Simple Rebuttals to Common Myths About Atheists

[mr blur]

Some myths about atheism

by Michael Nugent on April 14, 2016

I had a discussion on Politics.ie today about atheism and Atheist Ireland. I’m reproducing here some of the responses I made to comments about atheism and Atheist Ireland policy.

Myth 1 – Atheism is a religion

Atheism is not a religion. It is either a belief that gods do not exist, or an absence of belief that gods do exist. Religions typically have belief systems, creeds and regulations that usually involve supernatural intervening beings. Some popular expressions coined to counter this myth are that atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby, or atheism is a religion like bald is a hair colour.

However, some significant general beliefs necessarily follow from atheism, including the general belief that morality does not come from gods, and the general belief that our understanding of reality is not revealed by gods. These beliefs necessarily follow from atheism, as distinct from just being likely to correlate. They are significant beliefs in a world in which most people believe the opposite.

-snip-

Well worth a read:

http://www.michaelnugent.com/2016/04/14/some-myths-about-atheism/