nPosted on June 21, 2017
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Key points
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In some societies, “atheist” is a pretty bad word. Such a bad word that some people don’t really know what it means.
In some societies, “atheist” is a pretty bad word. Such a bad word that some people don’t really know what it means.n
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nAn atheist is someone who doesn’t particularly believe in any god. Some atheists are non-believers because they were brought up by non-believers, and others were brought up in a religion but stopped practicing and believing that faith.
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nUnfortunately, religion is such an important part of many societies and culture, non-believers are treated poorly, even beaten, imprisoned, or killed. And there are some labels used for them that show this prejudice: Apostate means someone who has turned away from “the one true faith” of a particular society – and it sort of means a traitor or turncoat. Infidel and heathen are sometimes used for a non-believer, but they can also be used for someone who doesn’t believe the exact same version of religion that the speaker professes. Some people assume that an atheist is a pagan – but paganism is a religion, and although some pagans are atheists, most atheists do not believe in or practice any form of paganism. Some people think that atheists worship the devil – but atheists don’t believe in a cosmic evil-doer known as a devil any more than they believe in a cosmic good-doer known as a god.
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n“I don’t believe in god” is not the same as “There is no god.”
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nActually, some atheists are positive that there is no god, but other atheists are not absolutely certain on the god question. They point out that it’s hard to prove a negative, and they also cannot prove lots of other “there is/are no ____” statements:
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- There is no invisible house elf that steals my socks.
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- There are no magically invisible fairies living in all of our gardens.
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- There is no teapot circling the Sun somewhere between Jupiter and Mars.
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- There are no pan-dimensional hyper-intelligent beings that protrude into our dimension as mice.
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nNone of the sentences above can be absolutely proven – BUT of course there is no reason to believe in the invisible house elf or fairies, nor in the celestial teapot or pan-dimensional hyper-intelligent beings posing as mice. In other words, in the absence of evidence for these things (and there is none!), it’s not reasonable to believe in them.
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nEven if you are not an atheist…
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n…You can still use Atheist Solidarity Day as a day to raise consciousness of the prejudice and intolerance faced by non-believers. If it’s not cool to be intolerant of Buddhists and Hindus and Mormons and Jews (and it’s not), then it’s also not cool to be intolerant of non-believers.
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| The familiar “COEXIST” logo doesn’t have a particular symbol for atheism, but the peace sign is not particularly theistic. And science is a study of reality fully separate from religion, |
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nAlso on this date:
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World Music Day
World Music Day n
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nGreenland’s National Day
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nNational Aboriginal Day in Canada
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nWhite Nights Festival in Russia
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New Hampshire’s statehood anniversary
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nPlan ahead:
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Check out my Pinterest boards for:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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nJune holidays
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nJune birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in June
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJuly holidays
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nJuly birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in July
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