UB Freethinkers

Freethinkers FAQ

Have a question?  Submit it to UB Freethinkers (AT) gmail (DOT) com.

What’s the difference between atheists and agnostics?

Well, they don’t address the same thing, and they aren’t mutually exclusive.  ”Agnostic” is the epistemological qualifier – is it possible for one to know there is or isn’t a god?  A “gnostic” would say yes, an “agnostic” would say no.  That decided, both the gnostic and agnostic still need to decide their conclusion: What do you believe?  How do you live your life?  Do you believe there is a god (or gods) or not?  The “theist” lives with the idea that a god is over their shoulder.  An “atheist” does not.

Commonly, most self-proclaimed agnostics would consider themselves atheists, and most self-proclaimed atheists would also consider themselves agnostic.

Doesn’t it take as much faith to NOT believe in god as it does TO believe in one?

No.  Faith — by definition — is believing in something even though there’s no evidence for it.  A dangerous act, we tend to think.  Atheism is simply a logical conclusion based on the current absence of evidence for any gods.  It’s logically impossible to prove a negative anyway.  This example sounds a bit flippant, but illustrates that point: Can you prove that unicorn-riding leprechauns packing atomic laser guns don’t exist?  Not without scouring the entire known universe.  However since there’s no evidence for them yet, you don’t believe in them — you suspend making that claim.  The burden of proof always and necessarily falls upon the believer.  If someone made a claim about those leprechauns existing (or telling them how to live their life or treat others), you’d ask them “where’s your evidence, huh?”  So asks the atheist in regards to gods.  In fact, most theists do the same thing for the thousands of other gods human beings have worshiped over past millennia — just not their own god.  We atheists and agnostics just go one god further than they do.

Well then how are atheists so dead certain there’s no god?

We aren’t.  Well, there’s probably a few of those people out there, but they’re incredibly rare, and usually childish jackasses who haven’t thought through their beliefs.  To be certain there’s NO god is just as intellectually dishonest as being certain there IS a god.  In fact, atheism has never meant a certainty there’s no god — just a doubt that there is since there’s no evidence yet.  Unfortunately it has been redefined as a certainty by our religious opponents — a blatant projection of their own certainty if we’ve ever seen one.  We can, however, be certain that there’s no evidence for any god…yet.  That makes it more reasonable at this point to take the position there likely isn’t one.  Get back to us when you have evidence for a god that survives rational, logical, and scientific scrutiny.  We’ll listen, that’s a promise.

What about Pascal’s Wager?  If you live your life as a believer, die, and there’s no afterlife, nothing happens anyway.  But if you live your life as an unbeliever, die, and there is an afterlife, you suffer eternally in hell.  Wouldn’t it be better to believe…just in case?

First of all, talk about a crappy reason to believe in something.  Wouldn’t a god know you were faking it anyhow?  That said, what Pascal ignored, or couldn’t have understood in his time when religion was much more dominant, is that along with its pragmatic benefits (social capital, stress relief, etc.), religious belief DOES have a severe cost in this life.  Its benefits are self-defeating, and at its worst it’s far from some benign feature to hold on to “just in case.”  It can, and often does, have a stultifying effect upon critical thinking and the appreciation of modern civilization and scientific knowledge.  It hinders the enjoyment of human life in various facets, and carelessly explains away or excuses severe problems within the human condition.

Do atheists eat babies?

Only under the full moon.  And for that matter, satanism (if they even do eat babies, we don’t mean to libel) is a ridiculous religion onto itself.

Aren’t loud-mouthed atheists being just as “fundamentalist” as religious fundamentalists?

When the non-religious start claiming that certain books and people are unquestionable and infallible, when we start throwing bricks through church windows, parading in front of churches with photos of the bodies of women who died getting back-alley abortions, chasing the religious out of office, lobbying to ban religious marriages, and gunning down pastors, come back with this question.

Aren’t atheists being intolerant though?

Intolerance is physically attacking and intimidating individuals.  Intolerance is blocking church doors.  Intolerance is preventing believers from practicing their faith freely and openly.  Criticizing, with words, the beliefs, dogmas, teachings, and practices of religions is not intolerant.  That’s discourse.  That’s free speech.  That’s the marketplace of ideas in an open society.  You can’t be intolerant of any idea.  When you’re no longer allowed to pack 45,000 Christians into a former basketball arena for mass every week, get back to us with your accusations of intolerance.

What about “militant” atheists?

A shallow and vapid pejorative originally used against anyone who openly criticizes religion, these days it always seems to mean any atheist who dares open their mouth about their beliefs or publicly champions their principles.  New term please.

What do atheists tend to think happens after death?

Remember back to before you were born.  Something like that. But — and this is important — we aren’t certain, and we’d never claim to be.  That conclusion simply takes into account the evidence…from the last time you weren’t alive.

Do atheists kick dogs?

Some probably do.  There’s some real mean folks out there, non-believers and believers both.  Although, we atheists don’t have a book telling us that the animals have been given to us by the creator of the universe to use and exploit…

Well, what about morals?  Without god, where did they come from?  How do you teach them without religion?

A down and dirty explanation:  Like just about everything else, morality evolved.  In fact, we can see the foundations of our instincts for fairness and altruism in our fellow primates.  Anyhow, as our ancestors became a more and more social species, some behaviors were selected for to promote group cohesion, security, and thus increased evolutionary success.  If you were a dick or a deviant, you died alone and starving on the savannah, or had your head bashed in with a rock.  It’s a messy process, which is why we still have all manner of sociopath and psychopath and inconsiderate jackass running around today.

Flash forward in human history and these beneficial behaviors became codified into systems of law — of which religions are primitive versions (along with primitive versions of science and philosophy).  They then began to evolve culturally.  They were supposedly ordained by the creator of the universe, so enforcement worked pretty damn well.

Today we don’t need man-made deities to enforce morality; we have systems of law and justice that do the trick as well as ever — and do it fairer and more humanely.  We don’t need revelation to create our laws; we have philosophy, experiment, and democratic legislatures to debate them.  We don’t need clergy to modify, maintain, and transmit our systems of morality either.  Instead we have open civil societies, schools, literature, media, and other methods of public discourse to share ideas.  Not to mention those organizations that have been around since the dawn of humanity — families.

Morality and conscience came first.  Religion came second.  This is important.  These early religious systems also included prescriptions for behaviors that we find utterly abhorrent today — see much of the Bible or the Koran.  We can judge these teachings as evil and abandon them precisely because our morality comes from outside religion or the decrees of any god — and it has continued to evolve culturally for a very long time.

Did atheists cause the cancellation of ALF?

If there’s no god, anything is permitted…

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