'An atheist’s guide to the good life' by PZ Myers

[Rob H.]

Excerpt follows--full article is on the Washington Post's website here.

An atheist’s guide to the good life
by PZ Myers

A curious thing happened to my thoughts on the way to composing this essay.

It was supposed to be about how to be an atheist, but I realized that that wasn’t right. Atheism is the default position. You don’t have to do anything to be an atheist, but you have to work awfully hard to not be one — atheism strips away a lot of superfluous nonsense, rather than piling on remarkable requirements and strange creeds and bizarre pointless rituals that you need to obey. So instead, I thought I’d address the believers and tell you what baggage you can throw off ol’ Conestoga Wagon of life, the stuff that we know is completely unnecessary because atheists have traveled the trail without it, and come out just fine.

(snip)

Speaking of medieval rules, throw away the hierarchical view of society. Rulers aren’t better than those they rule, priests are not above the congregation, women are not man’s helpmeet, your tribe is no longer the chosen people. Wake up to equality, realize that every single human being on the planet is on the same plane, and respect everyone’s rights as the same.

(snip)

You may have needed a book of rules and a master to put on the shackles of faith, but you don’t need a guidebook to live a life of liberty. Do you know why atheists are so happy? Because they’re the freest people on Earth, and their only responsibilities are to their fellow human beings, not phantasms.

For some reason, the comments at the WaPo's site aren't loading for me, though.

[trotsky]

1. Good article by PZ. (Again.)

But he uses lots of terms that would be attacked by the Arbiters of All Things.

"boring dude in a dog collar" - How DARE you insult priests? They do so much good!

"invisible man" - How disrespectful! Don't you realize that no believer actually thinks of god as an invisible man?

"futile babbling" - Tsk, such an insult to those who pray and find peace that way!

"phantasms" - Further disrespect to people's sincerely-held religious beliefs! Disgraceful and rude!

That's the tactic o' the day, you know. People upset with what atheists say know full well they can't actually counter any of the points being made, so they attack the person, attempting to shame them into silence.

[JoeyT]

2. Yep. The tone trolling is strong in the comments section there.

And follows the usual, predictable paths.

Plenty of stuff on the lines of "I don't necessarily believe in God" (Sure you don't.) "Why do Atheists have to be so mean?" (Saying someone is wrong > threatening someone with eternal torture) etc.

Hell the very first comment is one of the "I used to be an atheist, but..." ones. Sadly he/she didn't actually use the word "atheist", so there was no chance of spelling it wrong like they usually do.

[Warpy]

3. Some of the responses are hilarious, though

so it's worth returning if they didn't load the first time just to read some of them.

[Capt. Obvious]

4. Comments are boring

[Curmudgeoness]

5. This is what speaks to me the most....

◾The imaginary threat of hell and promise of heaven aren’t needed to keep us in line. We do good because we’re happy to help our communities and see our fellow human beings thrive. Telling us we’re going to be set on fire by a malicious god if we don’t behave isn’t just unbelievable, it’s insulting — we don’t need extortion or offers of imaginary paradise cookies to do the right thing. Why do you?

I really am insulted when people act as if I must be evil, or immoral, or unethical, simply because I have no belief in a god.