Frequently Asked Questions

In my forays into cyberspace I have received many e-mails over the years and a good proportion of them ask me the same thing.  So, despite the fact that there are many better atheist FAQ’s on the Internet that this one, I decided to create my own.  What follows is a compellation of the more common questions that I keep getting: 

 Please note: many of these links will take you off-site. Also, keep scrolling, the FAQ is lengthy!

Q- Why bother?  Who cares?  No one cares about this stuff, etc., etc.

A- I do and so do many others.  Moreover, I find freethought, atheism, religions, and philosophy to be both fascinating and educational.  Some people do crossword puzzles or play trivia games.  I read and write about these topics in my spare time.  

Q- Why do you criticize religions?  You shouldn't criticize religion because it does a lot of good...many of it's adherents are good people and do good things.  Are you anti-religious?  Do you hate Christians?  Etc., etc., etc.

A- See the separate FAQ found HERE for answers to these questions.

Q- Why should I believe anything that you write?

A- You shouldn't.  I would recommend that you be critical of everything that you read or hear--including what I write.  Thus, I would encourage you to read How to Think About Weird Things by Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn.  This book presents a very practical approach that non-experts can use to evaluate all sorts of claims.  This, of course, includes the claims that I make in any of my online writings.  In addition, I would be VERY critical of any Internet source, period. 

Q- Do you believe in the existence of gods?  Does God exist?  Etc., etc.

A- In a word: no.  First, the question "Does God exist?" is meaningless unless the word "God" has been defined.  Most people who ask this question simply assume that everyone knows what "God" means (usually the Christian version), but this understanding involves a whole host of presupposed concepts/conclusions (e.g., full omniscience, limited omniscience, full omnipotence, limited omnipotence, omnipresence, a definition based on your religion’s version of God, etc., etc.) which make the question extremely loaded.  This is part of the reason that I believe the term to be epistemically  nonsensical.  Moreover, since I primarily trust evidence that is based on natural means (i.e., the scientific method), how can I believe in something that, by its very nature, is said to be beyond science (i.e., supernatural)?

Q: What are your basic beliefs?

A: I'm an atheist who, for the most part, follows a humanistic philosophy.  To be specific, I am a weak atheist if we are discussing some "unknown entity" that is alleged to exist somewhere in the universe, and I am a strong atheist in regards to all of the gods of humanity (e.g. Odin, Allah, Christ, etc.).

However, it should be noted again that I do not assert with absolute certainty that a God does not exist.  In fact, this is yet another misconception that many people have about atheists.

Finally, most common dictionaries do NOT do these terms justice.  To this end I recommend the Encyclopedia of Unbelief by Gordon Stein and Austine Cline's Defining Atheism page. These resources do an excellent job of explaining how freethinkers and atheist philosophers use most of these terms.

Q- What evidence do you accept?

A- Generally, I like to base my opinions on the methodology of science. Simply put: conclusions must conform to the evidence.  This, of course, is in direct opposition to theology where evidence is made to conform to presupposed conclusions.  For an expanded account of what I base my beliefs on, please see here or see Michael Shermer’s Skeptical Manifesto.

Q- Where did all "this" come from?  All "this" is not an accident, etc., etc.

A- See the Argument to Design.

Q- You would have to know everything to say that there is no God.

A- No, this is not true.  In fact, outside of certain historical, scientific, and mathematical facts, very few things can be proven with absolute certainty.  Hopefully, what most people do is try to examine the available evidence and then make a well-informed decision.  Moreover, many people believe many things without total knowledge of a matter.  For example, many Christians believe that their religion is the one true religion yet they have not examined any of the world's other religions. In fact, there are thousands of gods and goddesses (e.g., see Lurker's Dictionary of Gods) yet how many Christians have have honestly examined all of them?  In short, I could say the same thing to Christians: "You would have to know everything to say that the God of Christianity exists."  Finally, for a more sophisticated answer to this question, see Atheism & Omniscience by Austine Cline.

Q- You worship Darwin, science, Darwinism, etc., etc.

