Why do you bother with this site?

flagellant www

Do you ever think that maybe the reason you think about the topic of gods is because there is some deity out there calling out to you?

No I don’t! I think about it because I know how pernicious and pervasive religious thinking is; I constantly read news items, either about evil done in god’s name or about the undue influence of believers and religion in society. It took me decades to be totally rid of my own indoctrination. I therefore now regard it as a public service to help disabuse others. Getting rid of god-belief, being able to face life without an imaginary, invisible friend, and abandoning a reverential attitude to religious nonsense, all contribute to a feeling of wellbeing, liberation, and joyfulness. There’s so much to be said for seeing things how they are rather than how, however attractive the alternative, we’d like them to be.

Since totally abandoning my belief, I’ve never felt better: no longer am I like an infant who calls for his mother whenever there’s a problem. I’m keen to help others make the same bid for freedom so I am happy to contribute to a site that will plant the seeds of doubt in the minds of those susceptible to rational argument.

And, while I am happy to add my experiences and comments to questions on this site, I also write elsewhere about several other, unrelated, things. So you see, I have a life beyond atheism and I’m sure the other contributors do, too.

Eric_PK

Whether god exists or not, it’s pretty clear that religion has a huge impact on the world, and certainly on the US (where I live).

It’s also pretty clear that in the US, atheists are not well-liked. Much of this is because of a long-running theist propaganda campaign against atheists.

The whole goal of this site is to try to counter the mistaken impressions people have about the atheist viewpoint.

If there is, as you say, a deity out there calling out to me, he/she/it is doing a pretty poor job. It would have been much easier for him to do something when I was a practicing christian rather than now

bitbutter www

Do you ever think that maybe the reason you think about the topic of gods is because there is some deity out there calling out to you?

No. If a deity worthy of our respect had something important that it wanted to communicate, it could find a way to do so without ambiguity.

However, if you do not believe in any gods, then why do you bother thinking the topic and posting on this site?

Here are some others questions that have a similar form to yours, I hope they will help you understand why it’s a bit odd:

If Churchill wasn’t a closet Nazi, why did he talk about Hitler so much?

If Martin Luther King, Jr. opposed racial segregation, why did he dedicate so much of his time to the subject?

If Galileo really didn’t believe in geocentrism, why did he risk persecution by publicly supporting heliocentrism?

SmartLX

Nope, that’s not it.

• I get valuable practice at writing persuasively and honestly, and for a large audience.
• I get all the big arguments against atheism delivered straight to me, so I’m not missing any obvious reason why I’m wrong.
• With all the misconceptions about atheism swirling about, the more real atheists laying out their own positions the better.
• I’m forced to educate myself further on a wide variety of subjects in order to reply to the full spectrum of apologetic. My brain benefits.

That’s a good start. There are more, trust me.

Dave Hitt www

I’m on this site the help sincere people overcome their biases about atheists. I’m here to help people get just a little bit smarter.

Is it working for you?

Do you ever think that maybe the reason you think about the topic of gods is because there is some deity out there calling out to you?

Apparently not. Sorry, we tried.

George Ricker www

Here’s a better question.

Why does it bother you that I do?

Is it possibly because your own insecurity about your religious beliefs causes you to attempt to stifle any discussion about them? Perhaps you secretly doubt the existence of a god, too, but lack the courage to admit it.

Now I think it would be most unfair to baselessly attribute such motives to you. From my point of view, such action would be dishonest and insulting.

I’m here because I think atheism gets a bad rap in the United States, and I want to do my part to correct that situation. That’s also why I have written books and articles and maintain a web site. I happen to think it is worth the “bother” to set the record straight.

logicel

One very annoying aspect of religious apologists is that they seek solutions to non-existent problems. If you were not wearing your ‘dense’ cap, you would have perhaps noted this text at the upper right hand corner of our site:

Welcome to AskTheAtheists. This site was created to provide a resource for people who are curious about atheism and to counter some misunderstandings about this way of looking at the world. As well as posts about the basics of godlessness you’ll find opinions about science, critical thought, philosophy, reason, skepticism, secularism, humanism, ethics, politics, culture, education and the future of our species.

And if you have actually read it, if you were not your average religious apologist full of hubris and bias, you might have been able to comprehend it.

For you to imply that being a member of an vocal minority means that I really am a secret member of the religious majority (in other words I am trying to keep my religious bent hidden from myself by expressing my lack of god belief) demonstrates how unable you are to grasp anything that we have written. And only goes to show me, as an anti-theist in terms of public policy, that I have my work cut out for me.

Your insinuation that some how my ‘god-shaped hole’ in my brain is calling out to me is as wrong as a male chauvinist saying that I do not know how much I really love and enjoy being tied to a hot stove.

Atheists and other irreligious are a sizable minority. Atheists, especially in religious areas of America, do have real problems in terms of being able to be open about their atheism or they would suffer discrimination. I know many atheists in this position. This minority now has a political lobby in America.

The net is a great boon for pulling atheists together and for educating anyone interested in this topic. We have real concerns, like not having religion forced onto our children, non-evidential religious beliefs infiltrating public policy, interference with teaching science and science research, etc. Thusly, a good number of our questions come from atheists.

Isolated atheists can now enjoy a sense of community because of the net. I have met atheists/religious secularists from all over the world and some have become my close friends. And though I may not care to de-convert anyone individually, I am completely and absolutely anti-theistic when it comes to theocracy. So my full title can be an anti-theistic agnostic atheist at times.

I know that for blinkered religious apologists clarity is hard to come by, so let me spell it out for you: As a secularist – though atheism does not define me as a person and in a fully secular society like the French, I do not need to even mention it – I will stay involved with furthering/maintaining secularism and fighting for the rights of non-believers throughout the world for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I do need to bother with godbotherers. Capiche?