Please Stop Talking About What Atheist Believe

Please Stop Talking About What Atheist Believe

Everyone now and then I come across a post by someone who identifies as an atheist and they are making a statement about what atheists as a group believe. I want to explain why this is incorrect, misguided, and damaging.

What is atheism? Epistemology tells us that “theist” means god. The prefix “a” means without. Therefore in the most literal sense atheist means without god. Atheism is a word used to express ones lack of belief in theism, meaning that theists have not lived up to the burden of proof for their claim of god. Atheism makes no claims at all. 

That’s It. Period.

There is no more to atheism. There are no beliefs, it is not a system, there is no faith. So when you make a statement talking about atheist believe “blank,” you give the misinformation that there are prescribed tenets or agreed upon positions or morals. The fact that many atheists may happen to agree on things is coincidence and not by design.

For example: If someone says they are atheist, you may be correct in guessing they are liberal. That is very common. However, it is not because atheism proclaims, encourages, or agrees with liberalism or anything anything else.

It’s the same way when someone drives a Subaru you can guess they like hiking or are advocates for the environment. But the truth is there is no manifesto by Subaru that declares their drivers must be environmentalist. Therefore, any hobbies or interest they share should not be seen as because of the car they drive.

Making this mistake can be damaging because it misrepresents the atheist position and therefore makes it seem like opponents have a valid criticism when they do not. Please don’t do this.