Spectrum of theistic probability

[GliderGuider]

37. Fortunately, I self-identify as an atheist.

Always have, always will. I have gone from strong to weak over the years, but I'm still an atheist in the way that question is commonly asked. It's not all that I am, philosophically speaking, but it's enough to get me by in day-to-day conversation.

The myths that you reference seem fairly specifically American - I doubt that many other English-speaking people (or the majority of Europeans, for that matter) share them. Certainly I haven't rrun einto many of them here in Canada, even as a child in the 1950s going to a one-room school in a conservative farming community. the US has some strange burr under its saddle when it comes to religion. This is my take on those "myths":

1. Atheists are not people who lack belief, but rather people who actively disbelieve in God.

Atheists are not only people who lack belief, but also people who actively disbelieve in God. I use the terms "weak" and strong" for those positions.

2. Atheists are so mean and hateful that no one wants to be associated with them by label.

This one seems to me to be the most specifically American of the set, and is purely a self-validation belief. The worst I've ever had tossed at me even by fundies here in Canuckistan was that my life "must be" empty.

3. Atheism is an illogical, irrational, and untenable position, and should be abandoned en masse for the far superior position of agnosticism.

This one usually comes up because people don't understand what agnosticism actually is. I've never encountered this one IRL.

4. Atheism isn't real, because everyone has to believe in something.

Most people believe they have to believe in things. The problem with this one is both that it is a logical fallacy and that it ignores the multiplicity of other things there are for atheists to believe. From my POV disbelief is still belief, but in this context that's only applicable to strong atheism.

5. Atheists are just closed-minded because they can't accept possibilities.

This sounds to me like a projection by theists with authoritarian personality traits. Anybody can be closed minded, regardless of their position on the existence of God, and usually closed-mindedness is the result of an authoritarian personality type. I think it shows up in fundamentalist theists more than strong atheists because the certainty of the positive belief is attractive to rigid authoritarian psychologies.

My position on my atheism isn't that I'm not an atheist (which I definitely am), but that I find other aspects of the psychology of belief and non-belief much more compelling than whether or not I believe in a completely anthropomorphic god-image.