Atheist
From RationalWiki
- What this means is covered in much more depth and with significantly less snark in our atheism article.
An atheist is a person who does not believe in any gods. In principle, it can mean that a person doesn't believe in a specific god; therefore it can also apply to Christians or Muslims, who most certainly don't believe in Thor or Zeus, for example, and of course any ancient religion who clearly didn't believe in the Abrahamic God. It also therefore applies to anyone in the world, as they're unlikely to also believe in the infinite set of potential gods that could exist if someone ever took the time to invent them and believe in them. Steven Roberts said this far more succinctly when he said "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do."[1] More generally and conventionally, "atheist" applies to anyone who expresses disbelief in all gods, goddesses and assorted deities.
Some fundamentalists contend that atheism is actually a religion - usually to try and tarnish so-called New Atheists as hypocrites for denigrating religion while sticking to one of their own. But if atheism is a religion, then "bald" is a hair color, and not collecting stamps is a hobby, not kicking a kitten is a form of animal abuse and so on. Indeed, if the definition of religion was expanded enough to legitimately include atheism - say, by defining a religion as "any philosophy on life" - then practically everything in the world would be a religion, such as socio-economic policies or views on equality. An "atheist" is, therefore, someone who has no religion by virtue of not believing in any god of any kind.
Contents |
[edit] Dogma
There are many facets to atheistic dogma! Here are a few choice high water marks:
- Stealing (and eating) crackers.
- Eating grilled cheese sandwiches, even if an image of Richard Dawkins or a goat appears on them. Hunger trumps piety.
- Oppressing and suppressing Christians.
- Not getting hit by someone's karma.
- Nightmares about bananas
and peanut butter.
- Not giving a shit about which gods are being argued about. Sounds silly to atheists, but usually confuses the hell out of anyone religious, who immediately thinks that an atheist has something against them personally.[2]
[edit] Atheists in society
[edit] In Jesusland
In the US, atheists are the least trusted and liked people out of all social groups, possibly because of their cracker stealing banana fetishes. They top the charts when people are asked "who would you least trust to be elected President" or "who would you least want to marry your beautiful, sweet, innocent Christian daughter." Many have lost jobs and been harassed out of their homes for what is essentially a lack of any belief that could act as motivation to cause harm. Chuck Norris famously claimed that he would like to tattoo "In God We Trust" on to atheist foreheads before booting them out of Jesusland, possibly to work as slaves in the Mines of Moria (he claims this is a joke, but few people actually laughed). More extreme Conservatives seem want them outright banned from existence, blogger Andrew Schlafly seriously considered banning them from his website and George H. W. Bush declared "I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God", questioning whether anyone who disbelieves in God should even be allowed to vote (or at least be allowed to vote themselves out of persecution).[3] A creationist group has refined this way of thinking, stating that atheists and other "evolutionists" should be disenfranchised, as anyone who believes the theory of evolution is clearly mentally incompetent.[4]
Six US states have laws on the books that prohibit atheists from holding public office.[5] This despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling -- Torcaso v. Watkins (1961)[6] -- that prohibits discrimination against atheist officeholders.[7] These states are:
If atheism isn't a hanging offence in these places, they probably wish it was.
[edit] Europe
In Europe, atheists don't really receive much negative attention. France has an entirely secular culture, with a suitably large proportion of the population declaring "no religion". In Scandinavia, the majority of the population are openly atheist and - black metal church burnings aside - nothing bad happens there much. In the UK, Tony Blair's spin-doctor Alistar Campbell was led to declare that "we don't do god"[8] and Tony Himself said that he kept quiet about religion because people would think he was "a nutter". Overall, atheists in Europe aren't demonised as they are in America and other countries led by fundamentalists.
Richard Dawkins is a notable British, spokesperson of the Atheist movement - and thus merits a long article on Conservapedia.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ ThinkExist.com - Steven Roberts quotes.
- ↑ As a serious point, this is related to the perception that atheists "Hate God", which can't possibly be the case because atheists A) don't think "God" exists so can't "hate" it, and B) atheists disbelieve all gods equally, so what makes you think they'd hate one thing that they don't think exists over another thing that they don't think exists?
- ↑ Postiiveatheism.org - Can George Bush, with impunity, state that atheists should not be considered either citizens or patriots?
- ↑ Should Evolutionists Be Allowed to Vote?
- ↑ Erbe, Bonnie. "Arkansas, 5 Other States, Ban Atheists from Public Service. Seriously" U.S. News & World Report website, 17 February 2009, accessed 5 December 2009.
- ↑ Text of ruling at FindLaw.com.
- ↑ Waters, David. "Atheist Revival in Arkansas", Washington Post website, 13 February 2009, accessed 5 December 2009.
- ↑ BBC News - Blending politics and religion
