What kind of atheist are you?

[rug]

July 4, 2012 at 12:17 pm PZ Myers

I am accustomed to annoying people. A year and a half ago, I made this post about Dictionary Atheists that sent almost as much hate mail winging my way as desecrating a cracker did, and because I just love to poke people, I’m going to revisit it now.

I’ll admit that I took a rhetorically wrong approach that led many people to come away with the wrong impression. I was saying that dictionary atheists, those people who say they’re just atheists because they don’t believe in god, were simply reciting an equivalence and not addressing any of the interesting reasons why they were atheists, the stuff that we need to communicate to get other people to recognize our values and appreciate them. Somehow, in some people’s minds, this got turned into Tyrant PZ telling all the atheists what they have to believe, I think because they interpreted my criticisms of superficial explanations and a request to acknowledge deeper cognitive mechanisms to be a demand that there is only one good way to think, which is not true at all.

So I’m going to try something different. I’ve been reading all these “Why I am an atheist” stories, as well as various atheist blogs, and what I see is a couple of major strands of atheist thought. Let’s put together a brief and preliminary taxonomy of atheists! Maybe it will help clarify things, because I consider all of these ways of being an atheist as being perfectly valid, so it should be clear I’m not being judgmental or trying to shoehorn everyone into my flawless mold. But I do think we should all try to be aware of the underpinnings of our ideas.

I see four major categories of thoughtful atheists: scientific atheists, philosophical atheists, political atheists, and humanists. I’m going to describe what I think are the major strengths and weaknesses of each; you can tell me whether you think we need more divisions and better defining characteristics, but be warned, taxonomically I’m more of a lumper than a splitter.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/07/04/what-kind-of-atheist-are-you/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freethoughtblogs%2Fpharyngula+%28FTB%3A+Pharyngula%29

[rrneck]

1. I am me. nt

[woofless]

2. First class.

[SoutherDem]

3. I am a scientific atheist

but, I do share a lot of the political atheist positions.

[struggle4progress]

4. Why don't you collect stamps? What kinds of stamps don't you collect?

Tell us about the first stamp you didn't collect. What stamp are you proudest of not collecting? Are there any stamps you haven't collected more than other stamps? How did you get started not collecting stamps? Why do you think so many people are not collecting stamps nowadays?

[Goblinmonger]

8. Yes, by all means

don't make any effort to understand what atheists might have gone through. And then, when you have achieved that mindset, incorrectly use the analogy which explains why atheism isn't a religion to dismiss their stories. Nicely done. It didn't shock me one bit coming from you. For all the talk in this forum about trying to get to know each other and where we came from, those selling that line certainly don't want to hear about atheists. Just reread your response here and then go read the great responses about how we feel discriminated against in the religious bulletins threads and see how much people really want to know about the atheist experience.

[stopbush]

11. Actually, I liked that response.

Don't get offended when people refuse to play by your rules.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

5. I'm a horny atheist

But not all the time. Sometimes I'm just a regular ole' grumpy atheist.

[Humanist_Activist]

6. One that does not suffer fools gladly. n/t

[unblock]

7. i'm an allergic atheist.

my skin starts to smolder whenever i go into a house of worship.

[oldleftguy]

9. God only knows

[enlightenment]

10. self delete

Normally I wouldn't do this, but I wasn't paying attention to the forum - and I'm not in the mood to enter the fray.

[trotsky]

12. The kind that doesn't believe in god.

But I find it interesting to learn about how other atheists came to their position. Some, like me, were raised in a religion - but we have different reasons for rejecting it (and circumstances under which we did). Others changed religions more than a few times, but ended up atheists. Still others were raised non-believers and have remained so.

I think it's great to talk about diversity and listen to how people arrived at their (non)belief(s). Others have said that's what this forum is for. I guess they're full of crap.

[cleanhippie]

15. "Others have said that's what this forum is for. I guess they're full of crap."

Bingo!

[MineralMan]

13. I am an individual atheist.

I came to my atheism on my own, and it is mine. I simply do not and cannot believe in any supernatural activity, including deities of any kind. Other atheists have their own reasons for atheism, which is fine.

[cpwm17]

14. Scientific Atheist and Philosophical Atheist

It's difficult to categorize. I can't really remember my original reasoning for becoming an atheist since it was a long time ago when I was a 15 yo. I already was doubting when I was given a religious tract with bible quotes from Billy Graham. I read it and went to bed an atheist.

I'm definitely not a humanist atheist. That's the realm of the rascals of atheism. Many of them are the war-mongers and bigots of atheism. They seem to want to turn atheism into some kind of replacement for religion. That's a bad idea.