Soundbites for Defending Atheism
Too often, there is little common ground upon which they can build an understanding. What atheists need, at least at times, are short statements which make good soundbites which provide a short, succinct explanation of what atheists think.
Alonzo Fyfe offers some good, short soundbites which atheists can use:
(a) Inferring morality from a disposition to pray is as bigoted as inferring criminality from the color of one’s skin.
(b) There are many moral people who do not pray, and many praying people who are not moral.
(c) We are a Christian nation in the same sense that we are a white nation, and it no more justifies bigotry against non-Christians than it justifies bigotry against non-Whites.
(d) [In answer to the question, “Where do you get your morality?”] From the fact that this is the only life I will ever have and it’s insane to try to live that life in a hive of murderers, rapists, and thieves.
(e) [In answer to the question of why there is so much bigotry against Atheists.] The Pledge of Allegiance and the national motto teach bigotry against Atheists. They were passed during the McCarthy era to teach children that atheists are not true Americans, and they work.
In comments, he adds:
How about judging my morality by how I act rather than whether I pray to your God?
All of these strike me as good — certainly good enough to try to remember and have handy for conversations (though it would be wise to think about them enough in advance so that you can build on them further with something more substantial than just a soundbite). I myself have used statements like (c) quite frequently: it is true that America is a "Christian Nation" in exactly the same way that it is true that America is a "White Nation." That is to say, it's true in terms of demographics and history, but it's not true when it comes to the foundation of our law and government.
Comments
How about:
“Oh! I thought God was dead.”
Good I’ll have to keep a couple of those handy!
“Sounds” like a pretty good idea. Sometimes, good, short statements like some of these can bring potential adversaries up short as they confront, in bite-sized chunks, something they may never have considered before.
Atheistic koans?
It’s a pity that these bites are quite a mouthful, otherwise one would be able to remember them all. It is easier to believe that there is a God than trying to remember verses like these “Bite-size chunks”
It’s the only life this athiest has to live through (or so he thinks, has he ever stopped to think how it all started, because to my understanding life cannot start on it’s own accord, because nothing starts or comes out of nothing.
How so?
Please support your claim that life could not have a natural, material origin.
I use very short “sound bites” on computer generated signs that I put in my car windows. “No Bible Mutant Judges” “Jesus Hates Blockheads and Phonies, so Rapture for No One.” “Religion Is Not a Commodity”
Lies are the First Sin.” “Sins are Weaknesses.”
Charlie Borg - You wrote: “…to my understanding life cannot start on it’s own accord, because nothing starts or comes out of nothing.”
Nothing except God, you mean, right? But if, in some manner currently incomprehensible to us, God can exist without having begun, why couldn’t the same be true of the universe?