What Is An Atheist And Other Related Thoughts

There seems to be some confusion about what an atheist is, so I thought I’d clarify matters.

It’s important to note that you cannot define an atheist without first defining what a theist is.

And that’s because the “a” prefix, which comes from Greek, means “no”, “not”, or “without”.

So, that means an atheist is “not a theist”.

OK, so what is a theist?

Simply put, a theist is somebody who believes in the existence of one or more gods, and, more specifically, a god who has a personal relationship with his creations.

Note that:

1. There are those who define a theist as one who believes only in a single god (e.g. monotheism), instead of several gods (e.g. polytheism).
2. Theists should not be confused with deists, who also believe that a god created everything, but who do not subscribe to the belief that they have a personal relationship with their creations.

Now we have that out of the way, then defining an atheist is simple – it’s somebody who is not a theist.

In other words, where a theist claims that a god exists, an atheist rejects that claim (i.e. does not believe that a god exists).

And I could end this article here – because that’s all that being an atheist entails.

However, there are a few secondary points that are worth making. Note, though, that while the above is not really up for debate, because I’ve been talking about accepted definitions, what follows may be more contentious, depending on where you are with respect to faith, and much of it represents my own thoughts and opinions, and not those of the atheist community at large (which I’ll talk about next).

Shared Attributes Of Atheists

Contrary to what many religious people think, the only thing that necessarily binds atheists together is their shared rejection of the claim that any gods exist.

There is nothing that mirrors organized religion, there is no “atheist bible”, there are no rules or commandments, no “sin”, no special clothes or headgear, no equivalents to priests or pastors, no rituals or ceremonies.

So, to repeat the definition from the introduction, an atheist is merely somebody who does not believe that a god exists.

Any other attributes one atheist might share with another atheist have absolutely nothing to do with being an atheist – even though atheism might point you in a similar direction in many situations (e.g. towards evidence-based science).

Burden Of Proof

This is a big one, and it’s worth understanding it in more detail.

In general (i.e. this doesn’t only apply to religion), the person making a claim is the one who has the responsibility to provide proof that the claim is true or factual.

What this means, in terms of the theist / atheist discussion is this: a theist is claiming that a god exists.

The burden of proof, therefore, lies with the theist – they are claiming a god exists, so they need to provide proof that their claim is accurate.

What constitutes proof is a whole other issue which is much too large to cover here, but let me make one point: the Bible is not proof of God, because it’s the Bible that is claiming that the Christian God exists.

A claim, then, cannot also be used as the proof.

An atheist, on the other hand, carries no burden of proof – because they are not making any claims.

All the atheist is doing is rejecting the theist’s claim – usually on the basis that there is insufficient proof.

If I said to a Christian, “Thor exists“, the Christian would rightly demand proof of that (because it’s not a belief he or she holds).

What I could not reasonably do is tell the Christian to prove that Thor doesn’t exist.

This is because you cannot prove the non-existence of such an entity.

If you want to read more about this philosophical burden of proof, I would suggest you check out what has become known as Russell’s Teapot.

Rejecting an unproven claim is therefore the default position – the one that is most logical to take, because why would you accept any claim if the proof isn’t there?

Now, let’s take this a step further.

Some atheists will say that a god does not exist. (There are those who divide atheists into “weak” and “strong” versions – the “weak” version is, as defined above, simply somebody who does not accept the god claim, while the “strong” version also states that no god exists – but this is not the commonly accepted definition of an atheist.)

This is a claim – which means they now carry the burden of proof.

The problem here is, as I mentioned above, you cannot prove the non-existence of God. (You can point out errors and inconsistencies in books such as the Bible, you can state the probability that a god exists is close to zero – but these do not prove the non-existence of any god.)

Let me repeat this, because it’s an error that many people make: rejecting the claim that a god exists (i.e. I do not believe in God) is not the same as claiming a god does not exist.

The former is a rejection of a claim, which carries no burden of proof, while the latter is a claim, and therefore does carry a burden of proof.

Other Supernatural Entities

Now, strictly speaking, an atheist is only rejecting the claim that a god exists.

However, many atheists take this a step further and reject the existence of any other supernatural entities (e.g. ghosts).

They mainly do this for the same reason they are atheists – they have not been provided with sufficient evidence to accept the belief that these supernatural entities exist.

But it also follows from the lack of belief in a god – if an atheist does not accept the claim that any gods exist, then it is consistent that they also do not believe in anything purportedly created by that god, which would therefore include angels and demons, etc.

Having said that, there are some atheists who do believe in the supernatural, be that ghosts or ouija boards, or whatever.

