16 Common Myths About Atheists
1. Atheists
hate Christians and Christianity. No, we don’t.
Personally, I do hate the atrocities that have been
committed in the name of religion, the dishonesty
of most religions, and the way that they encourage
people not to think or question, and not to trust or
use their
minds. But I don’t dislike someone just because
of their religion.
2. Most
atheists started out as Christians, and stopped believing
because
of some bad experience with other Christians. Or maybe we simply
started to question,
to wonder what happened when we applied the standards of logic, reason
and burden of proof to religion, as we already did to everything
in our lives.
Or, perhaps, we were never believers at all. It happens, you know.
3. Atheists
have no sense of morality, since morality comes
from God. Ah, the old “without fear of hell,
there would be nothing to stop people from being bloodthirsty
monsters” argument.
It may come as a surprise to most Christians, but there are reasons
for being “good” other than fear
of punishment - which isn’t really a reason, anyway, and
only shows Christians in a very bad light. Reasons like human
empathy,
genuine feelings for others,
and, most importantly, rational principles. Behaving yourself
just because daddy will spank you otherwise does not make you
a nice child.
4. Atheists
are a unified group, like a church. Are we? I must
have missed the memo, then. :) If anything, I’d say atheists
are more diverse than Christians, because we’re less “sheep-like”,
and don’t
accept things on faith, or from authority.
5. Atheists
actually know, deep inside, that there’s a God,
as that’s
perfectly obvious; they are simply too proud and arrogant
to admit the existence of something greater than themselves.
Not exactly. You see, the existence of
a god is only “obvious” if you’ve been
brainwashed (either by others, or by your own irrationality)
into believing it. We are truly convinced
that there’s no god, and are not in denial. Really.
I’m
serious. :)
6. Atheists
don’t really know anything
about Christianity. Again, it depends. Some certainly
know more than others. However, religion is so ubiquitous
that, like it or not, we’ve all had varying
degrees of contact with it, with its teachings, and
with believers.
Besides, a lot of atheists are naturally
curious. I, myself, have read the Christian Bible
- more than once, in fact. Now, dear believer, ask
yourself
how many atheist books, magazines or essays
you have read. Oh, I forgot, they’re all the
work of Satan.
7. Atheists’ lives
are cold and empty, as they can’t feel the joy
and love that comes only from God. Really? I’d
never call my life “cold” or “empty” -
I have the joys of friendship, love, family,
and doing the things I love to do. And, what’s
more, I’m self-sufficient, unlike anyone
who says “I
don’t know how anyone could live without
God in their lives” -
as many Christians do.
8. Atheists
are depressive and nihilistic, since they believe there’s
nothing after death, and therefore there’s
no point to anything. On the contrary, we,
unlike you, know how precious life is, because
we’re
aware that it’s our only one. And,
this may come as a shock to you, but we can
love our
lives, we can feel the joy of being alive,
because we don’t
believe that “this is the devil’s
world”, or that “this
is just a test before the real thing”.
Life is precious, and it’s
our own - not any god’s.
9. Atheists
are cold and uncaring. No, we are not. Having
delusions doesn’t
make anyone more “caring”. And,
again, we treat life as precious, and do
what we can to improve it, both ours and
that of our loved ones. On
the other hand, many Christians believe life
is suffering, and that there’s
nothing we can do about it.
10. Atheists
are arrogant. What, because we dare to use
our minds instead of asking “who are we to know”?
No, we’re not.
11. Atheists
want to forbid religious worship. Wrong. We just don’t
want to be harmed by it. Want to believe
in God, Jesus, Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy? Be my
guest.
Want to teach your kids to do the same? I
feel
sorry for them, but it will still take many
years until people realize
how crippling one’s reason in childhood
is like a bird crippling its offspring’s
wings. (*) Want to give all your money to
a guy with a Lexus and a bad haircut?
Fine. But don’t try to “save” me,
don’t
harass me in the street or at my home, don’t
get politicians to enact laws to give power
to you, don’t
try to teach your religion in science classes
by dishonestly giving it a new name and disguising
it as “science”,
and don’t use my tax money to write
your idiocies in public places. In short,
do as you
want, as long as
you keep it to yourself - just like I don’t
go to your place trying to un-convert you.
12. Atheists
are incapable of feeling awe at simple
things, like a beautiful sunset, as
they see everything in terms
of cold science, instead of miracles.
Ah, unweaving the rainbow - the idea that beauty
and poetry only exist if
we know little to nothing about how things
work. But I ask you: does the fact that
you know about astronomy, physics
and light make the sunset any less beautiful?
Was it beautiful only because it seemed “magical” -
or “an
act of god” - to you?
13. Atheists
live their lives in constant fear of death.
Few people actually want
to die
- those that do are either
depressed and suicidal, or are Christians
who believe that the world is evil, “please,
Lord Jesus, take me”,
and all that. A reasonable fear of
death is perfectly natural. Also,
we may believe
that this life “is it”,
which makes us treat it as precious,
but, at least, we don’t think
that there’s a chance of going
to a place where you burn and are
tortured for eternity…
14. Most
criminals are atheists (or, alternatively,
the percentage of
atheists among criminals
is higher than among the general
populace). Oddly enough, the
opposite is true.
15. Atheists
are stubborn and closed-minded. Not unless you define “closed-minded” like
this. But, as Ebon said,
Ask any believer what would convince
him he was mistaken
and persuade him to leave
his religion and become an atheist,
and if you get a response,
it will almost invariably be, “Nothing
- I have faith in my god.” Although
such people may well exist,
I personally have yet to
meet a
theist who
would acknowledge even the
possibility that his belief
was in error.
Many theists, by their own
admission, structure
their beliefs so that no
evidence could possibly disprove
them.
Atheists, on the other hand,
are easy to convince
- all it requires is for
God to show himself in some
unfakeable
way - say, for instance,
by doing any of the many
things he supposedly
did in the Old Testament…
16. Atheists
make bad parents. Again,
there are good and
bad atheist parents,
and
good and bad Christian
parents. Atheist parents, however,
would never do what Abraham
was about
to do to
his son Isaac
(and Christians see Abraham’s
behavior as laudable!), because,
to most atheists, our lives
are our own. In fact, even
if there was a God, it
would not follow that our
lives are his.
Note: There’s already a list, The Top 10 Atheist
Myths, by Dave Silverman, but mine isn’t inspired
by that one. I agree with what Silverman writes, but I
don’t think all of those are necessarily the top
myths. Not to say my list is better, but these are what
I think are the top myths… and a couple of them are
actually in both lists. Besides, my list has more myths
than his, which obviously makes it better.
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