What Kind of Atheist are You?

[Aroura]

Hmmm. When talking to religious people face to face, I describe myself as a philosophical Taoist. This label is true, and it is usually confusing enough that they don't inquire further, but they don't shun me outright. For instance, I'm a Girl Scout leader, and at the volunteer meeting in December, they asked everyone to talk about their own holiday traditions. Of course, everyone else had pretty straightforward Christian stuff. When it got to me, I knew I'd be hurting my reputation with these people by using the "a" word, so that's when I talk about this. If people have further questions, I'll tell them it's an offshoot of an eastern religion. This is al totally deceitful on my part, even though I'm telling the truth, because I'm just trying to avoid the shunning I know I'd get around here. Last week I discovered most people were so confused by what I said, they had collectively decided I was Jewish. When one older lady said to me "oh, your Jewish, right?" I said "Sure, close enough.". Sigh. I wish I'd had the courage to be more honest.

So, I hate going with a single label, but I'm a Humanist, determinist, anti-theist, and more.

[Pyrrho]

What is the question of this thread?  What sorts of categories do you have in mind?  

Well many of us (myself included) are fond of pointing out that atheism only tells someone what you don't believe. It says nothing about what you do believe. I'm curious what my fellow atheists here do believe. I realize it may not fit into an established category. Anyone familiar with my posts knows I'm not big on labels. The 'Secular Humanist' one does match my own beliefs pretty closely so I use that one but others may not fit into such a pigeonhole. 

Okay.  Aside from what I stated earlier at post 50:

http://atheistforums.org/thread-32894-po...#pid926727

I believe there is no god, nothing that I would be willing to call a god, nothing that is normally called a god, other than things that are called a god in a loose way (as in "Brad Pitt is a god!").  I believe that there are no supernatural beings of any kind.

For my positive views, it is convenient to simply say (as I already stated in the previous post) that I basically agree with almost everything David Hume wrote, though I have some disagreements with some of the interpretations I have read about the is/ought issue that would be better discussed in another thread.  Of course, if someone has no familiarity with David Hume, this is pretty useless for telling someone anything about me, but it works pretty well for those who have studied his philosophical works.

A few things:  Human motivation is emotional.  Reason can help one discover facts, but if one does not care about the facts, then they do not have any motivational power.  That caring about some fact or other is emotion.  So reason is useful for providing means to one's ends, but it is irrelevant for ultimate goals one might have, which are a matter of emotion.

Belief in miracles is silly and irrational.

One should proportion one's beliefs to the evidence.  That is, one should be more sure about things that are better supported by evidence than things that are less well supported by evidence.  And if there is no evidence for something, one should not believe it.

Some of those ideas are discussed in William Kingdon Clifford's essay "The Ethics of Belief," which can be found at:

http://ajburger.homestead.com/files/book.htm

I basically agree with everything Clifford says in that essay.

And I agree with Epicurus on death, and on his basic view of how one should live one's life (though not everything he wrote).  Here is a good site for more on that:

http://www.epicurus.net

I hope to pass through life as pleasantly as reasonably possible, while harming other sentient beings as little as reasonably possible.  So far, I am doing fairly well at that, and have no particular reason to expect things to not continue this way for many years, though obviously things could change at any moment.

I have no wish to live forever, and have no fear of death (see Epicurus).  I would rather live a good life that is short than a long mediocre life.  I would rather be dead than live a bad life, as death is nothing to fear and is not a bad thing.  It is like what you experienced in 1800, or, in other words, nothing.

I rather like Seneca's letters 70 & 77:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_lett.../Letter_70

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_lett.../Letter_77

For something more thorough on the subject, though less poetic, see Hume's essay "Of Suicide":

http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/704#lf0059_label_889

[*Deidre*]

Just an atheist. If I start categorizing myself, slotting myself into a 'sect' of sorts...it will have that familiar feeling of religion.

Many of the atheists here categorize themselves much more than the theists that I know.

I remember you, Polaris. You have lasted all this time. Impressive.

[Red Economist]

I'm going to go with "Communist" or "dialectical Materialist" (if I don't want people to know what I'm saying). Communism is a form of atheism that behaves very like a religion, despite not being one. it is therefore very "odd".
I tend to think I share more in common with believers in terms of the thought patterns and having a basic set of assumptions that are taken as true. it's more complicated than calling it a 'dogma', but that only applies if you think it's true and the way they are established as 'truth' within the system itself (it's based on practice/trial and error).

There's also the oddity of coming out against scientific consensus because it doesn't fit with my philosophical beliefs, e.g. the big bang is not consistent with materialism, which necessarily need the universe to have been permanent in some way. rejecting science makes me feel like a creationist though.

[Natachan]

I started as an objectivist in my late teens, and since then I've modified my views a bit. Now I guess I'm an empiricist (is that a word?). I don't believe anything definitively unless it can be demonstrated.

I am in general an agnostic atheist, there might be some god out there but no evidence has yet been presented. About specific gods, such as Yahweh, I am a gnostic atheist. Yahweh does not exist.

[AFTT47]

I'm going to go with "Communist" or "dialectical Materialist" (if I don't want people to know what I'm saying). Communism is a form of atheism that behaves very like a religion, despite not being one. it is therefore very "odd".
I tend to think I share more in common with believers in terms of the thought patterns and having a basic set of assumptions that are taken as true. it's more complicated than calling it a 'dogma', but that only applies if you think it's true and the way they are established as 'truth' within the system itself (it's based on practice/trial and error).

There's also the oddity of coming out against scientific consensus because it doesn't fit with my philosophical beliefs, e.g. the big bang is not consistent with materialism, which necessarily need the universe to have been permanent in some way. rejecting science makes me feel like a creationist though.

Communism is not a type of atheism; it is a worldview that incorporates atheism as one of its components.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Communism is a form of atheism [...]

Communism is an socio-economic system. It embraces atheism as an adjunct.

[KevinM1]

I'm an angry atheist. Heh.

I'm a secular humanist. I have no patience with believers who attempt to hide their vile beliefs under the veil of "Bless you." I feel it's insultingly dishonest to attempt to appear gracious and humble when you work - indirectly or not - to oppress those who don't believe in the Bronze-to-Iron Age morality of your imaginary friend. At least have the balls to own it.

[Red Economist]

Communism is not a type of atheism; it is a worldview that incorporates atheism as one of its components.

Communism is an socio-economic system. It embraces atheism as an adjunct.

Marx's philosophy was directly inspired by Ludwig Feuerbach's "The essence of Christianity" in which Feuerbach argued that man created god, and god was the alienation of man's being a god was the projection of human qualities and so is inherently atheist. Philosophical materialism, and therefore atheism as the rejection of the ability of consciousness to exist independently of matter/the body, is the most fundamental assumption on which virtually all communist beliefs are built. Communism is a worldview, and is unquestionably a logical conclusion of a certain form of atheism; the non-existence of god and the supernatural is the basis for believing that the natural and social world can be mastered consciously by human beings.

I'd say that- as a worldview- it is a type of atheism distinct from secular-liberal forms of atheism (such as the 'New Atheism'), but yeah, that is not true of all forms of communism (some of which are religious).

[AFTT47]

Nobody is arguing against Communism being a complete worldview. It is but you cannot claim to be a form of atheism. Atheism by itself is nothing but a lack of belief in gods or God. Any number of worldviews may incorporate it. My own particular worldview has little in common with your's outside of atheism. Neither of us may claim atheism as if it belongs to us. Any idiot may claim the universe was created by the lizard spawn of Tom Paris and Catherine Janeway but those fools may not claim kinship with us.