Satan

Many Christians seem to think that atheists worship (or, at least, believe in), Satan (or whatever name you want to use here).

Remember, though, that:

1. Satan is a supernatural being (according to the Christian tradition), which makes it unlikely that an atheist would believe in the devil (although some might, because atheism is only a rejection of the claim that a god exists, and Satan is not a god).
2. Satan is part of the Christian religion, and since most atheists not only reject the claim that God exists, but also all of the other supernatural elements of that religion, which would include, for example, both angels and Satan, then they don’t believe in Satan either.

Now, you may well have heard of organizations such as The Satanic Temple and the Church of Satan, which may be why some people believe atheists worship Satan.

The latter is an older organization, albeit generally less active these days, while the former was founded in 2013 but is a much more active group.

And in spite of their names, neither of these organizations actually believes in Satan’s existence.

The Satanic Temple is very definitely a secular organization, even though they are officially recognized as a church by the USA’s IRS, and they have their version of the Ten Commandments, which they call their Seven Tenets.

Morality

There is a common belief amongst religious people, especially Christians, that morality comes from the Bible / God, and that, as a result, atheists must be immoral.

This could not be further from the truth!

If you are currently a Christian and have read the Bible, then do you honestly believe that everything contained within it is moral?

Don’t forget that, in the USA for a long time, the Bible was used to justify slavery (i.e. the owning of other humans as property) – something that the vast majority of people today (including, or maybe especially, atheists), accept is morally wrong.

If there are commandments in the Bible that you refuse to comply with, because you think they are morally wrong, then congratulations – you have demonstrated that you are using your own moral judgement!

The fact is, morals have evolved over time as a way to allow us to work and live together – we don’t need a book to tell us that killing each other, or stealing from each other, is wrong.

And besides which, moral codes (including versions of the Golden Rule) existed prior to the Bible anyway.

Knowledge

Perhaps one fundamental difference between a theist and an atheist is that the latter accepts that “I don’t know” is a perfectly valid answer.

Religion often tries to teach that their holy book, whatever it is, has all of the answers, whereas an atheist, who is usually (but not necessarily) an adherent of the scientific method, is comfortable with not knowing everything.

Science, in fact, does not claim to know everything either – it’s not even a “thing” but a process by which humans can gradually come to understand the universe and how it works in an ever-more accurate way.

So, when I say an atheist is likely to be comfortable not knowing, that doesn’t mean they won’t be curious and want to find out the answer.

That is, after all, how much of our scientific discovery began – somebody asking a question, and perhaps the most famous case of this is Einstein when he came up with his theories of relativity, which started when he wondered how light would behave in certain circumstances.

The fallacy that religious people often commit here is known as the God of the Gaps argument – if there is no known explanation for something, then God must have done it.

If you go back in time, you can see why people ascribed things they didn’t understand (e.g. lightning and thunder) to gods (e.g. Zeus and Thor), but over time, as humans have learned more about how the world works, fewer people still believe that those natural phenomena are caused by gods.

And as time goes on, humans are learning more and more, meaning there are fewer and fewer things that need to be attributed to any gods.

One of the last “big things” that is not fully understood is the origin of our universe. Some even say the question doesn’t make sense, others talk about the Big Bang Theory, while others say a god created everything.

But again, just because we don’t know the answer does not entitle you to claim that it must have been God.

A common argument here, known as the Cosmological Argument or First Cause, is that something must have created the universe, and that something must be God. But all that does is add unnecessary complexity to the issue (thus contravening the guidelines of Occam’s Razor) – because then you have to explain what created God. If God always existed, why can the universe not always have existed? (You can find articles about first cause all over the Internet, including this one.)

The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has summarized this neatly in the following quote: “God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on.”

Will Atheists Ever Change Their Minds?

So, do atheists ever become members of any religion?

Well, yes, you do hear about that happening from time to time, and I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “born-again Christian”, for example. (That’s actually a strange term because every human comes into this world not believing in any gods – that’s only something they are taught later in life.)

However, people who turn to religion later in life still cannot provide any proof that a god exists – which means, technically, they weren’t atheists in the first place. It’s more likely they were unsure what to believe (or not believe).

But let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that somebody finally provided proof that a god exists. (Note that this could be the Christian God, or any of the hundreds, or even thousands, of gods that have been and/or are still worshipped.)

Assuming that this proof is real and incontrovertible, then any atheist ought to cease being an atheist, because the claim that a god exists has been proven.

