- Joined
- Dec 29, 2007
- Messages
- 5,114
- Reaction score
- 1,322
I've been in this forum long enough now to see the same topics come up time and again. For theistic visitors, I thought it might be useful to make a list of common myths -- so we'd have something to refer to, rather than having to debate the same matter each time it arises.
Please add any others you think are worthwhile. I'm happy to update this list -- or a mod can take it over if it's useful.
Please add any others you think are worthwhile. I'm happy to update this list -- or a mod can take it over if it's useful.
- Atheism is a faith
Atheism is the rejection of religious belief. Some people use an 'excluded middle' argument to argue that atheism imust be a faith: 'Either gods exist or not. If you think they don't then you can't prove it, so atheism must be faith based.' However many atheists reject this argument: If you don't believe in a pink teapot orbiting Jupiter, is that faith-based? And what if 'god' is undefined?
Atheism is far more complicated than many theists understand. Do not assume that every atheist believes 'Gods don't exist' -- some do believe that and see it as faith; some believe it and don't see it as faith; some simply reject the opposite statement: 'Gods exist' as being meaningless or wrong and feel that faith is irrelevant to the question. - Agnostics are ambivalent about gods
Agnosticism is the belief that knowledge about the First Cause and the essential nature of things is not and cannot be known. That is a strong metaphysical position, it is not a statement of doubt or uncertainty. - Atheists deify or worship science
Scientism is the belief that science has authority over all areas of life -- physical, metaphysical, spiritual. Some atheists may embrace scientism but many don't. (Indeed, many scientists don't believe in scientism.)
Atheists may be skeptical about scientific results and scientific wisdom the same as anyone else. Some atheists are ignorant of and largely indifferent to science. - Atheists deify or worship humanity
Humanism is the belief that humanity is the centre of importance -- which is not necessarily the same as worshipping humanity. Some atheists are humanists; many are not. Some see humanity as just a species of which they happen to be a member. - Atheists all had a bad experience with religion
Many atheists have no bad experience with religion until they decide they are atheists and perhaps not even then. Some atheists are raised by atheistic parents, but many have religious families, and knowledgable, kind religious teachers. Atheists don't always 'lose their faith' -- in many, religious faith never grew in the first place.
Religious people worried about an atheist's spiritual state sometimes ask 'What did we do wrong?' In many cases, it's nothing. Humans are diverse. Some can't live without religion, but some don't need it, don't like it and can't see a use for it.
Some atheists too are the devout who have lost their faith. Some may feel a sense of grief or betrayal over this; others may feel that they are better off. It's polite to ask before expressing pity. - Atheists hate religion
Atheists have a wide range of feelings about religion, indeed an atheist may have more than one feeling about religion.
Only about 2.3% of the world describes itself as atheist, while around 86% of the world describes itself as religious in some way, so many atheists grow up among religious people and have had religious family and friends all their lives. Many atheists enjoy religious fiction, religious music and art, religious ceremonies and rituals -- even if they don't believe in religious magic, they may simply enjoy them as an expression of human emotion, imagination and society .
Some atheists may be resentful of the way they have been treated by some religions. Some may feel that religious institutions are oppressive, but that religion itself is fine. Some may feel that religion itself is a dangerous delusion. Some may think that religion is fine, but that it plays too much of a role in government, custom and law. Even atheists that hate religion do not necessarily hate the religious -- though some do. In practice, atheistic views about religion are very similar to the sorts of views that the religious have about each other. - Atheists aren't really irreligious -- they just haven't found the right argument or the right person to explain it to them
Many atheists read widely about many religions. Some have a great deal of respect for religious history and religious accomplishments. Some are atheistic for reasons of conscience; others find religious claims to be ludicrous or repellant. Very few atheists are looking for someone to convert them. While some atheists are willing to engage in discussion or debate, many are sick and tired of the same arguments being trotted out. Many atheists don't trouble themselves thinking about religion on a day to day basis, so as a rule 'I'm an atheist' is not an invitation to discuss atheistic beliefs or one's favourite religion. It's generally polite to ask before so indulging. - Non-theists are willfully ignorant of religion, ignore the evidence or deliberately misinterpret it
This myth is most often held by theists who've tried and failed to convert some non-theist. It's a myth that demands an answer to the question: 'Why don't my arguments work on you? They worked on me!'. But here's the problem: given any set of facts (real or fictional) we can always tell more than one story about them. Often when non-theists argue with theists they're demanding to know: why should I believe your facts? Your story? The devout who have embraced one story with all their hearts can fail to see that there may be other interpretations. A story that is compelling to one person may seem narrow-minded and arbitrary to another.
But there is another mythic element to this: the world is full of religions and they can't all be true. Many non-theists see no reason to consider theistic arguments without overwhelming physical evidence for their truth. Non-theists generally find that such evidence is lacking, and many find theistic attempts to supply such evidence as a waste of their time. - If atheists don't believe in God, why do they rebel so hard against Him?
