My kids are both atheists, not surprising growing up in a home without religion. But they stayed atheist without the need of going to atheist Sunday school or something. This indoctrination seems necessary for kids being brought up in a religion. The only instruction they got was when they were each 10, and I went through the first few chapters of Genesis with them pointing out the internal contradictions and farcical “science.”
On the other hand, they are both very smart. 
I would love to hear back again from the OP. Any further thoughts? Your own view? Do you think people are atheists because they are smart? Skeptical? Just not brought up with religion?
I am of the opinion that most atheists are not atheists as a result of intelligence or even of critical thinking. They no more reasoned themselves into atheism than the typical believereasoned hirself into belief. This includes my own atheism. If anything, IMO, the typical arc for an atheist is to just not believe and then work backwards from that to try to articulate why. Often, if the atheist is the child of believers, there will be an element of rebellion against parental authority and/ or the religious group’s norms mixed into the atheist’s explanation for their lackof belief. This may be conscious or subconscious.
As for why I ask the question, there exists a vocal portion of the atheist population who are fiercely proud of their atheism. I am curious as to why. From my POV, pride in something should be tied to actual accomplishment. Since this place is ostensibly a hangout for smart people, I phrased the question around being smart.
I wonder how the thread would look if I had asked " Atheists: Are you smarter than religious believers?" Different, I am sure; but I wanted those who responded to talk mainly about themselves, not others.
Directly to the OP: Do you believe Ganesh the Elephant God flies around granting favors to everybody who pleases him?
If you don’t believe that, is it because you’re very smart? Does it take a lot of smarts to see through that fiction?
This is a lot like the common line about “How can there be gay pride? What’s there to be proud of?”
And the answer is basically the same:
In much of the US, atheism is much reviled and one has to be very careful about revealing that they are an atheist. It makes, for example, a career in politics a whole lot more difficult, particularly on the right, despite the US’ secular origins.
In other parts of the world, it can be a death sentence, pure and simple.
So it’s pride in the sense of being the opposite of shame. Not being afraid to stand up and declare themselves atheist. And not making apologies, even to friends and relatives who may be theist. It can take courage.
Of course there are also many people living in parts of the world without such persecution where “atheist” nonetheless becomes an important part of their self-identity. I don’t think that’s quite so positive, but I don’t think it’s a negative either. We all need things to hang our self-image on to, and you could do a lot worse.
I don’t think atheists are necessarily any smarter than believers. I do think skepticism and critical thinking are smarter than the lack thereof, and IMO skepticism and critical thinking are more likely to lead to a lack of religious faith (which is not necessarily “atheism”, depending on the definition you’re using) vs its acceptance.
And have any of the responses in this thread changed that opinion in any way?
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That’s not the case for me. I went through the typical Sunday school initiation and although my parents weren’t overly religious my Mom at least made a token attempt to get us to Sunday services early on. As I got older I became increasingly dissatisfied with the answers I got to my questions and started looking further afield into more obscure Christian sects, Buddhism, Zen, Taoism and a few others. I finally realized, that the World makes more sense without a Celestial Capo dei Capi than it does with one. I still think that religion (sometimes) has positive lessons to learn from but believing that my life will be better after I die is, to me, just silly as it gives me little incentive to be better now. YMMV.
I am really surprised how often people refer to religion when discussing their belief or lack of belief in a higher power. I don’t see how their could be a connection. I can understand one saying religion is hogwash or unbelievable but religion certainly would not play a part in rather or not I believed in God. My only question would be rather or not the universe could have come about on it’s own. The odds of all things being right to support life and then having life forms capable of evolving and adapting are beyond astronomical. But the size of the universe is also beyond astronomical so it is a pretty close call. There is no way in hell I could ever think of someone as delusional for having a belief in a creator.
How wonderful for you. However, I was giving my opinion of atheists as a group.
Minorities tend to feel relatively put-upon and, as such, have to compensate.
We are only capable of answering as individuals, though.
Are atheists a group? Can you meaningfully talk about people who do not collect stamps as a group?
I now feel like a fool for having participated in this sham of a thread.
And some grow tired of the ignorance of the majority and feel the need to establish boundaries on those who do not respect them.
I don’t know, Rusty, but I do know this: I’ve never had a discussion with you that was worth the time I spent on it and , so, you really shouldn’t expect me to have a dialog now about how I am atheisting wrong. Ta.
I think the connection is that a good percentage of people get their idea about how “God” works from the religion they grew up with.
Should have been obvious from seeing who posted it.
I was raised in religion (Southern Baptist, then Mormon). I started having my doubts about This Whole God Person at around age 10 or 11. It wasn’t rebellion, I just wasn’t feeling any truth in any of it and I was beginning to notice horrible things done in God’s name, despite alleged commandments to do exactly NOT that sort of thing. So I knew I wasn’t feeling God; the people in my life who said they did sure as hell weren’t acting like they felt His Love, heard His Word, or were even concerned about His Judgment of their ways, and moreover I saw no sign of Him in the world–no miracles, no revelations, no comfort. The closest I’ll get to believing is to recognize the universe itself is omnipresent and omnipotent, and then I may just as well dispense with Religion and all the baggage it brings.
Because they are assholes. There are plenty of them WITH religion as well.
No mention yet of Richard Dawkins promoting an atheist movement called ‘The Brights’?
Apparently he wasn’t clever enough to realise how stupid that sounds. 