To say that atheism is credible is to suggest that the atheist may be right; to say that the atheist may be right is to suggest that the Christian may be wrong; to say that the Christian may be wrong is suggest that faith may be an unreliable guide to knowledge; to say that faith may be an unreliable guide to knowledge is to suggest that each and every tenet of Christianity should be reexamined in the light of reason — and from here all hell breaks loose as the process of deconversion rushes headlong to its logical destination.

George Smith wrote the above in his book Why Atheism?, and he makes a very interesting point. Many have wondered why conservative religious believers react with such hostility towards atheism and atheists. There are some obvious reasons (atheism is though to be immoral and an affront to God) and less obvious reasons (hostility towards atheism is a legacy of the Cold War battle with godless communism).

Here, however, we have a possible reason which not only might go unnoticed by atheists, but which many believers may also miss — and may not be consciously aware of. I’m sure that some people have considered this issue, but I suspect that most don’t think about whether the credibility of atheism alone might represent any sort of threat to the soundness of their religious beliefs.

This is not to say, though, that they don’t recognize on an unconscious level that it would be better if they didn’t have to seriously confront the possibility of being mistaken — that their beliefs are more secure so long as they can maintain the impression that being wrong is out of the question. This eliminates the need to deal with difficult questions and substantive challenges. It’s easier to focus on evidence and arguments which reinforce what they already believe rather than consider that atheists, even if mistaken, are at least mistaken for fair, honest, and reasonable reasons.

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