Just as vegetarians are sometimes pressed to admit that they secretly crave meat, atheists are pressed to admit that they secretly crave God. When others presume to speak for you, sometimes you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
As mentioned elsewhere in this list, atheists have a spectrum of feelings about religion -- from warm tolerance through to indifferent rejection to outright hostility. When atheists are hostile to religious premises it can be for moral reasons (they feel that religions may be doing harm), philosophical reasons (they think that theology is ludicrous) or social reasons. Most atheists don't feel that they're rebelling against anything. Rather, they feel that they're trying to live their lives as their conscience and judgement dictates. However, many atheists experience pressure from religious people telling them that they're rebelling, and some react against that pressure -- the pressure to submit and conform to other peoples' views. - Science shows that religion is wired into our brains; therefore atheists are aberrant
The rate of religious belief tends to be very high throughout the world. Some scientists, (e.g. geneticist Dean Hamer), have proposed a 'God gene' to explain why humans tend to be more religious than not. While such a candidate gene has been nominated (it's VMAT2), the science of the study has been challenged; there has been no peer review and its effects and significance are still debated.
Regardless, atheists are normal people in every respect, having normal relationships and living normal lives -- just doing so without religion. They are no more aberrant than (say) left-handed people. Once, superstition saw left-handedness as sinister. The people who wish to marginalise atheism as aberrant may want to do the same. But what such people don't seem to realise is that if heredity determines belief then it can equally determine false belief. In other words, a 'God gene' if true, could raise into question the truth of theists' most deeply-held convictions. - Non-theists are libertines, hedonists, communists, devil-worshippers
Some non-theists do not drink, smoke, take drugs or have sex outside of marriage. Others -- like many religious folk -- do. But notably, crime rates among atheists are lower than among many popular religious faiths, and atheist divorce rates are lower than divorce rates in popular religions.
Non-theistic political beliefs run the same spectrum as everyone else. Atheists reject religion and therefore reject religious archetypes like devils and demons just as strongly as they reject gods. - Non-theists are amoral, or borrow their morals from religion
Morality is an understanding of what is good and bad, and what we owe one another. Like everyone else, non-theists draw their morals from their families, teachers, friends, their readings, reflections and their own consciences. In religious societies, non-theism has often been seen as heretical and many non-theists have been persecuted for their beliefs.
There is no religion so powerful that everyone in the world knows its creed. When a religious person says 'You borrowed your creed from my religion' they're really saying 'My religion is supreme in the world'. That is an offensive statement to make to anyone -- including non-theists. - Atheists are miserable because they have nothing to live for
Atheists tend to see life itself as worth living for, but atheists can also have ideals worth dying for -- like family, community, society, and moral ideals. - There are no atheists in foxholes
Atheism has many martyrs who have literally died for their beliefs. One of these was Socrates, an atheist who was poisoned by the priesthood of Athens for heresy. He had no wish to die, but accepted his fate on grounds of conscience, even when he could have fled. The Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers supports atheists in the armed services, and a skeptical analysis of this aphorism is here. - Atheists have no sense of mystery, awe, humility, reverence or wonder
Atheists can be just as impressed and stunned by babies, flowers, stars, and music, just as touched by kindness and generosity, just as ashamed of their own failings and thankful for the graces of others, just as respectful of births and deaths and marriages as other people. Atheists generally find that one doesn't need to believe magical stories about beauty, the wonders of life and one's own failings to feel strongly about such things. Some atheists are deeply reverent about the complexities of existence -- so much that they may be outraged at religions that think it can explain everything. But naturally, as with theists, the mileage with individual atheists may vary. - Atheists want to eradicate religion
Atheism is not a religious tribe or a political party any more than 'bald people' are. It's just the absence of religion, in the same way that baldness is the absence of hair. Many atheists are individualists -- they don't feel that they belong to any particular group.
Some atheists believe that religion is bad for people, and would like to see less religious belief in the world. Others feel that there's no problem with religious faith, but it's just not for them. Some feel in-between, that there's no problem with religion per se, but that it sometimes gets carried away. Some atheists are unapologetically evangelical, in the same way that some theists are. - Atheists are a rabble of opinionated individualists, idealists, pedants, heretics, moaners, rock-chuckers and armchair philosophers
This is not so mythical. In most societies, atheism is seen as an heretical position. Many atheists live in a permanent minority, and may encounter unrelenting pressure from family, friends, teachers, and government authorities to conform. Consequently, their opinions may be strong and individualistic. In a mixed social setting, they may bite back their strongest opinions for the sake of getting along, but in a setting with other atheists they'll often let fly -- at religion, at society and at each other. It's sometimes combative, but often constructive too. The forum's moderation is intended to keep it civil, but that doesn't always make it agreeable.
Last edited:
