“Atheism is just a new religion with its own beliefs (belief that God DOESN’T exist) and complete with its own high priests (Richard Dawkins and the like)”. If I had a Pound for every time I heard someone say this I’d be rich by now! What’s strange is that I’m hearing this argument more and more and the people that are using it seem more and more convinced by it. They use it like some finishing move in one of those early arcade beat ‘em ups “…Finish Him!! Well atheism is just another religion anyway!”.
I can see why it has become such a popular argument, it places atheism on the same plane as the religion its refuting, and in so doing makes it open to the same arguments as the ones it uses against faith. The thing that worries me is that its such an obviously BAD argument, and no-one seems to see why.
How can something, that is making no claim whatsoever, be a faith position? There is no central doctrine, no teaching, and no myths, legends or beliefs that have been compiled and bind all atheists together. An atheist is simply someone who has listened to a belief, weighed up the evidence and found that beliefs to be nonsense. Atheism is the default position, or at least should be, for ANY question regarding ANYTHING. If a bunch of people make a claim, for example: “A flying spaghetti monster lives in our solar system between Earth and Mars” then the atheist position is to assume that the Sphaghetti Monster DOESN’T exist until evidence convinces them otherwise. Atheism is just a blank slate on which evidence is pilled, if the evidence is compelling enough then skepticism turns to acceptance. Put it another way, if religion/spirituality/faith never existed, then atheism would never exist. Atheism is 100% reliant on someone making a claim, if no-one was religious then there would be no atheism!!
Its rather annoying when your discussing religion, and the religious person, the one who is making the extraordinary claim without a shred of evidence, starts accusing you of using faith to justify your position! I’m NOT the one who made the outrageous claim, I simply listened to your beliefs and found them to be completely unjustified. Where in that logic did I use faith? I’m the one asking for evidence not the one making stuff up!
So please can people stop saying things like “Atheism is a religion” or “Richard Dawkins/Sam Harris/ Christopher Hitchens/ Daniel Dennet is a fundamental/extremist/dogmatic Atheist” because the argument is so clearly bogus.
Please comment.
Daniel Lewis said,
October 23, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I think the problem here is that the word Atheist is being misused. Atheist, from the Greek, means without-God. Therefore people who are atheist tend to use the term Atheist as a term for meaning “without the belief in God” (which isn’t a belief), whereas the people with a religion are hearing “do not believe in God” (which is a belief).
The problem probably lies in the usage of bit of the word atheist that is just “the” (coming from the Greek “theo” which means God). To have the word “theo” in a word, with-God people are going to automatically feel that the word Atheist implies a different kind of theology, and therefore a different “belief system”, and finally therefore believing that Atheism can be seen as a belief system…. presumably because the opposite of one persons belief system is an opposing belief system rather than a void. Hmmm, what am I trying to say… I think I’m trying to say that the term “atheist” means “without-God”, therefore it’s only the people who are “with-God” (‘theists’) who can actually use the term because they are the ones that understand their ‘version’ of God.
So I propose not using the term “atheism” by atheists because it means something completely different to the people who created the term “atheist”. I think that a term from the people who currently call themselves atheists should come up with a name for people do have a belief in God (that isn’t “theist”) which essentially means the opposite to not believing in a God.
No idea where I am going with that one… just pondering.
Anyways, I’m glad to hear you pondering about this stuff.
Daniel
(I claim to be Christian, but certainly no where near the usual sense… i.e. I’m skepical about the literal bible, I’m pro-evolution-theory and I enjoy the story behind the stories of all cultures. So, I don’t speak on behalf of any other Christian or theist, nor do I speak on behalf of any organisation)