Atheism is not "about" anything.
Increasingly often here in r/atheism I see people saying "atheism is about science", "Here's why Atheists want to do A or B", "Atheists should be about destroying religion", "Here's why science and rational thinking is the best and all atheists think this way!"
No. No they don't. Atheism means "lack of belief in a god or gods", and that is it. There's a reason that the words next to the subscribe button say "354,896 godless redditors" - because that's all being an atheist means. There are no other blanket terms about it. The constant saying that 'atheists are this and that' is just as annoying coming from a fellow atheist as it would be coming from someone who had no idea what atheism was.
If you're interested in science, fine. If you want to share your interest in it, fine. If you want to promote logic and reason, go right ahead. Just don't do it under the guise of "Because I'm an atheist." because that cheapens both the value of your knowledge and of the word "atheism" because it is completely false.
Posted Dec 29, 2011, 3:30 AM UTC