Are you a better atheist today than you were yesterday?

[Belacqua]

I only ask because it seems I already posted all the brilliant stuff I'm ever going to post.

What about you?

Maybe not compared to just yesterday (I just got up after all) but I'd say I'm making gradual improvement.

Recently I've done two things that inform my thoughts about religion.

1) I researched and wrote a longish essay about how the British Aestheticism movement (Pater, Wilde, etc.) was largely inspired by ancient Greek philosophy. They had a complicated relationship to Christianity, but rooted their ideas about pleasure and the good life firmly in pre-Christian sources, like the Philebus and the Nicomachean Ethics. (The essay will be published in one of those academic journals that nobody reads.)

2) I've been reading the books of Jeffrey Kripal, a historian of religion who started examining the erotic side of certain kinds of Hindu thought, and now writes more generally about mystical experiences. He is not a kook or gullible, but he takes seriously the many reports people send him about mystical experiences. These are fascinating from a psychological or anthropological viewpoint (think William James). 

So yes, I'd say that my understanding of religion and its role is a little better than it was a few months ago, and this makes me a better atheist.

[Rahn127]

The short answer. - "Yes I am"

Today is International Atheist Day and I had some religious guy come to my door to ask what church I attended.

I replied proudly "I'm an atheist."
It made me quite happy that he wasn't shocked and didn't say much more. I'm hoping that's because he's heard those words quite a few times.

[Fake Messiah]

Sure, and as atheists, we'll continue the work to normalize:
- Apostasy
- Critique of religion
- Non-religious morality
- Secularism
- Conversations around mental health
- Equality for women
- Equality for LGBTQ+ people
- Demolishing purity culture
- Ending child indoctrination

[The Valkyrie]

Nope.

I'm a worse atheist than I used to be.

I haven't:

- Eaten a baby in months
- Set fire to a church/mosque/synagogue since before the pandemic
- Taken the lord's name in vain enough.
- Mocked bald prophets
- Blasphemed the holy spirit since Monday
- Coveted my neighbours' anything
- sacrificed a virgin to the Dark Lord for weeks (it's hard to find a virgin these days.

[zebo-the-fat]

Can't improve on perfection

[Gwaithmir]

I'm just as much of a non-believer as I was 39 years ago. I'm not sure what being a "better atheist" entails. 

[The Grand Nudger]

Wake up every day the same atheist as the day before. As to whether or not I'm a better person...IDK, depends on who you ask. What are the metrics for being one of the Good Atheists, I wonder?

I strongly suspect that, whatever they are, I'm not one of those. At least not today - might have been if ya caught me when I was five or six. Back when I didn't know better. : shrugs :

[Gawdzilla Sama]

If you're a better atheist than me it means you were an atheist more than nine months before you were born.