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/

[Fast Walker 52]

1. Atheism is the fastest growing relig....er, belief system

and I'm proud to be one.

[NurseJackie]

2. That's very good! (My hobby is not collecting stamps too.)

Thanks for sharing it.

[Ligyron]

3. I swear to god, I am an Atheist. n/t

[NeoGreen]

5. And I am up to no good...

[trof]

6. Very interesting read.

[onager]

7. American atheists have to constantly rebut this myth...

"A US Supreme Court decision declared atheism/secular humanism a religion!1!"

Here in South Catatonia, where I live now, every time the FFRF challenges a local Dollar Store Ayatollah, some clown will show up with a package of material making that claim. And also claiming that local govt. can trample the rights of any non-Xian, because of the Court decision putting atheism and religion on an equal footing.

This is all based on a (probably deliberate) garbling and misreading of a FOOTNOTE to the 1961 Supreme Court case Torcaso v. Watkins. The case dealt with a lawsuit over Maryland's law banning atheists from being Notary Publics.

Justice Hugo Black wrote a footnote to the decision discussing tax exemptions for non-religious organizations. The footnote was not part of the Supreme Court decision, and was just "obiter dicta" - Black's personal opinion.

In a 1994 case, Peloza v. Capistrano Unified School District, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals explicitly denied that the Torcaso footnote constituted a legal finding that atheism or secular humanism is a religion. (Peloza never got to the Supreme Court.) But as the old saying goes, a lie can travel around the world before the truth can get its shoes on.

And we're still stuck with explaining this over and over and over...

[D Gary Grady]

8. In fact, the footnote was in reference to something else anyway

As I recall, the footnote, based on one of legal briefs submitted, noted that there are religions that do not involve belief in a god or gods, such as Confucianism, most sorts of Buddhism, and "secular humanism." But the "secular humanism" in question was the doctrine of a specific organization (not the AHA or Ethical Culture but some small group), not what people now usually mean by "secular humanism." There was an article in Free Inquiry a couple of decades back written by one of the lawyers involved in the case that explained this.

In any even, as you say, it was not a decision of the court but a passing remark -- an obiter dictum.

Re the general idea that atheism is somehow a religion, my favorite response is that atheism is a religion in the same sense that not collecting stamps is a hobby. (I wish I knew who first said that.)