10 Myths and Truths About Atheists

By Greta Christina, AlterNet. Posted February 11, 2009.

6: Atheists are just being trendy.

Yes, atheism is everywhere now. In bookstores, on the news, in the blogosphere. Just like gay people were in the early '90s. African Americans in the late '50s. Women in the early '70s. There's a point in any major social movement when it reaches critical mass. It gathers adherents and sympathizers, who become more visible and vocal ... a process that's self-perpetuating.

The movement picks up steam. It can no longer be ignored. At which point the mass media has a collective "WTF?" freakout. Who are these atheists (gays, African Americans, women), and where did they come from all of a sudden? Like we haven't been here all along.

Does that make atheism trivial? A fad, something people do to be cool? Of course not. No more than being queer is. Coming out as atheist is often a big deal. It can mean losing friends, being cut off from family. It can mean getting threatened by neighbors or kicked out of school, losing job opportunities or custody of your kids. And it often means a major upheaval in how you see yourself and your life. People don't do this to be trendy. People do it to be true to themselves.

Further reading: Godless is the New Black: Is Atheism Just a Trend?

7: Atheists are arguing with straw men: they criticize the ugliest, stupidest, most simplistic, most outdated versions of religion and ignore the thoughtful, complex forms of serious modern theology.

First, this isn't true. Many atheists have read serious theology. I was a religion major in college: OK, 25 years ago, but a lot of it stuck. And I've read more since becoming an atheist blogger. As have other atheist writers. But second, and more to the point: So what?

Most atheists don't give a rat's ass about religion as it's practiced by a handful of theologians. We care about religion as it's widely practiced in the real world. And that includes many versions of religion that are outdated, simplistic, stupid and ugly ... and richly deserving of criticism.

Further reading: In Defense of Atheist Blogging; Hypocrisy and the 'Modern Theology' Argument

8: Atheists are responsible for the worst crimes in history: Stalin, Mao, etc.

I don't know why this keeps getting trotted out. It's not like the so-called "new atheist" movement is running around saying, "Stalin was keen!" But I see it a lot, so I'm going to address it. Here's the problem. The Stalin argument basically goes, "Stalin was responsible for the murders of tens of millions of people. Stalin was an atheist. Therefore, all those murders can be laid at the feet of atheism."

By that logic, you could argue that Nixon was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Vietnam; Nixon was a Quaker; therefore, all those deaths can be laid at the feet of Quakerism. It makes no sense. A sensible version of the Stalin argument has to look, not at every death and imprisonment and such that Stalin caused, but at the ones explicitly done in the name of atheism, to suppress religion.

I'm not a Russian historian, and I don't know what that number is. I do know it isn't zero. I'm not arguing that atheists are immune from human evils, including brutal megalomania. But that number isn't 60 million, either. The essence of the Stalin argument -- apart from "guilt by association" -- is that atheism inherently causes great evil. And that's just silly.

There aren't many openly nontheistic world leaders -- what with the rabid stigma against us -- but there have been some. Helen Clark, New Zealand prime minister, 1999 - 2008: open agnostic. Robert (Bob) James Lee Hawke, Australian prime minister, 1983 - 1991: open agnostic. Bill Hayden, governor-general of Australia, 1989 - 1996: open atheist. And Winston Churchill called himself agnostic.

England under Churchill. Australia and New Zealand in the last two decades. Not exactly Stalinist dictatorships. And who knows how many other world leaders were/are nonbelievers but couldn't/can't be open about it? Yes, some megalomaniacal tyrants have been atheists. Many have been believers. And both atheists and believers have been decent, functioning world leaders. The Stalin argument proves nothing. It's a red herring and a scare tactic.

See more stories tagged with: religion, sam harris, atheism

Read more of Greta Christina at her blog.

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