I know many atheist people. One of them is a bigoted racist. Another is big on the pseudoscience of Homeopathy. One is a good friend of mine and he never graduated from high school. Another is a good friend of mine and he has his degree in philosophy and comparative religion. Basically atheists can come from any background, have completely different political and social views, be incredibly smart, be incredibly stupid, be very nice, and be complete jerks. They pretty much run the spectrum.
What I have noticed is that those people who have come to non-belief through rational thought, skepticism and free thinking, they tend to be very well educated.
The same thing happened to my wife. When I was a believer, we would go to church every Sunday. When I came out to her the frequency at which she would go to church slowly started coming down. Now she goes about twice per month. I think part of it is that she wants to keep that “doing things with the family” aspect going and I also think that my disbelief is starting to affect her beliefs. She is starting to wonder, at least on a subconscious level, if perhaps I am correct. I’ve heard of it happening to other couples where one becomes an atheist and the other follows suit months or years afterwards.
I’ve never really thought about Theological Noncognitivism. I suppose in some ways I have already done this, but not to the extent that the link you provided describes.
I think that the term “god” is a very ambiguous term when I talk to believers that are trying to convince me of his/her existence, so I often will ask, “How do you define god?” I ask this because everyone’s definition of their god is always different, so I like to make sure that words and concepts are clearly defined. Then I can have a meaningful discussion.
I don’t know. I didn’t analyze it; I simply didn’t want to rock the boat. Had she continued attending her church with her previous frequency, I would have been fine with it.
Possibly because atheist is a negative word? It only describes what you don’t believe, not what you do.
It’s such a broad word, too - it covers everything from Zen Buddhism to religious humanism to philosophical materialism. I can’t see Richard Gere being philosophically closer to Sam Harris than to, say, Thomas Merton.
I’m an atheist, but that’s just one aspect of my religious views. Secular humanist is a better fit.
There is one thing that has changed in my social/political views since I became an atheist. I am more concerned with church-state separation than I used to be.
Atheism is a belief: that there is no god. Agnosticism is the lack of belief. Of myself I say (and have said so on these boards) that by knowledge I am agnostic, but by actual belief I am an atheist. That is, I have no evidence one way or the other, but I believe there is no god. If I am wrong, he can come this instant and demonstrate his existence.
No the OP said somewhere, he would like to hear from others. I was raised in a home that had no overt religious practice. I always knew we were Jewish (and had practicing relatives), but never went to schul and, except for attending Seders at an aunt’s house, never practiced religion. I did go to Hebrew school for a year and half to learn enough for a bar mitzvah, but after that date, never returned. At some point, I had a school assignment involving the bible (don’t recall what) and it turned out we didn’t own one. Later on my parents joined a reform synagogue and went to Friday night services, but that was really more social than religious. So it came quite naturally to me to not think about religion (or god).
My wife grew up similarly, although her mother’s second husband was quite religious and her mother went along. I have no idea whether the mother really believed. But my wife and I raised our children without any religion. Two of the three married a spouse with no relgious belief either. The third married a woman who does practice religion. Not only that, she believes that deep down my wife and I do believe in god. She’s wrong. But I accept that deep down she does believe in god, although I can hardly believe it.
Dawkins is too intolerant for my taste. (But his “The Ancestor’s Tale” is a wonderful book).
As Matt Dillahunty has said many times, theism has to do with what you believe and gnosticism has to do with what you know.
Atheism is not in and of itself a belief, but it does have to do with what you believe. It is a response to the proposition that some sort of god exists, saying that one does not believe it. Non belief in a god is not the same as saying that a god does not exist. Agnosticism says that one does not know if there is a god.
Therefore, I would consider myself an agnostic atheist. I don’t know if there is a god so I won’t believe one exists until I know for sure.