A Manifesto for Non-Belief

Yeah, a lot of those items are confused or illucid.

I flatly disagree with #12. The absurd, ill-founded ideas which riddle major religions deserve to be mocked. Refraining from doing so just makes it that much easier for people to think that it’s somehow intellectually respectable to believe in virgin births.

Of course, if someone asks you to stop bothering them about their religious beliefs, you should do so — to do otherwise is simply harassment. That said, we desperately need more rationalist voices to laugh openly at the kooky ideas which pervade our world.

Try asking a religious person whether they seriously believe that, say, Moses parted the Red Sea. I think you’ll find that doing so will elicit awkward, embarrassed reactions from a lot of theists. Even if a person ultimately says they do believe in such miracles, the fact that they were embarrassed to say so is a great cause for hope. Those people aren’t fanatics; deep down, they possess a core of sanity which knows that Santa Claus isn’t real. And in a saner world, they wouldn’t buy into religious nonsense. We atheists need to tell the world — repeatedly — that those beliefs are absurd, and we need to let people know that its OK to walk away from God.

The difficult part is to do so in a diplomatic way, that is, to tell believers that religious beliefs are ridiculous without telling that they are stupid people. Not an easy thing to accomplish.

Is this really trying to be a list of beliefs, or are they just general constraints on atheist beliefs? If you really want to know what atheists believe, you can’t just look for a set of answers. You have to find a set of questions, and then ask individual atheists one by one. There are certain things that atheists would agree on, such as most of the list given here, but such a list would be small compared to what atheists actually believe.

I think he needs to mind his business because I will act just as I please.

@Mriana: Good point.

@GBG:

When people do things like this it gives the religious one more reason to say “atheism is just another religion” and drag us down to thier level.

We aren’t a religion. We don’t need our own commandments and “ways of living”.

Um, ok. That seems a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

No, we aren’t a religion, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t adhere to a set of principles. I intend to lead by example. I am very interested in a “way of living” that is altruistic, egalitarian, benefits the most people and increases happiness for all. I insist on calling myself an atheist, and letting people see for themselves that I am a moral person and can lead a moral life.

The fact that my beliefs on morality happen to coincide with Humanism doesn’t make me religious. The primary point (IMO) that you have to make to the religious is that you can have morality without religion.

Hemant – enjoy your blog. Love the “friendly” aspect of it and seeing things from another perspective.

On that note, Jacob wrote:

we need to let people know that its OK to walk away from God.

(please read friendly banter into this…) If you’re an atheist, that’s a rather interesting comment, since from your perspective, God doesn’t exist. Right?

Mriana: interesting point.

Thought about language here. “Do not ~denigrate~ believers.” The word denigrate stems from Latin meaning “to make more black”. Many African American scholars find its usage offensive (because it implies that black is evil) and suggest “disparage” as a substitute.

Saying it’s OK to walk away from God says that deity exists.

Well, not necessarily, not if it’s used figuratively. Julia Sweeney’s “Letting go of god” uses a similar construction, but it’s clear when you hear it that what she is letting go of is the idea of god. It might be clearer to say “walking away from the idea of god” or “the concept of god”, but simply saying “walking away from god” has more dramatic punch. I guess it depends on whether the author prefers impact or absolute clarity; sometimes it’s hard to have both.