What means "atheism"?

 

Richard Carrier (a fairly radical atheist-materialist himself) is on to something here. I complained about this before, but…here we go again! :D

On social media, atheists often claim that atheism is “merely a lack of belief”, specifically a mere lack of belief in “God or gods”. They even say that atheism is a worldview in the same sense that baldheadedness is a hairstyle! But, as Carrier points out, this simply isn´t so. Even a "lack" of belief is a belief, not as some kind of weird verbal paradox, but very concretely: it´s a belief about why the purported evidences for God don´t hold water. 

Indeed, this is perfectly obvious. Most US atheists are former Christians. How did they lose their erstwhile belief in God? Just as somebody might lose his hair? Not likely. They drew the conclusion (for whatever reason) that there simply isn´t any evidence for the Christian religion and/or the God-concept being true, and perhaps even that there is evidence against. In other words, plenty of "beliefs" are involved here!

But there´s more. Atheists might even claim that "nothing will change" if you simply stop believing in God. All your other beliefs and values will be kept intact, just as they were when you were a God-believer. While this is certainly true in some cases, surveys indicate that at least in the US atheists are more likely to be politically liberal. Based on anecdotal evidence (YouTube atheists), they were often conservative as Christians, and indeed became more liberal as atheists. So in most cases, the claim that "nothing changes" is simply not the case. And, indeed, why *should* it be?

Imagine if a Muslim in a predominantly Muslim nation (say Iran) would suddenly become atheist. Would this be a "mere lack of belief in Allah" (and the Hidden Imam in this particular case) with no particular consequences for his "worldview"? Or his politics? Or, even more aptly, *her* worldview and politics? 

Exactly.

So what´s going on here? Rhetoric, of course. Not analyzed by Mr Carrier. Christian fundamentalists claim that there is a direct connection between atheism and, say, promotion of pornography, sodomy, or what have you (and voting for "the other guy" in a presidential election). To make atheism more appealing, atheists therefore deny this. Also, fundamentalists often claim that atheism (often dubbed "humanism") is a homogenous worldview or even a religion in its own right. The claim that atheism is a mere lack of belief is presumably a way to counter such claims and lessen the impact of becoming an atheist.

It´s not clear why, though, since most YouTube atheists are clearly very, very liberal with very strong, shall we say, "beliefs" in the non-existence of some dudebro named G-d. Who just happens to be the transcendent creator of the entire universe and intensely interested in *your* life, Pamela. Or something to that effect. 

And then there´s the peculiar fact that many a-theists can´t even get their definition of God or gods straight, making it hard to know what exactly it is they lack a belief in...

Who is an atheist?