What is Atheism?
Dateline: December 31, 1998
Many of my regular readers may be surprised at the topic of this essay - perhaps
it will appear much too basic and obvious to devote an entire article to. Ordinarily,
I might agree with such sentiments. However, its very fundamental nature means that
it does indeed require substantive treatment. Although I have answered the title
question briefly and simply in a number of areas (chat room, bulletin board, in some
articles), I've never devoted an entire article to examine just the nature of atheism
on its own. Perhaps that has been a mistake, because I continually get people who
still don't quite understand what atheism is (and is not), even though they have
spent a fair amount of time here.
Now it is time to rectify that situation. I'm not sure that all atheists will entirely
agree with everything here in this article, but I am confident enough of my position
that I think all my points have sufficient reasonable and logical basis to warrant
serious consideration. Hopefully some readers will join me in directing people with
questions about atheism to this essay.
Defining Atheism
First, we really should look at basic definitions. There are two different ways
to look at the term "atheism" - a narrow way and a broader way which encompasses
the former.
The word atheism is a derivation of the word theism. Theism is not, as is sometimes
thought, "religion." Theism is the belief in a god (monotheism) or multiple
gods (polytheism) - a belief which is normally a part of a religion, but need not
be. By adding the prefix "a", which means "not; without,"
we get atheism - and hence "not/without belief in gods." Why and how one
might be without belief in gods are not even slightly relevant.
The broader, and more common, understanding of atheism among atheists is quite simply
"not believing in any gods." No claims or denials are made in this - an
atheist is just a person who does not happen to be a theist. Sometimes this broader
understanding is called "weak" or "implicit" atheism. Most good,
complete dictionaries readily support this.
There also exists a narrower sort of atheism, sometimes called "strong"
or "explicit" atheism. With this type, the atheist explicitly denies the
existence of any gods - making a strong claim which will deserve support at some
point. Some atheists do this and others may do this with regards to certain specific
gods but not with others. Unfortunately, misunderstandings arise because many theists
imagine that all atheists fit this most narrow, limited form of the concept of atheism.
Reliance upon dishonest apologists and cheap dictionaries only exacerbates the problem.
Theists
& Atheism
Possibly theists feel that since they are claiming the existence of their god,
then anyone who does not agree with them must be claiming the exact opposite - a
serious misunderstanding of not only basic logic but also how human belief systems
operate. Theists also tend to make the serious error of focusing only on the specific
god in which they believe, failing to recognize the fact that atheists don't
focus on that god. Atheism has to involve all gods, not simply one god - and an atheist
can often approach different gods in different ways, depending upon what the is necessitated
by the nature of the god in question.
A person may indeed not believe in gods because they think gods cannot possibly exist
- but that does not even begin to exhaust the possible reasons why a person does
not believe. A god may not be believed in because it hasn't been heard of, because
the concept hasn't been sufficiently explained, because what has been explained is
incoherent, etc.
You'll often find theists telling you that you're an atheist because you deny the
existence of God. Now we can start to see just how many errors and misunderstandings
that statement involves. First, the term "God" hasn't been defined - so
what the atheist thinks of it cannot be known. The theist cannot simply assume that
whatever they have in mind must also be something which the atheist has in mind.
Second, it is not true that whatever this god turns out to be, the atheist must automatically
deny it. This concept might turn out to be too incoherent to justify either belief
or denial.
As a matter of fact, many exchanges between atheists and theists turn out to be frustrating
and unsatisfactory because no one ever bothers to stop and explain what is meant
by the key term: "god." Unless and until that happens, no serious, productive,
or rational discussion can take place. Unless we know what the theist means by "god,"
we'll never have any chance to judge if anything said in defense of belief is adequate.
Unless we know what the theist means by "god," we'll never be able to seriously
critique their concepts.
Agnosticism
So, what about agnosticism? Some imagine that agnosticism represents an alternative
to atheism, but those people have typically bought into the mistaken notion of the
single, narrow definition of atheism. Strictly speaking, agnosticism is about knowledge,
and knowledge is a related but separate issue from belief, the domain of theism and
atheism.
