Atheism is more than just a lack of belief in gods.
Thursday, August 7th, 2008Many atheists fiercely argue against any suggestion that atheism is anything like religion. Not only that, many expressive posts have also been written about how atheism is most definitely not an ideology or a philosophy, only to then describe a common set of beliefs, similar principles and values, and a shared outlook.
Atheists do share common beliefs
Some, like Austin Cline in his piece on about.com, do a very good job of explaining why atheism isn’t what many people claim it is. Unfortunately Austin is talking about atheism as a pure concept. He’s not talking about the kind of atheism most atheists actually identify with. He starts by comparing atheism to astigmatism, or metabolism, rightly pointing out that not all “isms” are a set of beliefs. Yet survey a group of atheists and you’ll find that we do have some common beliefs. The obvious rebuttal is that atheism doesn’t require that people hold all those beliefs. And yet of all the arguments against atheism as an ideology I’ve seen, none have accounted for the beliefs atheists actually do share.
Sure, atheism doesn’t require anything other than that you don’t believe in god or gods. Or that you believe gods don’t exist. The problem with this is that when we hold so tightly to a pure definition of atheism and ideology, we ignore the influence atheism has on our lives. We behave like a group of people with a common, social identity. That wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t have something more than a lack of a belief to tie us together. No group of people has ever come together because of nothing more than a lack of a particular belief. We do have other common beliefs, as Sam Harris’ survey shows.
Atheism is more than just a definition of a word
Austin Cline says that atheism fails to meet the requirements of an ideology because it doesn’t provide guidance or information. And he’d be right, if atheism was just a word in a dictionary. But it’s not. How could Sam Harris write a manifesto about a concept which lacks the ability to guide? And of course he wasn’t the only one. The truth is an atheist can be confident that other atheists will have a significant number of similar values and beliefs which have (or will) shape their lives in similar ways.
Many atheists argue against religion on the grounds of the many atrocities committed in religion’s name. Yet the counterargument, that religion is not itself responsible for the actions of misguided people, is shot down; if it’s done by religious people, in religion’s name, it’s religion’s fault. In principle that logic is no different from: if it’s atheists, acting under the banner of atheism, then atheism is the guiding force. Yet atheists constantly deny that atheism provides any guiding force. If that’s so, what is it that brings atheists together? Are we really able to accept that we can build these social networks without a common set of beliefs and values? Is there any benefit in getting hung up on exactly which philosophy or ideology those beliefs and values come from?
Atheism isn’t simple. Deal with it.
It would make life a lot easier if concepts like atheism really were as simple as some people say. But the nature of human understanding and human interaction prevents any concept like atheism from being understood in the same way by everyone. We can’t condense everything that atheism means to everyone into one word. Not even a long Wikipedia page is enough.
It’s simply not possible for atheism to be simple.
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