# All Athiests are Caucasian **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 27, 2000, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346 "2000-12-27T05:18:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/21 "2000-12-27T13:07:20Z")
So an Ancient Greek sacrifices a fatted calf to Athena so she’ll aks Zeus to lay off the storms and that’s polythesim, but if a modern Catholic prays to Mother Mary to intercede on his behalf regarding rent that’s monotheism. It all seems like a bunch of semantics thrown up to convince people that they follow a monotheistic faith. Respecting the work of a human being is different from venerating a supernatural being. I can respect what Jesus the Christ did without thinking for an instant he’s supernatural. Plenty of people respect Thomas Jefferson. Does that mean they are worshipping him as a deity? No. ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/22 "2000-12-27T13:09:43Z")
grienspace said: > [@](#): > > I know I could be wrong Not only “could,” but “are.” > [@](#): > > but I will venture to say that a vast majority of athiests have been raised in a predominantly christian culture and as a result are inherently anti christian rather than anti-islam or anti-hindu or anti-wicca. As has already been explained to you (but it can’t hurt to repeat), atheists are not “anti” any specific religion. They just don’t believe in a god – any god. Not the god of Christians or the god of Islam or whatever. > [@](#): > > I just never hear of athiests in the third world except in communist countries. Well, hell, how often do you “hear of atheists” around here? It’s not like the major news organizations cover atheism very well. Unless you happen to specifically participate in message boards dedicated to that sort of thing (or something of the sort), it’s not surprising that you’ve never heard of them. However, I know of a list run by a Turkish atheist; I’ve seen newsletters printed by Indian atheists; etc. > [@](#): > > If I’m correct, then I would suggest that Christianity is the most tolerant of world religions. First, you’re not correct. Second, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? What an illogical leap (not to mention that “Christianity” is not a religion in and of itself – there are so many different variants with different amounts of tolerance). ---
**Author:** ![Phobos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Phobos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phobos)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/23 "2000-12-27T13:51:59Z")
to the OP… If you live in a white Christian culture, you may just be not hearing about the atheists in other cultures. Atheism doesn’t really make the news much. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/24 "2000-12-27T13:53:20Z")
I think the essence of any religion is the belief in a subjective, supernatural order of existance. Now, wouldn’t you define the concept of Karma as “subjective”? Or wouldn’t you call reincarnation “supernatural” (or at least “unproven by scientific means”)? Correct me if I’m wrong, but those are the two cornerstones of Buddhism. As for Taoism, though, I’m not quite sure. I’l have to get back to you about that. ---
**Author:** ![Gundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Gundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gundy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/25 "2000-12-27T15:59:50Z")
For criminy’s sake. I am Mexican and an atheist. What a pointless OP. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/26 "2000-12-27T16:42:47Z")
Black and atheist here. Did anybody figure the connect (is there one?) between the OP and the thread title yet? ---
**Author:** ![SpinneZiege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@SpinneZiege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpinneZiege)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/27 "2000-12-27T17:01:26Z")
It seems the OP lives in a very sheltered world of ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/28 "2000-12-27T17:22:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dr.Pinky \* > I know a considerable number of ‘non caucasian atheists’. How many would it take to convince you? 30? 300? 300,000? \*\* What if there are fifty non-white atheists in the thread? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the thread for the sake of the fifty non-white atheists in it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/29 "2000-12-27T18:20:45Z")
Gundy wrote: > [@](#): > > For criminy’s sake. I am Mexican and an atheist. I thought most Mexicans _were_ caucasian. (At least, that’s what the Year 2000 U.S. Census implied – they had one set of check-boxes for your “race”, and a totally separate question asking “Are you hispanic?”, implying that the usual Hispanic was “white”.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/30 "2000-12-27T18:40:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by porcupine \* > \*\ ***grienspace** , atheism is a lack of belief in a god or gods. Strong atheists deny the existense of a god or gods, whereas weak atheists simply do not have a belief in god. > > \*\* Please check the Webster Dictionary. An atheist is one who DENIES God. That is a proactive verb. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/31 "2000-12-27T18:41:15Z")
**Tracer** , Mexico and points south are populated mostly by hispanics and _latinos_, but not all hispanics and _latinos_ are caucasian. There was much more mixing of culture and blood between the natives and the _colonistas_ than in _Norteamerica_. Add to that a later influx in many places of African blood, and you end up with the very sexy mocha color considered typical of _latino_ skin. There are many “white” hispanics, and many “non-white.” Largely in the EEUU it’s a matter of how one chooses to mark one’s census form. **Gundy** , ¿did I leave anything out, _amigo_? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/32 "2000-12-27T18:44:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dr.Pinky > I know a considerable number of ‘non caucasian atheists’. How many would it take to convince you? 30? 300? 300,000? \*\* One would be sufficient ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/33 "2000-12-27T18:50:47Z")
Dunno about your dictionary, **grienspace** , but here’s another one: > [@](#): > > **atheist** (â´thê-îst) _noun_ > One that _disbelieves_ or denies the existence of God or gods. (_The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition_. 1992, Houghton Mifflin Company.) Let’s be polite now, shall we? If you want to know more about atheism, poke around Great Debates a bit. Don’t make assumptions without knowledge. We’re here to fight ignorance, not perpetuate it. ---
