Atheists in America

[Dinsdale]

@kayaker

I do not collect stamps, but I especially do not collect stamps from island nations prior to WW II. I’m that kinda non-philatelist.

Thanks for the chortle!

[k9bfriender]

@ASL_v2.0

I try not to be too self-congratulatory about being an atheist. I get that there can be a tendency to want to react to allegations that we are inherently immoral, but beyond that I think there’s risk in going around patting ourselves on the back for our own, “superior”, morality. “Skepticism” (which, like morality, is an attribute some atheists seem to think they possess simply by virtue of being an atheist), particularly when applied selectively or unevenly, can be a pathway to false truths and hateful beliefs that rival or surpass mainstream religious belief for their toxicity.

There are, for instance, homophobes, transphobes, and racists in the skeptic community, and they can be just as convinced that it is their “skepticism” that has led them to hold those beliefs with “good reason” as a Christian might believe they’ve divined the truth of god’s will from the Bible or through direct revelation.

Just as we insist that atheism is not a religion itself, but rather a single position on a single question, we should not pretend to have any inherently greater claim to moral superiority strictly by virtue of our atheism. It may be that atheism, as currently expressed in relatively advanced (technologically, compared to other parts of the world) and largely secular societies in Europe and the US, does tend to correlate with higher levels of altruism, empathy, and “morality” (whatever that is), but at the end of the day that will still say little about whether or not individual atheists possess these qualities, or whether atheists will continue to possess them in such degree should it cease to be a minority view (encompassing more and more people because it’s what they were born into, rather than because it’s what they arrived at on their own after much consideration).

I would certainly not say that being an atheist is a more moral position than being religious.

A religious person, OTOH, is very likely to say that being religious is a more moral position than being an atheist.

If an atheist disagrees with that assessment, and explains why their moral system is adequate, the religious person will oft accuse the atheist of trying to be superior.

The fact that we atheists actually think about our morals, rather than simply accept them as given, does, IMHO, make the atheist in a better position to understand and defend their morals.

I still remember a religious debate with Lawrence Krauss where his opponent said that his belief in God was all that was preventing him from being a murderer. That’s not, once again IMHO, a morally superior position.