No More Anti-Theists

[Ben Davis]

That my religiosity, religious behaviour and religious identity are 3 separate yet complicit objects so although I hold certain antitheistic views, I'm no more an antitheist than I am an atheist. I prefer to look at it like this: my value systems are atheistic (they have an absence of theistic propositions) and sometimes antitheistic (they can lie in opposition to theistic values), my religiosity is irreligious, my behaviour is secular and my identity is Ben Davis.

When I'm being antitheistic, feel free to say so but remember that it rarely serves to reduce personalities to one-dimensional labels because that ignores people's intellectual complexity and is often patronising.

But I said not to do that.

No, you said that people shouldn't label themselves as they choose.

I wouldn't use 'antitheist' as my 'religious views' response because the direct reflection of my religiosity, 'irreligious', is more pertinent a response than the occasional behaviour, antitheism, which results from the incorporation of that religiosity in to my value-systems. I wouldn't dream of telling people that they shouldn't use the label 'antitheist'. I might ask them why they chose to do so and share with them, as part of that conversation, why I wouldn't.