This comes up repeatedly, and it did so once again from a surprising source, a skeptic group over on Google+. Effectively, the argument made was that atheists do have a burden of proof, although much less so than the religious, because atheists are arguing, perhaps not that there’s no god, but that the arguments made by the religious are wrong, therefore we have to prove that it is so.

But that’s not the argument that I’m making. I’m not saying that the religious are wrong in anything that they assert, I am saying that they have not convinced me that they are right. And until they convince me that they are right, I have no obligation whatsoever to take their claims about gods seriously. And neither does anyone else. Atheism is the default position. Absolutely everyone is born an atheist. It is only once you adopt a different belief that you change from that default view. You can’t convert to atheism, you can only return to it by no longer believing in the existence of gods. And someone brought up that dogs and rocks being atheist is a silly argument, but it’s not. Just because they do not have the ability to believe in gods, at least for rocks, we have no real evidence for dogs, that doesn’t stop them from fitting the definition of atheism: the lack of belief in gods. It may not be a very useful term when applied to them, but the term still fits.

I do not tell theists they are wrong. I tell them they are unconvincing. After all, it isn’t me going to their forums and insisting they change their minds. It’s them that do that. They come to atheist forums and atheist subreddits and demand that we believe. When was the last time an atheist banged on your door on Sunday morning wanting to share nothing at all? It just doesn’t happen. Therefore, if they want me to adopt their views, as seems to be the case, then it is on their shoulders to prove to me that their beliefs are factually correct and so long as they cannot do so, I have no reason to change my mind.

And yes, I make videos about religion, but if you watch, I don’t tell them that they are wrong to believe in gods, I tell them that their ideas, their claims, their supposed facts, are extraordinarily faulty. I may tell them that their claim about something is wrong, but not that their beliefs are, in and of themselves, wrong. Just unsupported. Just irrational. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong, it just means they’re unconvincing. And whether or not that changes their minds about their beliefs, as we know it virtually never does, that’s irrelevant. I don’t do it for them. I never have and I never will.

That’s why the religious really hate debating me. They expect me to take the opposing view. If the debate topic is “is god real”, they want me to take the “god isn’t real” side, but I never do. I take the “your arguments don’t prove your contention” side. You haven’t actually defended your claims. Therefore, the proposition that god is real fails. Debate over. And they hate that because it puts all of the work on them, but all of the work should be on them because they are the only one making any kind of claim.

Apparently, there are atheists out there who get pissed off at that kind of thing too. Well too bad. I’m no more concerned with what atheists think than I am with what the religious think. I have the default position. If you want me to change, convince me. If you can’t convince me, I won’t change. I don’t have to justify myself. You do. If you can’t, then stop making the claims. Stop trying to convince others. Otherwise, I might just show up to point out that you have nothing and your ideas are irrational and don’t actually support the claims that you are making. You are not doing a good job. You ought to do something about that.

Of course, I’m sure I’ll catch a lot of crap for daring not to be adversarial in this, but I don’t have to be. My position is entirely rational. It’s the other side that isn’t. They need to come up to my level, not the other way around. I don’t hang out in atheist circle jerks trying to tell other atheists how right they are. You will never find a post from me anywhere doing that. I’m just waiting for the religious to do their due diligence and prove to me that their claims are factually correct and failing that, I’m not going to change my mind. I have no reason to. No one does. And that’s just how it goes.

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