I’m on the internet a lot – a whole lot. Like — all day a lot. I read a lot of stuff on the internet – from articles about best practices for organic search optimization, to how to get big budget photos with low budget gear, to the latest news from the Middle East, to the latest Tweets from our President.
Most of what I read is intelligent, sometimes goofy, and then there are days like today when I get this as a response to a comment on the Reason Facebook page. This, my friends, is the dumbest thing I read on the internet today.
He is only as libertarian as his religious beliefs allow him. Yes Atheism is a religious belief. Its the absolute denial, even when there is evidence otherwise, that nothing exists in the supernatural world. Atheism shouldn’t have anything to do with same sex marriages. An atheist could also hold the belief that marriage only applies to those who can bear children as part of a coupling like the Romans did.
Bevan Everett knows I am an atheist because in an earlier post I indicated that I was an atheist since it was likely appropriate to the context of the discussion. So let’s unpack and reply to Bevan’s dismissive simple-minded paragraph.
In spite of what some shallow thinking ministers think, atheism is only statement about the belief claims of theism. Theists say, “I believe in god/gods.” Atheists say, “I do not believe in god/gods.” That’s it – no more – no less. Anything else attached to the word is extraneous and, frequently, erroneous (that means attached to and wrong – for you Brietbart readers).
It is an trite and tired joke that atheism is a belief like Off is a TV channel, bald is a hair color, or not collecting stamps is a hobby. Trite and tired, but accurate.
Bevan continues, “[atheism is] the absolute denial, even when there is evidence otherwise, that nothing exists in the supernatural world.” Supernatural, by definition, is not natural. Since it is not natural, natural proofs cannot be made. There is no natural evidence for the supernatural. There cannot be. If you could use something tangible and natural to prove the supernatural then it wouldn’t be supernatural, would it?
But I’ll humor Bevan. Show me the proof. Show me the evidence. Make it so that I and others can critically examine and question this evidence, and we will be onto something. In the face of good hard unquestionable natural evidence, I would be inclined to adjust my beliefs.
Conversely, of course, if your proof and evidence of the supernatural does not support your assertion that the supernatural exists, are you willing to adjust your beliefs as well? If your proofs of god/gods is faulty, will you admit that your belief in god/gods is baseless?
“Atheism shouldn’t have anything to do with same sex marriages.” Bevan is absolutely correct here. It shouldn’t, and for me, it doesn’t. That is because I don’t give a single rat’s ass what any religious belief says about marriage. Marriage is a social contract between consenting adults that state and federal government rewards with certain social and financial benefits. Some people attach great religious significance to it, some people don’t. What a holy book says about how a marriage should be is pointless and meaningless to me.
“An atheist could also hold the belief that marriage only applies to those who can bear children as part of a coupling like the Romans did.” Yes, an atheist could. So could a Christian. In fact, that was one of the bigger arguments from some Christians opposed to marriage equality – that marriage was an institution created for the protection of children. The Old Testament patriarchs had extra wives if their main squeeze couldn’t produce a male heir. I don’t see what that statement means about anything.
Atheists can (and some do) hold some really weird beliefs. I think some of them are wack-job crackpots. There are flat earth atheists, chakra believing atheists, atheist Big Foot hunters, even Republican atheists! Atheists can believe in a lot of things, except god/gods.
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