**Author:** ![Ptahlis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a8b319/32.png) [@Ptahlis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ptahlis)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/34 "2000-12-27T18:52:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by grienspace \* > \*\* > Please check the Webster Dictionary. An atheist is one who DENIES God. That is a proactive verb. \*\* Webster is not the fount of all knowledge you know. It relays the definitions that people use by and large, but it is not a particularly reliable source of philosophical discourse. If you want to be hidebound and insist on only the most simplistic definition given you in the midst of the Great Debates forum, you will not make much headway. Atheists do indeed subdivide into the strong/weak categories, only one of which denies God, even if you refuse to accept it. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/35 "2000-12-27T18:55:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Please check the Webster Dictionary. An atheist is one who DENIES God. That is a proactive verb. Please check out [the Encyclopedia Britannica on atheism](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/4/0,5716,117394+6+109479,00.html?query=atheism) or the [Alt.Atheism FAQ](http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/overview.html) for a defintion of atheism that is more than seven words. Heck, the Webster’s definition of “Christian” (“one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ”) could conceivably include the group “Atheists for Jesus”, who by their own admission “believe in the message of love and kindness put forth by Jesus.” I’d suggest you depend on resources a little less space-limited than the dictionary (and ones that are written by actual members of the group that you wish to know about, or at the very least those who have studied the matter in-depth) if you want an educated definition of a group’s beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/36 "2000-12-27T18:55:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth > By the way, what do you mean by Christianity being the most tolerant religion in the world? Christians have persecuted to death adherents of every major faith at one time or another, and they do a fine job of killing atheists like me as well. Are you calling them tolerant because they have so far not succeeded in killing all non-Christians? \*\* I merely suggested it as a point of debate. It occurs to me that a forum like this one in Iran would certainly not produce any atheistic responses. I mean, look at Salmon Rushdie. I mean in most parts of the world you don’t go telling the tribe that their religion is full of shit and get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ptahlis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a8b319/32.png) [@Ptahlis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ptahlis)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/37 "2000-12-27T19:06:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by grienspace \* > \*\*I merely suggested it as a point of debate. It occurs to me that a forum like this one in Iran would certainly not produce any atheistic responses. I mean, look at Salmon Rushdie. I mean in most parts of the world you don’t go telling the tribe that their religion is full of shit and get away with it. \*\* That’s one good argument for the separation of church and state. One point to consider though is that Islam is not confined to the fundamentalist type practiced in Iran. There are plenty of Muslims that were appalled more by the _fatwah_ against Rushdie than by anything that Rushdie wrote. Unfortunately, fundamentalism within Islam seems to make up a much larger portion of believers than their Christian counterparts. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/38 "2000-12-27T19:11:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gaudere > I’d suggest you depend on resources a little less space-limited than the dictionary (and ones that are written by actual members of the group that you wish to know about, or at the very least those who have studied the matter in-depth) if you want an educated definition of a group’s beliefs. \*\* I didn’t know there was an Atheist group with a set of beliefs.Do you have chapters all over the world?🙂 I don’t want to offend you people, so from here on in be informed that when I used the word atheist heretofore, I meant “one who actively denies the existance of God or gods” I’ll call such a person an anti-believer. O.K. ? ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/39 "2000-12-27T19:28:59Z")
> [@](#): > > I didn’t know there was an Atheist group with a set of beliefs. Atheism isn’t a “set of beliefs”. It may be either a lack of belief in God, an active disbelief in certain gods and lacking belief in all gods, or an active disbelief in all gods. Nothing else is required to be considered an atheist; it’s not like Christianity or Judaism where you get a whole set of beliefs packaged together. There is no monolithic atheist group that dictates what an athiest is; the defintion of “atheist” that I refer to is simply the most common (and IMHO, accurate) one hammered out by theists and atheists alike to accurately divide atheists, theists and agnostics up. Some people still insist that atheists _must_ actively disbelieve in all Gods, but that’s not an attitude I’ve seen held by people who have done serious study of modern atheism. > [@](#): > > Do you have chapters all over the world? I suppose there are. In my experience, atheists tend not be be joiners and it seems to me rather odd to have a group who all they have in common is they lack belief in God. I am unaware of any atheist group in my area and I know of no one who belongs to such a group. > [@](#): > > I’ll call such a person an anti-believer. O.K. ? If you like, although “hard atheist” is the term generally used for a person that professes that. And if you’re talking to them, there’s scant few on this MB. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2000, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346/40 "2000-12-27T19:32:08Z")
And the worst part of being an atheist is that the Invisible Pink Unicorn doesn’t leave presents under the ol’ Doug fir. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-athiests-are-caucasian/47346.md?page=3)