Note, however:

1. This would only apply to the god or gods for which proof was provided. Proof of the existence of Thor would not alter in any way an atheist’s rejection of the claim that Zeus exists. This is no different to, say, a Christian’s perspective – they don’t believe in the existence of any god except for their own one (even though there is no proof that the Christian God exists, of course), so they are atheist with respect to every other god except theirs.
2. Just because an atheist accepts that the proven god does in fact exist, it definitely does not follow that they would start worshipping that god. If you take the Christian god, for example (and I use this only because I am more familiar with Christianity than any other religion), then that God has committed and/or sanctioned some monstrous acts (e.g. genocide, slavery, the impregnation of a woman without her consent) that are not worthy of worship.

Pascal’s Wager

Following on from the above, you may have heard of Pascal’s Wager, and if not, then you may at least know of the premise behind it.

And that is, simply, that when you weigh up the options, given that God either may or may not exist, and that you either may or may not believe in God, then you are better off believing.

The following diagram, taken from Wikipedia, shows the reasoning behind that conclusion:

One of several problems with this is this: supposing a god exists, but it’s not the one you’ve been worshipping?

Supposing you’ve devoted your life to the Christian God (which is the one under discussion here), and when you die, you discover that the supreme being who actually does exist is Ahura Mazda (from the Zoroastrian religion), so you end up in their version of Hell (known as the House Of Lies) instead?

Not only will you then have suffered finite loss as per the above diagram, but you may also suffer infinite loss, because you were worshipping the wrong god.

And another issue is that, if you say you believe purely as an insurance policy, just in case God does exist, don’t you think an omniscient god would know that and still punish you anyway?

Conclusion

If you’re already an atheist, then maybe this article has helped you consolidate your thoughts a bit more.

And if you’re currently a believer, then my main hope is that you understand what atheism is (and isn’t) a bit better.

If this helps you to question your beliefs, then that would be a bonus – because believing something for no good reason makes little to no sense to me.

If you’re looking for more information, then, there are plenty of places to learn more about atheism, and why people have turned away from religion.

For example, there are tons of books, with some of the better known ones being:

• God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
• God: The Most Unpleasant Character In All Fiction by Dan Baker (a former preacher)
• The Founding Myth by Andrew Seidel (a constitutional lawyer for the Freedom From Religion Foundation), which is not specifically about atheism but about the popular myth that the USA was founded as a Christian nation
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Then there are videos, including many on the following YouTube channels:

• Aron Ra
• Atheist Debates (by Matt Dillahunty)
• The Atheist Experience (which is a call-in show based in Austin, Texas)

The important thing is that, once you start questioning your beliefs (which is often the result of actually reading your religion’s holy book), you can feel confused and lost.

More than that, finding a way out can be traumatic – your family and friends may disown you, your parents might even throw you out of their house (which, to me, does not sound like a very Christian thing to do), and you could even lose your job.

And that’s why groups such as Recovering From Religion exist – to help people deal with what is often a life-changing realization.

The good news is that you are not alone – there are a growing number of atheists, many of whom have been through the process of deconverting, so they know what it feels like and what problems you will likely encounter, and they are there to offer support during this difficult time.

Personally, I have always been atheist.

I was born and brought up in England, which is officially a Christian country – the monarch is the head of the church – and while I was taught religion at school, up until the age of about 15 or so, I never actually believed any of it any more than I might Grimm’s fairy tales or any work of fiction, for that matter.

My mother had been raised as a Roman Catholic, but I don’t ever recall her going to church, while my father claimed to be some sort of Scottish protestant offshoot, but again, he never went to church either.

According to the Catholic church, then because my mother married outside her faith, I am, based on what they told me, a bastard.

And that is one of the many problems with some (or most?) versions of Christianity (of which there are thousands) – punishing or blaming people for something they did not do, but their ancestors did, is morally wrong.

It’s ironic to me that a country such as the United Kingdom, which has a national religion, is actually far less religious than the USA, which is technically a secular nation with no state religion.

In fact, even though the US Constitution forbids any test of religiosity when standing for public office, there are still a few states today where atheists may not be elected. I’m not sure why this hasn’t been successfully challenged, but I would personally rather have people in office who are grounded in reality and not taking advice from a voice in their heads.

But regardless of the above, I do not have the sort of brain that can just believe something because I want to – I need the evidence.

Faith to me is not a strength – it’s a sign you’re willing to believe something without evidence, and that, in my view, is a weakness.

Well, this was meant to be a relatively short article, but it’s much longer than I intended – and I could write so much more.

But I’ll leave it here – my goal was to clarify what an atheist is – and what an atheist is not – and I think that’s been more than adequately addressed.