a brief primer on atheism and racism.

[kalmn]

as an atheist, and a new convert with all the requisite new convert zeal and all, i think your religion, yours, that one right there that you are so fond of, is full (if i am familiar with it) or is probably full (if i am not familiar with it) of sexist, racist, disablist, probably homophobic and transphobic crap and how did i almost forget classism, either in its core beliefs or in its general practice.


(you may or may not believe in those particular core beliefs, you may or may not follow the general practice. that's a whole different discussion, and as for what i think about *you*, i'm not willing to have that discussion over the internet.)

does this mean it's okay to point out the parts where religion leads to social injustices by focusing on the religions mostly followed by brown people?

NO. no it fucking well does not. in fact, it is racist to do so.

Comments

[spiderplanet]

Atheists don't run any countries.

There are left handed people with jerkyness issues. There are vegetarians with jerkyness issues. There are stripey-shirt wearing people with jerkyness issues.

There has never been any government founded upon the principles of left-handedness, vegetarianism or stripey-shirtedness, but it would be more cohesive than an "atheist" government because the lack of a belief is not doctrine or dogma.

[the_siobhan]

My understanding of the definition of atheism is that it is a belief - specifically the belief that there is no intelligence directing the Universe. And that "lack of belief" (ie, "I have no clue if there is anybody driving this thing or not") is more properly termed agnosticism.

[spiderplanet]

Atheism is just like the word says, lack of theism. It is similar to A-leprechaunism (an absence of belief in leprechauns that stems from a lack of leprechaun evidence) or A-unicornism (an absence of belief in unicorns that stems from a lack of unicorn evidence).

I would content that nearly all or all political leaders are aleprechaunists and aunicornists. The lack of belief in leprechauns and unicorns does not a political platform make.

Richard Dawkins spoke about this too. He said that most atheists can also be rightly called "atheistic agnostics," when lack of any evidence is the justification for lack of belief.

Using spell check properly!

[spiderplanet]

*contend

[the_siobhan]

Ok gotcha. Thanks for the explanation. By that definition your statement above make a lot more sense to me.

All of my experience with people who do have the explicit belief that there is no God/Gods/Sacred Chao/what have you, is that they also call themselves atheists. I did an (albeit brief) google search and there doesn't seem to be a separate term.

[daedala]

Weak atheism vs. strong atheism might be what you are looking for. The way I learned it:

Strong atheism -- there are no gods
Weak atheism -- can't prove it either way
Agnosticism -- god is unknowable