Discussions of religion and ethics from an atheist perspective

Unexpurgated atheist FAQ

I’m still quite short on time an unable to post to this blog regularly, but in honor of the holiday I thought I’d offer brief answers to a few questions that I (and many other atheists) are commonly asked. Although these are my personal answers, I am confident that I speak for all atheist everywhere. Enjoy!

Why do atheists hate Christians?

Because atheists hate everyone.

Do atheists worship Satan?

Atheists don’t worship Satan — we don’t worship anyone. Rather, atheists say that we “have a close, personal relationship” with Satan. To us, he’s less like a leader or deity and more like a neighbor that we wave to in the morning.

If there is no God, why be moral?

Exactly.

If there is no God, then where does your conscience come from?

What conscience?

Without God, who is to say what is right and what is wrong?

Me. I have a blog for that and everything.



Isn’t it depressing to think that there is no great plan to the universe?

You have no idea how depressing it is. We can only imagine the joy that religious people must feel about, for example, their children. To us, kids are just an expensive, noisy biological consequence that will end up wrecking the car, dating some loser with a trashy tattoo, and, ultimately, blowing their inheritance. Sunsets? Flowers? To atheists, they’re no more than a random collection of atoms. Sometimes at night we lie awake in bed, unable to sleep, trying to picture how religious people feel when they say they are experiencing “beauty” or find a pristine landscape “awesome.”

If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?

Sex. Maybe bacon. Definitely chocolate.

Can you prove that God doesn’t exist.

The third derivative of the Bayers solution to the derivation of Fermat’s last theorem proves with mathematical precision that not only the Christian God but also any monotheistic, triune, or polytheistic supernatural deity cannot possibly coexist with reality. The equations are all over the Web and I couldn’t better the explanations given by others, so I won’t bother reproducing them here.

Why won’t you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?

Because every atheist has had some bad experience that made us reject God, even though we know deep in our hearts that He really exists. Plus, if we become Christians then we can’t live the amazing, pleasure-centered, hedonistic lifestyle to which we have become accustomed.

Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. He wasn’t a liar or a lunatic, so he was obviously the Lord. How can you refute this?

By choosing “lunatic.”

Why won’t you read the Bible and see its truth for yourself?

We’re afraid that the Bible might contain arguments for the existence of God so compelling and unassailable that if we encountered them we would have to change our beliefs, which we don’t want to do under any circumstances. Also, we hear that parts of it are boring and/or weird.

The resurrection is proof that Jesus was God. How can you deny the evidence of the Gospels?

As an atheist, I don’t believe anything I read.

If the Bible is a lie, then why would so many people have allowed themselves to become martyrs for a lie?

I assume it’s because they were a bunch of morons.

If the Bible is false, then how do you explain the thousands of predictions it contains that came true?

This doesn’t have to be the work of God. Maybe the Bible was written by super-intelligent aliens or massively precognitive goatherds or something.

What does the atheist position have to offer that religion does not?

Atheism offers absolute certainty. We don’t have to make decisions about tough questions like good vs. evil or what is/isn’t a sin. If there’s something we don’t know, we have faith that science will come up with an answer, and if it doesn’t have an answer, then either it will have an answer some day or it’s all part of a great scientific pattern that we are just too ignorant to understand.

How can you be an atheist when religion leads to charity and goodness but atheism (as practiced by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc.) has killed more people than any other belief system in history?

You say that atheism has killed millions as if it’s a bad thing. We’re actually kind of proud of that.

If there is no Heaven, then where does your soul go when you die?

No place. It’s trapped in your rotting corpse, screaming for release with no one to hear.

How can there be justice without divine punishment in the afterlife?

There really can’t. That’s why atheists are strong proponents of posthumous punishment of wrongdoers (putting corpses in prison, making dead bodies do community service, etc.)

You have faith in science, so why do you disparage those who have faith in God?

We have no intelligent, coherent arguments against the religious point of view, so all we can do is make fun of it.

Doesn’t the “Big Bang” theory completely agree with the Biblical account of God creating the universe?

Yes, but we don’t like to talk about that.

How can everything come from nothing?

By science.

If people evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

You know, I never thought of that. It’s a good question. In fact, come to think of it, an all-powerful omniscient personal deity really does make a lot more sense than only some monkeys evolving into people. (I’m going to have to get back to you on this.)

America is a Christian nation — it’s printed on our money and everything. If you don’t love God, why don’t you get out?

I can’t leave America — this is where all my stuff is.