If a person cannot claim to know, or know for sure, if any gods exist, then they
may properly use the term "agnostic" to describe themselves. Some agnostics
limit themselves to saying that they do not or cannot know if any gods exist, some
go further and maintain that no human can possibly know if any gods exist.
Although we now have an idea of what this person knows or thinks she knows, we don't
actually know what she believes. It is a simple fact that some people don't believe
that they know, but believe anyway, and that some people cannot claim to know, and
decide that that is reason enough to not bother believing. Thus agnosticism is not
an alternative, "third way" going between atheism and theism. It is instead
a separate issue compatible with both.
Agnosticism
or Atheism?
Many people who adopt the label of agnostic also reject the label of atheist,
and there are a number of reasons for this. The most common reason for this is probably
social pressure and prejudice against atheism and atheists. People who are unafraid
of stating that they indeed do not believe in any gods are still despised in many
places, whereas "agnostic" appears more respectable. Due to misunderstandings
about atheism, atheists are thought to be closed-minded because they deny the existence
of gods whereas agnostics appear to be open-minded because they do not know for sure.
Not only is that a mistake, since atheists do not necessarily deny any gods and may
indeed be an atheist because they do not know for sure, but it rests upon a vicious
double-standard. If atheists are closed-minded because they are not agnostic, then
so are theists who are making claims that gods exist without being open to the possibility
that there aren't any gods. If theism can be open-minded, then so can atheism. If
atheism must be closed-minded, then so must theism. Theists who prefer agnosticism
to atheism because of perceived closed-mindedness are thus hypocrites.
| Quote of the week: I don't believe in god because I don't believe in Mother Goose. Clarence Darrow, speech, Toronto, 1930 |
The only reason I can think of for treating the concept of "god" in a special manner and unlike anything else in their lives is some variation on Pascal's Wager. They are perhaps unsure enough about whether or not they should believe in any gods that maybe they are attempting to avoid admitting to any decision in belief. But all the basic objections to Pascal's Wager come into play here - for example, are they equally agnostic about all possible gods? And if not, why not?
Agnosticism and Atheism
So, agnosticism is not a third option between theism and atheism,
because it involves a separate subject matter entirely. It is quite rare for anyone
to have absolute, certain knowledge about anything - but does that stop us from either
believing or not believing? No, not really.
As a matter of fact, a majority of people who consider themselves either atheist
or theist would also be justified in calling themselves agnostics. It is not at all
uncommon, for example, for a theist to be adamant in their belief, but also be adamant
in the fact their belief is based on faith and not on having absolute, incontrovertible
knowledge. Moreover, some degree of agnosticism is evident in every theist who considers
their god to be "unfathomable" or to "work in mysterious ways."
This all reflects a fundamental lack of knowledge on the part of the believer with
regards to the nature of what they claim to believe in.
As for my own situation, I consider myself both an agnostic and an atheist. I am
an agnostic because I simply cannot claim to know for sure whether or not any critter
exists which might warrant the label "god." This is for strictly philosophical
and logical reasons - after all, I also cannot claim to know for sure that no unicorns
or fairies exist for the exact same reasons. However, I do not particularly focus
on this.
I am an atheist because I do not believe in any gods. Some gods I've not heard of,
so cannot believe in. Some gods I've heard of, but do not know enough about to believe
in. Some gods I've heard more about, but find so totally incoherent that rational
belief is impossible. And finally, there are some gods which I have heard plenty
about, and have found it much more likely that they do not exist than that they do
exist, and so explicitly reject.
Misconceptions
There are numerous misconceptions about what atheism entails and who atheists are - not at all unsurprising, since the basic definition of atheism is so misconstrued. They all deserve their own in-depth articles at some point, but I think it would help to briefly explore a few of them here...
1. People stop believing in God so that they can do whatever they want.
This misconception stems from the idea that atheists not only cannot be moral without god, but in fact do not want to be moral. Theistic, particularly Christian, attitudes towards atheists can often be summarized by the oft-quoted verse Psalm 14:1
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good.
