[Serious] Absolutes and Atheism

[Mister Agenda]

We don't expect theists to only have one religion in common, why would you expect atheists to only have one philosophy in common?

I, for one, have no such expectation. At the same time, if atheism is simply a lack of belief in the divine, then it is a kind of hole. IMHO holes are, in their own way a thing and can have their own unique qualities. So it is right an proper atheism would be variously expressed in the intellectual life of individual atheists, just as theistic belief manifests itself in various ways. If a hole, a true physical lack, can have size and shape then so also an intellectual hole can be described by the extent to which it fails to inform other beliefs. And maybe the hole isn't really about the divine as-such; but rather the function served by belief in the divine.

The thing about atheists, I think, and maybe I'm overgeneralizing, is that you can tell way more about us from how we reached the conclusion that belief in divine beings isn't justified than by trying to read into the conclusion itself. Some of us were never raised to believe in any deities and when we were exposed to the idea simply found it unbelievable. Others found it believable and stopped being atheists. Some of us were raised relgious and found out the claims weren't born out in reality, and didn't find the claims of any other religion any more credible. Some of us have supernatural beliefs that don't involve any deities being real; like some Buddhists who are atheists and still believe in karma and reincarnation. Since the few examples of someone I know are atheists and convert to religion do so because of the influence of their significant other, I suppose it works the other way around sometimes too. And yes, it sometimes happens that someone can't reconcile a great tragedy in their lives with the the God they believed in and just couldn't anymore (I know exactly one of those).

I was raised religious, became a mere theist after reading the Bible twice; but becoming an atheist was a process of years of shedding lesser beliefs I couldn't justify until the big one was all that was left.

That hole you describe is just an opinion, like mere theism is just one opinion. The hole you describe, for instance, could be filled by Deism or Letsism or Unitarian Universalism, and those are very wispy substances to fill a hole with. The function of religion/belief in the divine is filled with religion, not theism; IMHO. A God or god can be whatever its worshippers agree that it is.

After all, people who sacrificed virgins to the volcano also had belief in the divine; so it seems more cultural than anything else.