Most of you know that I’m an atheist, and you also know that I don’t often discuss it here on my blog. The reason is that I deliberately try to keep my blog upbeat, lighthearted, and whimsical; dragging religion (of any stripe) into this page just makes it sort of a bit too serious for what I aim to do with my blog. But on Christmas eve, maybe it’s time to talk about it a little bit. You see, it’s amusing – and sometimes frustrating – observing how some people interpret my atheism. I have had people ask me – seriously – if I worship the devil. I’ve had people ask me how is it possible for me to be moral and have ethics. I’ve had people ask me how I can be so sure that there is no God. I’ve had people tell me – many times – that they will pray for me. And of course I’ve had to answer dozens and dozens of time question such as: “What happens when you die? How did the universe begin? How can you not believe the Bible?” So let’s clear up a few things about atheism, or, to be more precise, MY atheism. Someone posted this LA Times

article about atheism

over at one of the aggregator sites, so let’s use that to begin. The article discusses the “10 Myths About Atheism,” so lets’ examine several of them…

Atheists believe that life is meaningless.

Utterly false. Life has whatever meaning one ascribes to it; I find life (or Life) to be meaningful in such a way as to make this point ridiculous to even debate. Life is – well, everything. We’ve got one shot in this world, and we have to make it count – in whatever manner, and towards whatever purpose, each person determines appropriate.

Atheism is responsible for the greatest crimes in human history.

This is favorite bugagoo of many conservative talk-radio hosts (who I usually agree with and enjoy, except on the issue of religion). People commonly point to the “atheistic” communists – Stalin, Lenin, etc – as evidence that atheists are evil. Wrong. What communism did was replace religion with State, and turned the Politburo into God. They banished religion in order to glorify the State, but it was NOT atheism that was responsible for millions of deaths. It was the political doctrine that required ownership of Man by the State.

Atheists think everything in the universe arose by chance.

Some atheist might believe that, but certainly not all of us. I’ll be honest: I don’t know how “everything in the universe” came into being. But the fact that I do not know for a fact how the universe formed does not mean that I have to believe some all-powerful being created it.

Atheists are arrogant.

Some of them probably are; others aren’t. Arrogance is a personality trait; it is not necessarily an attribute of any particular religious faith (or lack thereof). It’s just like an atheist declaring that “Christians are hypocrites.” It’s not true of all Christians, but it is true of some, and the TV preachers that get busted violating one of the 10 Commandments get lots of headlines, so perhaps it’s sometimes too easy (and unfair) to paint all religionists with the “hypocrisy” brush. But back to arrogant atheists: yep, there probably are some, but no more or less than amongst non-atheists.

Atheists ignore the fact that religion is extremely beneficial to society.

I don’t pretend that religion doesn’t provide some benefit to society; I know that it does. It’s just that as an atheist, I am more likely to acknowledge the fact that religion also causes harm to society.

Atheism provides no basis for morality.

Oh, this is my favorite myth. People who believe this absolutely baffle me. It’s funny, too, because many of my friends and co-workers, if you were to ask them, would likely tell you that I am one of the most “moral” people that they know. Anyone who believes that morality can spring only from the Bible (or other holy text) must think that all atheists are immoral, depraved scum. Well, as noted above, that certainly might apply to some atheists, but certainly not all of us, and likely not too many of us. My source of “morality” comes from observing people, reading about history, a desire to treat others as I like to be treated, and so on. I make my own morality, and have integrity to abide by it. I didn’t need a Bible or Koran to instill morality in me. I arrived at my definitions of what is moral and ethical and just by thinking about the issues involved, weighing concepts against each other, considering historical applications of such, and coming to my own conclusions about what is right and what is wrong.

So, there is a brief discussion about some myths of atheism. I don’t worship Satan, I don’t drink blood, I don’t wallow in depravity, I don’t do evil things. I do try to live an honest, thoughtful life, treat others with good cheer, and maintain my integrity. I simply don’t need God (or a god) to do it.