Answers from an Atheist
Hemant the Friendly Atheist has posted an open thread where anyone may ask questions of us atheists. I thought answering the questions that have come up so far is interesting enough that I’m going to post it here rather than in the comment thread.
Your favourite Standard Question (or statement) from a Believer? The “Atheists have killed more than Christians / Hitler was a Christian” option will not be accepted here.
Ah, but that one is classic. Another one is “If humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?”, together with a whole bunch of other anti-evolution statements (which normally come from “Believers”). Also, “Atheists believe in nothing/anything.” Although I think calling them “favourite” is really stretching the term to the extreme…
Where can I find an atheist book, website, magazine, etc. that doesn’t mock or attack or deride religious people or beliefs, but only puts forth a positive vision of what it is to be an atheist?
I’m having some trouble answering this question. I’m not sure me and the author of this question would agree as to what constitutes mocking, attacking or deriding. Being an atheist means you don’t believe in god, and if you’re enough of an activist to actually write a book, website or mag about it, chances are you have some sort of bone to pick with religion. We are atheists for a reason, after all. And, because many religious people tend to feel that any sort of criticism of their beliefs equals mockery, derision or attacks on their person, well… you can see why it would be difficult to answer the question.
Also I must admit I haven’t read anything recently that purely focussed on the positive aspects of being an atheist - or secular humanist, as it were. Atheism isn’t a worldview and writing a whole book on a positive vision of atheism would be like writing a book on the taste of water. Water is necessary for life as well as refreshing when you’re hot and thirsty and atheism is healthy because it’s (usually) rational, but just like you can’t live on water, atheism isn’t a complete set of beliefs to live by.
As an Atheist, what is the one thing you would like Christians to understand about you?
I’m not so sure I can restrict myself to just the one thing. There are several misconceptions about my atheistic worldview that greatly annoy me and sometimes actually personally offend or wound me when thrown in my face in a direct discussion. I can think of three such things just off the top of my head.
The first is that I cannot possibly be happy if I haven’t felt the love of Jesus/Allah/Whomever. This idea that someone else has a more profound and touching emotional/spiritual life purely because they have an invisible friend is not only silly and off-putting but it also makes them seem extremely self-centered and elitist - “I know something you don’t, I feel something you won’t, I am therefore a happier and more fullfilled person than you are.” Well, here’s some news for those of you who think like this: I’m human. I have the same spectrum of emotions as other humans. I feel love and hate (very little of the latter, though), happiness and grief, same as everyone else. I know I can’t change the minds of those who are convinced that their invisible friends give them something that I don’t have, but please, at least don’t offend me by talking about it.
The second misconception is that my desire to look at the world from a rational perspective, through science, to know things about it, detracts from its mystery and hence beauty. Nothing could be more wrong. The world does in fact become more and more exciting and wonderful the more I learn about it. Since I’ve studied ecology, physiology, ethology and other areas of biology my experience of nature has expanded and deepened to the point where I get high just by sitting on a rock in a forest and looking at my surroundings. That is how intensely knowledge affects my emotions.
The third is that atheists don’t have morals. This one is absurd, and has been dealt with so extensively by others much better qualified to discuss it that me, so I’ll just leave it for now. I’ll only state that while I’m by no means a perfectly moral human who always do the right thing, I do try to always do the best I can. Why? Because I can’t not be moral. It is deeply ingrained in my person to treat others as I wish they’d treat me. Exactly why this is is a topic for books, not blog posts!
Ok, so I’ve just seen the Golden Compass and was wondering if Atheists believe that we have souls?
No. I mean, yes, there are atheists out there who do, but I don’t believe in anything supernatural whatsoever. This belief that the world is all-natural isn’t inherent in atheism, but a disbelief in everything supernatural often goes hand in hand with a disbelief in gods in particular. The soul, as most people understand it, is a non-physical entity that resides within your body but is not dependent on it. It hasn’t been detected by any standard scientific methods and because there is now ample evidence that the mind is a product of brain activity, there’s no reason to believe that the soul exists - other than comfort, of course. The lack of a soul means that death is final and irreversible, with no heaven or hell or rebirth to go on to. The perk is that while I really don’t want to die, I’m not scared of going somewhere horrible afterwards.
I will sometimes refer to the soul in a more colloquial sense as an emotional/spiritual center, just like I do with the heart at times. “I know it in my brain” just doesn’t sound as good.
How different do you believe atheists and theists are, really?
Not very. We’re the same species, our brains work the same (as far as we know - at least I’m not aware of any conclusive evidence to the contrary). Why we’re one and not the other can usually be put down very much to circumstance - what sort of people and ideas you were exposed to as a child and young adult, for instance. In the end, we all just pretty much want to live our lives, make babies, be happy. It’s when people start thinking they should interfere in how other people live their lives because their Invisible Friend told them to that things start going wrong. That’s why I’m not like most people in Sweden, who simply don’t care about religion (which is mostly present in people’s lives in the form of some crazy relative or another), but an actual secularist activist, purposefully fighting to preserve secularism and advance a naturalistic worldview.
That’s all so far. If I see any more questions on Friendly Atheist I might respond in a new post. And of course, if you have any questions about my worldview for me specifically, feel free to ask them right here!
