Articles Index
Myth: Militant Atheists are Atheist Fundamentalists, a New Atheism
There seems to be an increasing number of people responding to atheist critiques of religion or theism by labeling the person a "fundamentalist" atheist. The label is problematic because there are no essential or "fundamental" beliefs for an atheist to be "fundamentalist" about. So why do people use the label? Why do so many people feel that the label is appropriate? This seems to be mostly due to misunderstandings about and prejudice against fundamentalism.
Myth: Atheists Shouldn't Deconvert People, That Will Harm Them in the Afterlife
One of the most popular arguments which religious theists, and especially Christians, try to use is some form of Pascal's Wager: being an atheist is a bad "bet" because if you're wrong, you'll suffer for all eternity when God punishes you. The gross immorality of punishing a person for eternity merely for disbelieving in a god never seems to occur to these theists, but then they also never seem to offer anything but the most simplistic versions of it. Here, however, we get a nifty twist.
Myth: If People Fail to Believe in God, They Will Believe in Anything
Many religious theists think that their God creates or otherwise provides a set of objective standards against which they can measure all their beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, etc. Without their god, they can't imagine how anyone could possibly differentiate true from false beliefs, moral from immoral behaviors, proper from improper attitudes. Atheists who don't believe in any gods are thus capable of believing and doing absolutely anything, having nothing at all to hold them back.
Myth: Being Irreligious is Risky, Short-Sighted Behavior Like Crime
Many associate atheism with anti-social and even criminal behavior, but such assertions are usually little more than that: bare assertions without substantiating evidence or arguments. The most people offer may be question-begging claims about religion and god being necessary for moral behavior. Here, however, we have a new twist which claims that there is a physiological, biological reason behind people - or at least men - rejecting religion and gods. Unfortunately, it's rife with flaws.
Myth: Atheists are Intolerant for Criticizing Religion, Theism
There are several myths here, all tightly intertwined for the apparent purpose of getting atheists to cease making uncomfortable and unwelcome criticisms of religion and theism. Religious believers, mostly Christians, are responding to atheistic critiques of religion by claiming that vocal, unapologetic atheists are analogous to religious terrorists and that criticism of religion is a form of religious intolerance. The implication is that believers shouldn't have to be faced with criticism.
Hitler Was an Atheist Who Killed Millions in the Name of Atheism, Secularism?
A popular image of the Nazis is that they were anti-Christian while Christians were anti-Nazi. The truth is that German Christians supported the Nazis because they believed that Adolf Hitler was a gift to the German people from God. Nazi Christians didn’t abandon basic Christian doctrines, like the divinity of Jesus. Germany saw itself as a Christian nation and millions of Christians enthusiastically endorsed Hitler and the Nazi Party, seeing both as embodiments of German and Christian ideals.
How Many Were Killed by Communists in the Name of Atheism & Secularism?
Millions and millions of people died in Russia and China under communist governments - and those governments were both secular and atheistic, right? So weren't all of those people killed in the name of atheism and secularism? No. Atheism itself isn't a principle, cause, philosophy, or belief system which people fight, die, or kill for. Being killed by an atheist is no more being killed in the name of atheism than being killed by a tall person is being killed in the name of tallness.