Can a person be glad that they are an atheist? I'm not sure that it makes a great deal of sense because I'm certainly not glad that I disbelieve in elves or Martians. At the same time, though, I can indeed appreciate being glad that I'm not afflicted with some of the bigotries, prejudices, and superstitions often encouraged by religion. Atheists aren't immune to such things, but they typically lack a major source of them.

David Morrison reproduces a short email exchange with an atheist, commenting:

First, what is it about self-proclaimed atheists [sic] that makes them appear to be such generally unhappy people? Even before I came to Christ, a self-defined atheist would not be somebody with whom I would be anxious to sit down and share a beer. Second, he apparently has some knowledge of scripture, more than from someone I would have thought didn't care about God, by definition.

First, there is nothing in the emails that suggests the person is "unhappy." That's David making wild assumptions about someone he doesn't know, apparently because he never much liked atheists to begin with and still hasn't gotten over his prejudices. Of course, if he is prejudiced against atheists that may come across in his dealings with them and lead to more negative encounters. I wonder if that has ever occurred to him?

Second, in my experience it's actually quite common for atheists to know scripture very well — many used to be religious themselves and leaving religion was something that occurred after a very detailed study of the Bible, along with the scriptures of other religions. It's prejudice, again, to assume that a nonadherent of a religion wouldn't know scripture as well as an adherent. An atheist may not believe in any gods, but that doesn't mean that atheists don't care about god-believers and the ideologies they promote.

But I gotta give you credit for self-defining as an atheist. I couldn't be an atheist, I lack the necessary faith.

I don't think that David understands much about atheism or faith if he thinks that disbelief in gods is a "faith" that he couldn't achieve. My disbelief in gods requires no more faith than my disbelief in elves and Martians.

I do, however, lack the bigotry necessary to generalize about all members of groups in the manner that people such as David manage to do on a depressingly regular basis.

Read More:

• Atheism 101
• Defining Atheism
• Rebuttals to Attacks on Atheism