ETA: More questions and answers here.
Nicely done, I do not have the patience to answer so well. In fact, since most of my email form Christians fall into the hate mail/burn it hell category, I often just ignore them.
Comment by Mojoey — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 01:41
Mojoey, Thankfully I don’t get hate mail - yet. I assume it’s only a matter of time. Of course I guess it would also help if I actually posted an e-mail adress somewhere on the site…
Anyway, given that these questions were asked on the Friendly Atheist blog, I know they are likely to come from serious people who actually want to know what we think, and hence it’s only a pleasure to answer them. It’s when I hear stupid stuff like the above mentioned “If humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” that I get turned off and don’t feel like having a dialogue. Questions like that are usually only asked by people who have no interest in actually talking but just want to vent their own opinions. Of course there might be people who actually don’t know the answer to that question, but in that case they should be reading up on evolutionary theory rather than flaunting their ignorance while trying to disprove evolution!
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 01:54
The lack of a soul means that death is final and irreversible, with no heaven or hell or rebirth to go on to. The perk is that while I really don’t want to die, I’m not scared of going somewhere horrible afterwards.
Actually, I think a materialist view of mind has even better corollaries than that. After death a person does not experience anything nasty, true. But she doesn’t experience the absence of nice things either, or boredom, or need. Subjectively, she isn’t dead, she isn’t anything at all. It’s just back to not being, like before mom & dad got it on that one time when a person was conceived.
Being afraid of death is like being afraid of the Mesozoic or the Bronze Age. I don’t remember those periods as painful times.
Comment by Martin R — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 12:12
What I have a problem with is the distinction between natural and supernatural. ”Supernatural” seems like at rather superficial term, a broad category where you can put anything going against the mainstream view on what is ”nature”. How does one, from a scientific perspective, define ”supernatural”? ”Anything unobservable by science”? ”Anything that isn’t matter or energy”?
Comment by Markus — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 13:57
Martin, Good point - although for me being afraid of death is something different from being afraid of what happens afterwards. I’m afraid of the process of dying, and I’m also afraid of dying “before my time”. Like most animals I carry a very strong aversion against dying so I wouldn’t be quite as flippant about it. In short, I fully understand people who are afraid of death, but I don’t understand why people should be afraid of being dead!
Markus, That is a very complicated topic that has been discussed extensively again and again… I tend to use the working definition that the supernatural is something outside of the scientifically observable world that nevertheless affects the scientifically observable world, often in a way that science (known physical constants, biological processes etc) does not allow for.
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 14:19
That only raises problem of what is meant by “scientifically observable”. Science doesn’t really observe anything. The senses observe, science is the intepration of the data. That would make everything supernatural, which doesn’t seem right.
Comment by Markus — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 15:04
Oops, got that wrong. Everything would still be natural, since there wouln’t be scientifically observable world to effert.
Comment by Markus — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 15:09
Markus, That’s just semantics. I’m fairly certain you know exactly what I meant by scientifically observable. Let’s rephrase it into measurable, testable or any other word that’s better to your liking.
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 15:32
No, it is not just semantics. You know well enought that testing and measuring won’t say anything meaningfull about the world in itself, and certainly nothing about what is ”natural” or ”supernatural”. The data has to be interpretated, and science is interpration.
Is not what is measurable and testable entirely dependent on the position of the observer in time and space? ”Scientifically observable world” implies som sort of timeless, god-like omnipresence. In other words, something supernatural.
Comment by Markus — Tuesday, December 18, 2007 @ 19:13
I’m afraid of the process of dying, and I’m also afraid of dying “before my time”
I’d say you’re actually afraid of pain and suffering, regardless of whether it turns out to be lethal or not. So am I.
I fully understand people who are afraid of death, but I don’t understand why people should be afraid of being dead!
I know people who are afraid of being dead. The mere thought of not being, even any mention of geological time or astronomical distances is enough to awaken deep anxiety in them. I always tell them that pain and poor health and loneliness in a person’s final years can be really awful, but that being dead is No Problem, Baby. Dead people are intrinsically unable to have any problem whatsoever. (-;
Comment by Martin R — Wednesday, December 19, 2007 @ 09:57
An Atheists Values:
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/athval0.htm
Comment by jan — Wednesday, December 19, 2007 @ 22:02
I understand atheists and their worldview.There is a good logic behind it.But how can I be an atheist since I underwent supernatural experience long ago?Can you answer me that.?It could not had been a hoax or a delusion.
Comment by Janusz — Thursday, March 27, 2008 @ 18:04
@ Janusz, 12: It is a pity that you don’t describe your supernatural experience. But, anyway, you yourself would be the best person to understand and explain your experience. I am an atheist since age 12, when I started thinking about things, I am a rationalist, I am a materialist (in the philosophical sense). Nonetheless I have had two experiences that you, and a lot of other people would classify as spiritual, or indeed supernatural: I had both an NDE (near-death experience) and an OBE (out-of-body experience), both very hefty, and still very much explainable in down-to-earth terms.
Comment by René — Tuesday, July 15, 2008 @ 18:08