Do you feel (new) Atheist culture?
July 29, 2015 at 9:20 am
(This post was last modified: July 29, 2015 at 9:43 am by Alex K.)
As we often mention (when theists appear in the forum trying to explain to us all the things we allegedly believe), atheism is most commonly defined around these parts here as the lack of belief in deities (YMMV). As such, absolutely nothing else can be derived from the fact that someone is an atheist.
Still, we are mostly a social species, and many recurring elements of atheist culture have cropped up especially in the course of the new atheist thing which became famous ten years ago. So, whether you especially like them or not, you have more probably than not listened to talks by Richard Dawkins, or Christopher Hitchens, or you've read a book about Evolution or two because of creationism, or you've made jokes about the flying spaghetti monster, listened to the same podcasts as many others, maybe you get, like me, a warm fuzzy feeling and a strange sensation of awe when you look at Darwin's original specimens in the natural history museum, and so on and so forth.
Even if you don't share/know/are a fan of every single one of these things, they together form some kind of recognizable shared culture with shared slang, inside jokes, typical lines of arguments, maybe even rituals, which provide a sense of commonality and possibly community for those who are loosely associated with new atheism. There is an overlap with Skepticism with a "k", for which the same things are true. This is at least is the context in which I see my atheism and skepticism today, even though I was an atheist long before I knew who Richard Dawkins etc. were, and even though I don't want most of these people speaking for me.
Now I also know that many of you are die-hard individuals who tend to e.g. reject any association with the usual popular figureheads of atheism, but still I wonder whether those of you don't also, deep down, feel they are part of a shared atheist (popular) culture which provides some sense of comfort and belonging to you even if you aren't a formal member of any org.
I hope you understand what I mean, and I'd like to hear about your attitude towards all that
Still, we are mostly a social species, and many recurring elements of atheist culture have cropped up especially in the course of the new atheist thing which became famous ten years ago. So, whether you especially like them or not, you have more probably than not listened to talks by Richard Dawkins, or Christopher Hitchens, or you've read a book about Evolution or two because of creationism, or you've made jokes about the flying spaghetti monster, listened to the same podcasts as many others, maybe you get, like me, a warm fuzzy feeling and a strange sensation of awe when you look at Darwin's original specimens in the natural history museum, and so on and so forth.
Even if you don't share/know/are a fan of every single one of these things, they together form some kind of recognizable shared culture with shared slang, inside jokes, typical lines of arguments, maybe even rituals, which provide a sense of commonality and possibly community for those who are loosely associated with new atheism. There is an overlap with Skepticism with a "k", for which the same things are true. This is at least is the context in which I see my atheism and skepticism today, even though I was an atheist long before I knew who Richard Dawkins etc. were, and even though I don't want most of these people speaking for me.
Now I also know that many of you are die-hard individuals who tend to e.g. reject any association with the usual popular figureheads of atheism, but still I wonder whether those of you don't also, deep down, feel they are part of a shared atheist (popular) culture which provides some sense of comfort and belonging to you even if you aren't a formal member of any org.
I hope you understand what I mean, and I'd like to hear about your attitude towards all that
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
