratic society.
Unfortunately, some people persist in spreading misinformation
about what it really means to be an atheist. Listed below are a few of
the most commonly heard myths about atheism, along with their
refutations.
