[Serious] Questions about Belief and Personal Identity

[Angrboda]

I think beliefs engender a lot of territoriality. In digging up stats about how atheists are disliked as a group, there were a lot of answers given, few of which agreed with one another. But one of the reasons was that religious people see having religious beliefs as an essential foundation for the type of behaviors we want to promote -- morality, civic virtues, respect. So, along those lines, people lacking religious beliefs were perceived as a threat to a well-ordered, prosperous, and moral society. I think the same works in reverse in that many atheists see religion and belief as encouraging irrational thinking, poorly justified behaviors, and anti-science and anti-intellectual attitudes. The need for healthy respect and embrace of reason and science seems essential to furthering a well-ordered and prosperous society for them. So I think there is a sense in which people with different beliefs can be perceived as a threat to what one considers to be "the good."

That being said, it's not an all-or-nothing issue either. When it comes to actions, we accept a range of gradations and levels of things, with each entailing different responses. Some things are illegal, but not immoral. Some immoral, but not illegal. And some socially inappropriate, but not immoral or illegal. I think beliefs are somewhat the same way, that we view believing that our baseball team is the best, or that it's not appropriate to eat the wrong thing with your salad fork differently than religious beliefs. But then it depends on the context, too. Believing your team is the best could get your head beaten at a heated soccer match. So some beliefs fall into the category that they do pose a threat, and others do not.

As to me, personally, I've always held that humans are fundamentally irrational, so while I might consider my atheism to be rational, or at least 'largely' rational, it's simply one piece that is mixed in a soup the bulk of which is irrational. I don't see believing in gods as any less legitimate than my love of scotch, or my enjoyment of baseball. I don't put reason first in my life, and so I don't demand it of others. Other atheists feel differently and consider reason and science as good hills to die on. I'm just not one of them.