Why Grandma is Disappointed in Me

A friend of ours recently announced that she was really interested in a guy. This guy had a lot of pluses. However, there came a tag line that I am all to familiar with:

"... but he is an atheist".

Please be at ease as I'm not here today to debate religious belief. In my travels and in my readings it is amazing how often I hear or read something like this. I'm not at all disappointed in my friend because I understand where the thought comes from. It is much easier to date people that have similar beliefs. My grandmother has a hint of sadness in her voice whenever the subject of religion comes up. Part of the disdain in our society towards non-believers is due to a lack of understanding of what it means to be an atheist.

First and foremost, there are several different levels of non-belief.

- An agnostic thinks that there could be a god but we'll never know it so it isn't worth worrying about it.

- An atheist believes that there probably (or definitely) isn't a god.

First and foremost, atheists do not hate god. I think that is the biggest stereotype against the group. You don't believe in Leprechauns - does that mean you hate them? Of course not. In fact, many atheists detest the word "atheist" because there isn't such a word for not believing in anything else (there isn't a word for "lack of belief in Leprechauns"). I personally prefer "non-theist".

The other thing that really gets me going is the belief that the faithful have a higher level of morality that non-believers. I hear/read this all the time. In fact, the current Pope often warns the flock of the dangers of non-belief. Lets look at the facts (and once again, I can not stress enough that I am not trying to put down anyone's beliefs here):

- The "good book" has been a driving force behind slavery and restricting the rights of gays and women.
- Countless wars fought in the name of religion.
- The prisons are filled with believers, not atheists.
- A non-believer is much more likely to stand up for the rights of women, minorities or gays.

Let me stress one thing: this is not to say that a non-believer has better morals than a believer. The benefit of debating morality with a non-believer is that you'll never hear "my book says ____" so at least you can have a conversation.

I often hear 'What would stop a non-believer from just doing what he/she wants?". The answer to that is pretty simple: it is the same way that you know right from wrong. Lets take an example from the Bible. Exodus 21:17 says that anyone that mocks his mother or father should be put to death. Will a believer follow this logic? Of course not. If you aspire to be a good person you know that this kind of behavior is wrong (just as you know to ignore similar other passages in a holy text). You may ask yourself "what would Jesus do?", I ask myself "what is the right thing to do?". Good works existed 100,000 years before Jesus is said to have lived. This is not to say that there aren't quality words to live by in the Bible - of course there are lots of good words and works. My point is that none of it is unique. I think the belief that we couldn't define morality on our own is a slap in the face to mankind. As Galileo said after he was jailed by the church for saying the sun was the center of the universe: "I can't believe that God would give me this intellect and expect me not to use it".

One good thing about being a non-believer is that I do not have to reconcile science or philosophy with my beliefs. Science was retarded for hundreds of years because of fears that it would contradict God's word (which seems kind of funny when you think about it). The same with philosophy - many of the works of the ancient Greeks were lost because the church ordered them to be burned. I think the world is that much more beautiful when I see that we are merely just another mammal on this cooling rock. I like the fact that we can go out and forge a collective morality that is fair to everyone. It will never be perfect but I think we have a better chance at it than if everyone brought their own holy book to the table. In today's world we spend more time trying to get the various faiths to play nice rather than figuring out the best way to get along.


Finally, I'll ask a question that Chritopher Hitchens often poses to those that claim a higher morality because of their beliefs.

Name one good thing that could not have been done without religion. You can't because there is no such thing.
Now name one horrible thing done in the name of God. You can name ten of them, easily.

So the next time you hear that someone is an atheist, please stop and think for a minute what that actually means. It isn't God-hating. In fact, it is often seeing the best of what man has to offer and what we could be.


(thank you for reading this to the end. I find the philosophy behind religion to be fascinating and I hope you do as well. I've found the the readership of these kinds of articles to be way down and I think this may be a result of people thinking that it will be an unpleasant blog. I try to keep my own thoughts in the "Disbelief" area and not in these blogs. I hope you find this as interesting as I do. After all, constructive conversation about these topics must be a good thing).