Although quotations rarely go so far as to include the second sentence, no atheist should ever fail to keep in mind that it is always there, hanging unspoken but nevertheless assumed, in the background. Despite numerous attempts, no theist has ever conclusively demonstrated that belief in their god is required for morality - and in fact there are many good reasons to think that such a claim is simply false. Perhaps there are atheists who rejected belief in gods in order to avoid morality - but I've never encountered any, and the many atheists I have known have had quite different reasons for their atheism.
2. Atheists hate God.
By now, we should the problems with this claim - all go back to misunderstanding what atheism is. Atheists either do not believe in any gods or deny that gods exist - and you cannot really hate something which doesn't exist. Moreover, we find here the theist focusing on just their god - even if it were true that an atheist hated the description of their particular god, it doesn't follow that the atheist hates all other god-concepts.
3. Atheists worship Satan.
Again, we find a theist thinking that for some reason that only their god is relevant to the atheist - and if the atheist does not believe in their god, then they must worship the antithesis of their god, Satan. But the fact of the matter is, atheists who don't believe in a god also aren't going to believe in the god's supernatural competitor, either.
4. Atheist rely as much on faith as theists do.
It isn't uncommon for theists to assume that whatever is true of themselves must
also be true of everyone else - so, instead of reconsidering admittedly irrational
beliefs, they do whatever they can to force those who reject that irrationality into
the same mold.
First, this claim rests upon an equivocation of the term "faith." Without
going too deeply into the nature of faith, it should be noted that the only sort
of "faith" common among atheists is that of simply confidence based upon
and limited by repeatable, objective experiences. Religious faith in the existence
of a god is a very different animal - something Paul clearly recognized when he defined
faith as the "...assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not
seen." (Hebr. 11:1)
Second, this claim will at times lead the theist to try and argue from a position
of pure solipsism - an extreme and irrational form of skepticism whereby everything
is denied as being a viable and rational belief. The point seems to be to demonstrate
that some sort of "faith" is necessary, and if so, why not faith in the
existence of their god? The problems with this are too numerous to explain in this
article, but we can make note of the fact that at the very least such radical solipsism
also cannot justify belief in the person attempting to defend that position - and
if they do not exist, why bother listening to them?
5. Everyone worships something, so atheists must have some god.
This complaint runs along lines very similar to the previous, and sometimes this
idea is also expressed by claiming that "atheism is a religion." Since
they cannot imagine living their life without worshipping their god, they also cannot
imagine atheists living without worshipping something, like money or humanity.
One method of doing this is to redefine the concept of "worship" with very
broad and ambiguous strokes, calling it a person's "ultimate concern" or
"whatever is most important in your life." Such tactics truly reveal that
a person is grasping for straws - just because you can identify one most important
thing in your life doesn't meant that you actually "worship" it. In fact,
attempting to claim so ultimately does a grave injustice to the genuine worship which
occurs in religion.
6. Atheism is due to bad childhood experiences with false religions.
It is certainly true that many atheists have had poor experiences with religion, often in childhood. It is also true that such experiences have caused people to reconsider how they feel about religion and, in some cases, to finally reject religion and even belief in gods. However, this is by far not the only reason why people are atheists. Some, for example, never believed in any gods and never belonged to any religion.
7. All atheists believe in "X."
Many theists still try to pigeonhole atheists into a single philosophical straight-jacket
- be it humanism, communism, nihilism, objectivism, or something else. By claiming
to have identified this other belief system necessary to atheism, they can then proceed
to attack that belief system and pretend to have refuted atheism without ever actually
addressing atheism itself. It is certainly true that atheism can be a part of the
aforementioned worldviews, among many others, but it is not true that atheism necessitates
any of them.
Not only does atheism fail to imply an agreement with any one belief system, it also
fails to imply agreement with any other atheists. My neighbor might also be an atheist,
but we might disagree on nearly every single philosophical and social issue imaginable.
Just because we agree on not believing in magic elves, unicorns or gods does not
announce to the world that we agree on anything else.
Now that we know a bit more about what atheism is and is not, perhaps discussions
on this site will have a chance of being more productive.
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