What is Atheism?
For obvious reasons, believers in God have misconceptions about Atheism, more or less like biblical fundamentalists about Evolution, when they ask: “If humans came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?”. Unfortunately, also some people who consider themselves atheists don’t know what Atheism is.
The two misconceptions about Atheism:
- “Atheism is a religion too.” [Say religious people]
- “Atheism is the denial of the existence of God.” [Say religious people and some atheists]
Religion is belief in the supernatural: gods, angels, demons, spirits, Heaven, Hell, reincarnation, miracles, etc. About these things religions have doctrines, compiled in “holy” books, which even must not be doubted. The Bible and the Koran, for example, teach that those who doubt what is written in these books must be killed. In the majority of countries, ridiculing religions ends in jail. Furthermore, religions dictate what is right and what is wrong and what must and what must not be done and demand the practice of rituals.
Atheism is disbelief in gods. Disbelief — and nothing else. (Indeed, atheists disbelieve in only one god more than religious people.) Believing, for example, in Santa Claus has a content: how he is, where he lives, what he does and what he wants. The opposite, that is, not believing in Santa Claus, doesn’t have a content. If it doesn’t have a content, it doesn’t teach anything. In the same way, disbelieving in God doesn’t demand and doesn’t command to do anything, neither good nor bad. Therefore, there is no way for Atheism to be a religion.
- Religions: Have a content, that is, admonitions, code of conduct, commandments, doctrines, dogmas, guidelines, instructions, laws, norms, obligations, pieces of advice, precepts, principles, promises, punishments, regulations, rules, “sacred” books, teachings, threats, warnings and dictate how their followers must think and act and what they must fight against.
- Atheism: Has no content. It’s just disbelief (in gods). Therefore, it does not command anything to be done, neither good nor bad.
Atheism is not to say that “God doesn’t exist”, but that “There is no evidence that God exists”. Just as it’s not impossible that Santa Claus exists, it’s not impossible that God exists. However — for lack of evidence —, there are no good reasons to believe in God.
- “I’m an Atheist because God doesn’t exist.” [Wrong]
- “I’m an Atheist because there are no good reasons to believe that God exists.” [Right]
Since believing in things of which one has no evidence is nonsense, so is in God.
Apropos of that, if, as Jews, Christians and Muslims say, it’s necessary to have faith not to believe in God — reason why disbelieving in God supposedly is religion —, then it’s necessary to have faith also not to believe, for example, in Zeus. Jehovah, the god of the Bible, and Allah, the god of the Koran, are only two gods among the thousands of gods of the most varied religions. Just as Jews, Christians and Muslims don’t see any reasons to believe in the gods of other religions (something over which they, by the way, don’t lose even a second of sleep), atheists don’t see any reasons to believe in the gods of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions.
The Bible, for example, says that “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists” (Hebrews 11:6). Well, if to believe in God it’s necessary to have faith, faith itself is evidence that God doesn’t exist. If God existed, there would be no need to have faith, because no one would doubt his existence.
“Atheism is a natural result of intellectual honesty.”(Wasting Time on God)
Just One More Little Thing
If God exists, why, under penalty of being tortured by him in a lake of fire and brimstone, is it mandatory to flatter him? If free will, that is, freedom of choice, exists, it too is a divine creation. If the Creator exists, it was he who created in us the liking and the disliking of things and people. Punishment is only fair if it’s the consequence of evil acts. Well, disliking certain people, because of the way they act, is not an evil act. In consequence, the freedom to dislike God must, for him, be perfectly natural. If he exists, God is self-sufficient enough not only not to demand flattery (since it’s narcissism and childishness) but also magnanimous enough not to even think about punishing those who, because of God’s way of being and acting, don’t want to have anything to do with him, or even despise him. Assuming that God exists and is the god of the Bible or of the Koran, I don’t want to have anything to do with him. If God is and acts the way these books say, I despise him. His torturing me in a lake of fire and brimstone because I don’t like him would be proof that God deserves to be despised.