“You’re an atheist!” With the current U.S. opinion on atheists vastly negative, with atheists being the most mistrusted minority in the US, this is a statement many atheists here from astonished friends and families. But for an ever increasing U.S. population, and around the world, the answer to this question is “Yes.”
For those like me, the answer is “Unapologetically yes.”
But what exactly does that mean? What exactly is atheism? What is an atheist? And beyond that, what does it mean to be an atheist? What do atheists believe? Where do they get their morals? What do they do? In other words, who are they? To answer these questions, I went onto the Facebook group?Atheists?and started asking the atheist members these questions.
The word “atheism” derives from the Greek atheos, which means without god. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “atheism” as:
- (archaic) ungodliness, wickedness?and
- a disbelief in the existence of deity
- the doctrine that there is no deity
Dictionary.com similarly defines atheism as:
- the doctrine or belief that there is no God
- disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings
Jannet F. of Poughkeepsie, New York, when asked to define atheism, said:
“Atheism is a lack of belief in deities.”
Byron C. of Seattle answered:
“Atheism (and no capital “a” except at the beginning of a sentence or in a title) is simply the lack of belief in a deity or deities. It is the state of being unconvinced of god claims, a state that is not a choice (you cannot choose to be convinced; either you are or you aren’t).”
And Kiernan H. of Slidell, LA, said:
“Atheism is disbelief in theology, or religion.”
Facebook user Jannet said:
“Atheists are those who lack a belief in deities.”
Byron replied:
“… (A)theist are those for whom the ONLY universal commonality is a lack of belief in a deity or deities. Some actually harbor a belief that there is no god, but that is not universal.”
Kiernan said:
“Atheists are people that either completely oppose religion or don’t find that they fall under any theistic belief systems.”
So we know what they are, but who are they and what do they do?
Atheists are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles. They are teachers, lawyers, laborers, politicians. Byron develops mobile apps, owns a computer repair shop, and is a wood turner. Jannet is a “homemaker.” And Kiernan works “in the pet hygiene and grooming industry.”
But so what? Who cares who they are? What does it matter if they don’t have morals, right? The number one thing most atheists are accused of is not having morals.
According to this Psychology Today story, 50 percent of Americans would be unhappy if a family member married an atheist. That is more than the percentage of Americans who would be unhappy if a family member married someone who owned guns, 30 percent, and those who said they would be unhappy if a family member married a person with a different political affiliation, 10?percent.
But why? When we look at some statistics, the numbers just don’t add up. Looking at the prison population, according to Patheos, only 0.07?percent?are atheist.
So, if atheists represent such a small number of prisoners, what keeps them from being so immoral?
For Byron, it was “a subset of my morals are from upbringing and childhood indoctrination, but others I have acquired simply through my interactions with other living things.”
For Jannet, she gets her “my morals from determining whether an action causes harm or not.”
But for me, the story that hit closest to home was Kiernan’s. Her morals come from “(w)atching my mother’s spiral downward towards “finding God” and all the poor choices that came along with it.” When Kiernan was 14, her mother became abusive after Kiernan and her father, who was drunk, got into an argument. She and her parents ended up in a fight, the police got involved, and she found her mother “crying to God.'”
From there, the story only gets worse. Her mother from that day forward, was never the same to her. Kiernan recalled an incident when she was fifteen and her mother threatened to kick her out because she wasn’t “Christian enough.” Her story concludes two years ago when her family finally kicked her out, leaving her homeless. Kiernan’s final words to me before we got offline were “I just didn’t want to end up like my mother.”
So what’s the point of all this? Simple: atheists, nonbelievers, are people. There is no reason to be afraid of them. Not all of them are assholes, though some can be of course. But not all are Sam Harris or Bill Maher. Nor are they all rich and academics. Most, in fact, are just normal people. And they should be treated that way. And we should help them instead of leaving them out to dry.
Even when they question something you don’t agree with, if they are being attacked by conservatives, remember they are humans, and they sure aren’t “devil worshipers.” As one atheist said, “If we don’t believe in your God, why would you think we believe in your devil?”
