Proud to be Atheist?

Last updated on: September 26, 2012 at 1:17 am by Leah Libresco

Proud to be Atheist? 2012-09-26T01:17:53-04:00 Leah Libresco

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s A Week!

Uh, perhaps I should clarify. It’s essentially Atheist Pride/Awareness week (the Supreme Council of Atheists didn’t contact me for naming advice). The organizing group recommends you set the image above as your facebook profile picture for the week to remind your friends that atheists are all around and are “good without God.” It’s basically analogous to the British campaign to remind atheists to check “No Religion” (as opposed to Jedi) on the Census.

The instructions are straightforward enough, but the question of what, exactly, we’re affirming is left unanswered. Hermant Mehta of Friendly Atheist realized the message might be lost at the most basic level, since not everyone will realize the A is meant to connote atheism. He passed on the suggestion that you make your own personalized sign for your pic. The diversity of messages participants have chosen highlights the familiar problem of defining atheism. There really not much content we’d all stand behind. Defining myself as an atheist, when the definition of atheism is so inchoate can be a problem.

Jen Fulwiler, the former atheist turned Catholic of Conversion Diary took issue with the entire idea of atheist as a self-definition in an article for the National Catholic Register titled “The Danger of Atheist Pride.” She finds the whole spirit of the week to be unhealthy. She writes:

To say that your guiding belief system is atheism literally means nothing more than not theism. There’s nothing positive to focus on, nothing higher than yourself to which you can submit selfish urges. The process of fleshing out your own views is a process of constant rejection… And, as I know from personal experience, that mentality of constant dismissal of other ideas can fester to the point that the sin of pride becomes your driving force in life.

Obviously, this is not the case with every atheist; some of the most kind and humble folks I know self-identify with that label. It’s also not the case that adhering to a belief system based on positive principles automatically makes you a moral paragon (and I count myself as Exhibit A there). But these two different types of belief systems put people on radically different paths: Atheism is ordered toward rejection and pride, where as positive-principle-based belief systems are ordered toward acceptance and humility.

As I’ve written before, even though atheism in isolation is pretty boring/useless, I still think it’s important for me to think about the public perception of atheism and take action in solidarity with other atheists. For starters, the public definition of ‘atheism’ is not limited to disbelief in gods. As some of the commenters on Jen’s article and her piece itself make clear, atheism is associated with license and immorality. Atheists are seen as without limits and thus uniquely untrustworthy.

You don’t have to use a weird virtue ethicist type of atheist like me as your counterexample (and given the flak I catch, you probably shouldn’t). The point is to set up something to stand against the stereotype. The content of the A Week initiative is embodied in the character of the atheists who come out. The goal isn’t to define atheism, but to weaken the prevailing and inaccurate idea.

Atheism

atheism is boring

Previous Post

March 22, 2011

The Trap of Numbness and Self-Satisfaction

Next Post

March 23, 2011 How Should I Call Out Nasty Atheists?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 7 Quick Takes Apologetics Atheism Book Conversion Debate Tactics Debates Epistemology/Philosophy Housekeeping Ideological Turing Test Marriage Morality in Practice Parsing Catholicism Possibly Heretical Radio Reviews/Recommendations Sequence Index Spiritual Practice Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What happened when Jesus touched the coffin of the widow's son at Nain?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The coffin broke The crowd dispersed Rain fell The son came back to life