A- I'm not sure why I keep getting this comment.  Although I do adhere to the method of science I never have wrote anything about Darwin.  I suspect that it has something to do with the next question. Whatever the case, please see the Fallacy of Equivocation.

Q- Atheists still have faith, atheists believe in something, etc., etc.

A- See the Fallacy of Equivocation.

Q- Aren't you afraid that you'll go to hell?

A- First, which version of hell (Christian, Muslim, etc.) are you talking about?  Second: No.  The evidence suggests that hell is a myth.  See: Mythologies Last Gods by William Harwood.

Q: What do you think happens to you after you die?

A- I have no idea--I’m not omniscient.

Q- Are you trying to convert believers into atheists?

A- No. I’m trying to get believers to think critically about why they believe what they believe--if we happen to reach different conclusions that’s fine with me.

Q- Do atheists hate God?  You hate God, etc., etc.

A- Atheists lack belief in a God or gods.  Moreover, most atheists do not believe in the supernatural either.  So, how can I hate that which I don’t believe exists?

Q- How can you be critical of religion when so many intelligent and well-educated people believe in God?

A- Truth, falsehood and the validity of a hypothesis is not decided by a majority opinion.  For example, at one time the majority believed that slavery was acceptable and the world was flat, yet in both cases the majority was wrong.  In addition, many intelligent people are adherents of many different religions (Judaism, Islam, etc.) yet they all can’t be right.

Q- What is the meaning of life for an atheist?  How can your life have meaning without God? Etc., etc.

A- To quote Bertrand Russell: “what do you mean by the meaning of life?”  Further, my life does have meaning and I have to say that I am as happy now (maybe even more so) as I was when I was a Christian.  Finally, I’ll refer you to following offsite explanation of this very common question.

Q- If you don't believe in god, what stops you from going out and murdering and performing other evil acts?

A- A respect for the laws of a democratic society, the respect for all life, and the fear of imprisonment.

Q: Atheists are Communists, the atheistic philosophy fails, atheism is a worldview, etc., etc.

A: First, Soviet Communism was a system of government that required state-mandated atheism.  The fact of the matter is that there were atheists in ancient Greece well before Communism was ever thought of, so suggesting that atheism and Communism are one and the same is simply wrong.  See: Godless Communists: Atheism and Society in Soviet Russia by William Husband.  Second, atheism is just a factual premise and nothing more.  Atheism addresses one question and one question only: does God exist?  It says nothing about how I am to live my life.  Moreover there is not one uniform set of atheistic morals/beliefs/worldviews/philosophies and stating otherwise is both wrong and ignorant. 

Unfortunately, some Christians (i.e., apologists) usually try to attack atheism (i.e., the belief that there is no God) by attacking a particular (and usually famous) atheist and his/her respective philosophy or worldview.  Karl Marx, Bertrand Russell, George Carlin, Bruce Lee, Isaac Asimov, Friedrich Nietzsche, Dan Barker, Ronald Reagan Jr., and Paul Kurtz are all atheists yet I am certain that their worldviews are all very different.  Moreover, many of the reasons that they choose not to believe in god are also likely very different. 

Simply put, the only thing that all atheists agree on is that there is no God, period.

Q- What kind of horrible experience did you have that caused you to become an atheist?  Atheists are just mad at religion/pastors/church, etc., etc.

A- The experiences that I had when I was deeply involved in the church are no better or worse than anything that has happened to me since becoming an atheist.  While it is true that some atheists are angry, I am not one of them.  In addition, even if there are atheists who are angry you should ask yourself: what are they angry about and do they have a right to be angry?  Although anger has the potential to bias any argument or belief, you should critically evaluate their claim or claims before dismissing them outright.  Finally, whether I am angry or not has NOTHING to do with answering this question: does God exist?  In fact, dismissing all atheists as angry at religion only evades the issue at hand.  For a good explanation of this, and other typical “atheist questions” see the following FAQ that is brought to you by Austin Cline.

For a good list of common theistic/atheistic arguments see Does God Exist?  For a summary of logical fallacies see the Logical Fallacies FAQ. 

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