April 18 - Ask an Atheist Day

nPosted on April 18, 2019

Key Points

nToday is not really about religion, even though it seems like it would be.

nInstead, today is about tearing down stereotypes.

Picture several young people. They all look pretty nice – they’re smiling, and their clothes are stylish and clean. One says, “I am a non-believer.” One says, “I wasn’t really raised in any religion.” A third one says, “I’m an atheist.”

Many people would take the first two as pretty normal and perfectly fine – but be startled and maybe even taken aback by the third. The word “atheist” makes many shudder, because they have been taught to fear and hate that word.

nYet all that “atheist” means is not having an active belief in any god.

nThe concept of God/s is pretty key to most religions. Religion is often described as the belief in and worship of one or more gods or other supernatural power. Some religions can be atheistic – Buddhism is a good example – but some scholars quibble and say that atheistic religions are not religions at all, but rather philosophies, ways of life, spiritual traditions.

nMany people who have no particular religion still assume that there is some supreme being, a God located somewhere and everywhere, ruling the universe. But many people who answer “None” when asked for their religion do NOT believe in any god. They don’t believe in the Christian / Jewish / Muslim god (who is supposedly the same god, named Jehovah or Yahweh, but usually just called “God” – note that “Allah” is not the name of a god, but the Arab word for “God”). They don’t believe in Hindu gods such as Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, and Krishna. They don’t believe in Buddhist gods (some forms of Buddhism include belief in supernatural beings such as the “fierce deities”). They don’t believe in the gods of ancient cultures such as Ancient Rome, Greece, China, or Egypt. They don’t believe in Norse gods or Yoruba gods or Aztec gods or Inuit gods or Māori gods or the mother goddesses of Vietnam.

Some atheists point out that almost everybody knows what it feels like to not believe in particular gods – because they themselves do not believe in most of the gods in that list above. If there are about 2,500 gods worshipped in the world (and some say there are far, far more – maybe millions), these atheists point out that almost everyone rejects the existence of most of those gods. So atheists just reject the existence of one more.

nAsk an Atheist Day is a day when a few atheists wear buttons that say “I’m an atheist. Ask me anything.” Some atheists will post the same statement and question online or on social media. The idea is to get polite dialogue going.

nAnd hopefully to help people realize that the negative stereotypes of atheists are simply not true.

nA look at some of the questions that atheists have gotten on April 18 in past years will show you what some of these negative stereotypes are:

n“If you’re an atheist, what’s to prevent you from attacking or killing everyone you want? I mean, there is no moral reason not to, no eternal punishment, nobody watching!”

nLack of belief in any god is definitely not the same thing as lack of morals. Most morals have to do with having a nice life while not interfering with others’ rights to have a nice life; AND, instead of interfering with others in a negative way, morals teach us to actively help others to achieve a good life. Most non-believers have high morals. They are kind and generous, they are loyal and peaceful, and although they slip up at times (like all of us), they try to do the right thing.

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nAlso, the laws of most nations enshrine those same values; assaulting and murdering people is against U.S. law (and other nations’ laws) as well as what religious people might think of as “God’s laws”). So that whole “there’s no punishment; nobody watching” thing pretty much goes out the window!

nSome atheists point out that they DO attack and kill all the people they want. And the number of people they want to attack and kill is zero!

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n“The U.S. has ‘In God we trust’ right on the money. God is in the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, and the national anthem. So how can an atheist be a good and patriotic American??”

nFirst, should there be references to God on U.S. money and in the Pledge? After all, the United States is a pluralistic nation that was founded on the principle of the separation of religion from government!

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Also, the “In God we trust” motto and the “under God” part of the pledge are both relatively modern inventions (1956 and 1954). George Washington and Thomas Jefferson never thought to invent such a motto or pledge – and I assume you aren’t questioning them as “good, patriotic Americans”?

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The national anthem is somewhat controversial – especially the rarely sung, rarely heard, and little known later verses. The familiar first verse does not mention God.

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More importantly, the United States Constitution does not mention God, not even in the Preamble.

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Also, by the way: a lot of good people in the world do not live in the United States. We might point out that being a “good, patriotic American” isn’t the most important quality in a person…!