Spirited Script

Why is it, on the internet at least, atheists and theists have such a hard time getting along? Why all the preconceived notions? Well, okay, I can understand why, in that we’re bombarded with the stereotypes of each all the time. But buying into these preconceived notions makes things worse, because then one side attacks the other, which makes the other side feel justified in attacking back to defend themselves.

Meanwhile, in real life, I’m friends with a number of different people with different beliefs. Devout Christians, not-so-devout Christians, atheists, agnostics, Jews, Pagans, and probably others that I just don’t know. More over, they manage to be friends with each other as well. Looking around on many of the religious sites and forums on the internet, you wouldn’t imagine an atheist could be friends with a devout Christian, but it happens all the time.

The reason for this is pretty simple. Where I’m from, at least among the groups of people I hang out with, we’re tolerant of other people’s religious choices. This includes lack of religion as well, of course. We discuss them sometimes, and disagree on some things, but we’re civil and no one leaves angry.

We also have lots of common ground. Everyone can see how having a social contract is useful. We disagree on some points of said social contract, but we all recognize the value of some form of shared morals.

So, now that I’ve had that spiel, I am going to stereotype a little. I want to say up front that anything I say about a specific group after this paragraph doesn’t apply to everyone in that group. Many people are quite reasonable, regardless of their beliefs.

So, first up, Christians. If you’re trying to convince a non-Christian of something, (and they’ve agreed to listen!), they likely aren’t going to see the Bible as evidence for anything, especially atheists. Use logic, use historical evidence, use science if you can, but don’t bring up the Bible as evidence. It isn’t.

All believers, atheists are big on science and logic. Use these tools in your discussions with them. Mystical experiences generally don’t cut the mustard unless you have very good evidence. We’re talking close to unassailable evidence. Same goes for holy writings.

Atheists, not all religions are trying to push themselves on you. Grow up. Especially when it comes to bashing Christians. The ones bashing you are the minority of believers, not the majority. This is true of other religious groups as well.

This also applies in reverse. Believers, stop bashing atheists for having no faith. Some people don’t want faith, they want logic. Let them have it. They aren’t harming you. They’re finding their way through life just like you’re finding your way through yours.

Atheists, stop assuming all religious people are crazy. They aren’t. Yes, they hold beliefs that are unproven, and some are even untestable. So what? They also understand this, and don’t generally try to force those beliefs on others. The ones who do are, once again, a minority. Also, realize that sometimes faith is reasoned, and not just followed blindly.

Everyone, stop making the fallacy that science and belief in God are incompatible. They are compatible. You can’t take the Bible literally when you understand science, but a belief in God, as well as reading the Bible metaphorically, work perfectly fine with scientific understanding. So does simply believing in God without the organized religion.

Everyone, stop assuming you’re the one who’s right. You don’t know. Let me repeat that in case you didn’t catch that the first time: you do not know if you are right. Furthermore, there is no way to test if you are right that we are aware of. We’re talking about things you can’t know while living, and since we can’t talk to the dead (reliably, at least, depending on whether or not you believe in mediums), we won’t know until we die.

Atheists, science working doesn’t prove God doesn’t exist. Stop claiming it does. It almost certainly invalidates a literal interpretation of most religious stories, but it doesn’t invalidate the possible existence of God or an afterlife of any kind. Feel free to continue not believing, just don’t claim lack of evidence implies lack of God.

Theists, stop saying your holy writings of choice prove God exists. They don’t. They’re stories handed down through the ages, orally, then written down, then translated into different languages and versions. No matter how meticulously they were copied and preserved, over a long enough time, mistranslation, forgetting or omitting parts of a story, and embellishment creep in. It happens. Your holy books aren’t proof that you’re right. Feel free to continue believing, but don’t claim everyone else should just because your book says so.

Okay, so thats the end of my rant, and I’m going to stop the stereotyping now. I want to reiterate, what I said about each group just now doesn’t apply to everyone in the groups I’ve mentioned. Many atheists and religious believers alike are quite reasonable, and I don’t wish to do a disservice to them by claiming they aren’t. However, I wanted to point out some of the things that I see people claiming to be representative of each group doing that simply aren’t helping us all reach a place where we can all be tolerant of other people’s beliefs.

Related Posts:

• Speak Up
• Religious and Atheist Debates
• The Relationship Between Science and Religion
• Finding My Beliefs
• The True Power of the Bible