It is common for Atheists to maintain that there is only one Atheist claim and that is “disbelief in a deity”. This not true because it is not possible to have just this one belief (or disbelief) without there also being consequential sub-beliefs. Each of the following categories and the consequential beliefs that I have listed below can be found within the Atheist community. Either I once believed them myself, or I have come across them in discussions with Atheists.
If an Atheist denies believing these things, it is because Atheism by its very nature is a relative belief, devoid of absolutes, never mind claims to the otherwise. An Atheist is free to believe what ever he / she wishes...theoretically. But in reality, there are consequential beliefs that must be held to support the conclusion that there is no deity.
If there is a need to refute or discuss any of these, I will be happy to do so in the comment section.
Reasons to be an Atheist
There are three reasoning categories for Atheism: rational, irrational, and anti-rational.
Rational Reasons to be an Atheist:
It’s all about evidence. Only material evidence need apply.
Functional Materialism:
Because only material effects and causes can be tested, only material entities are subject to empiricism. So functional materialism is not a philosophy, it is a limiting condition voluntarily placed on empirical science. It is necessary to see the difference between functional materialism and philosophical materialism.
Rational Denialism (Philosophical Materialism):
All information input that is noncongruent with materialism is to be rejected as false, regardless of its credentials. This is because there is, by definition, no non-material existence: Philosophical Materialism. I.e. Philosophical Materialism is a tautology: a first principle, which proves itself. There should be material proof of non-material existences, but there is not.
An example of Rational Denialism: there is no complexity increase (either there is an increase in complexity from the first life, or there was already sufficient complexity in the first living entity to produce rational self-contemplation down the road billions of years; both of these are denied – making it irrational). This is because evolution does not produce complexity, so complexity cannot exist. In this case the Denialism is based upon circular reasoning: a logical fallacy.
Irrational Reasons to be an Atheist :
Basis: Philosophical Materialism is the underlying basis. A.J. Ayer, Wittgenstein, and the Logical Positivists declared that nothing exists beyond the material. There is no evidence that is possible to support this claim, so it is not a rational philosophy.
The Irrational category is emotionally based, for several push-pull emotional reasons. The emotional reasons behind the irrational category lead directly to inverted logic.
Reasons:
1. Rebellion: Push of anti-authoritarianism, especially anti-ecclesiaticism.
2. Personal insufficiency: striving to become. Pull of elitism.
Tactics:
1. Denialism: Philosophical Materialism disguised as empiricism (e.g. denial of abiogenesis); rationalization vs. rationality; denial of historical aspects of Atheism, and replacement with rationalized, modified, more politically correct “histories”.
2. Co-opting ethical systems, while denying the act of co-option.
3. Denial of transcendence, including that of one’s own philosophy.
4. Obfuscation: “What do you mean by “god”?”
Anti-Rational Reasons to be an Atheist:
1. Friedrich Nietzsche and “Beyond Good and Evil”. It is “rational” to deny the basis of rational thought; therefore there are no “first principles” and logic as we have known it fails. There is only one truth in the universe: evolution. The only true morality is within evolution, and it consists in evolving man to the next level (ubermench / overman / New Man) using any and all techniques required to do so. The lower classes (aka "herd") are to be subdued and kept quietly happy.
2. David Hume: There is no basis for declaring the “constant conjunction” of cause and effect to be a first principle; first principles are denied in principle, yet are cherished as axiomatic; this is not a paradox because paradox is a first principle, which is denied.
3. Happiness. Happiness is the ultimate reason for living, the ultimate good. So happiness is a moral value. In fact it is the only moral value. I want to be happy; I deserve to be happy; Christianity doesn’t make me happy enough. I want to do what I want, when I want. Religion doesn’t make sense, happy-wise. In fact it is immoral because it inhibits my happiness.
4. Freewill. Because there is no freewill, personal self-discipline cannot exist. Because personal self-discipline cannot exist, attempting it makes me unhappy: so personal self-discipline is actually immoral.
Atheist Beliefs, Beyond Lack-of-Deity:
1. Atheists have the truth. There is no other truth. So Atheists have the one and only true truth.
2. Empiricism will ultimately expose all reality. Empiricism proves there is no God. No physics or chemistry lab has ever produced a handshake with God. Even if it did, it would not pass peer review.
3. All reality is material.
4. Thought is material.
5. Philosophy is material.
6. Abstractions are either material or don’t exist.
7. Math is an abstraction. So is logic. Since these exist, they must somehow be material.
8. The human essence is the material brain: the substrate is the essence.
9. There is no transcendence beyond material existence, available to empiricism.
10. There is no sin: humans are perfectible.
11. Science has no social responsibility.
12. Social Darwinism and eugenics have no relationship to Darwinism or evolution.
13. Freewill does not exist.
14. Abortion does not cause death, nor does it prevent a person from existing. Abortion is not a post-prophylactic, nor is it eugenic especially against blacks. A fertilized egg or a pharyngula consist of only differentiating stem cells and have no other meaning.
15. Atheism is not a religion.
16. Happiness is the ultimate good. Whatever makes me happiest, is the best of all possible goods. Whatever makes you happy is of no concern if it doesn’t obstruct my own happiness. If your happiness obstructs my happiness, then your happiness is wrong. Obstruction of happiness is the ultimate evil. (That's why religion is evil).
17. God would behave and perform per my definitions of ethics and morals, not his/her own. God would not allow bad stuff; God would fix bad stuff so as to make us all happy. The Bible does not make me happy. It makes me unhappy, therefore it is immoral, and evil.
18. The Enlightenment was / is Good. The French priests and royalists deserved it. Humanism is the Enlightened pursuit of happiness of all mankind, regardless of the toll on individual people. As an Enlightened one, I am destined to make the decision of what it is that constitutes happiness for all mankind. Or at least join the Humanists so they can do it.
19. The forced creation of the “New Man” as pursued by Comte, Nietzsche, Lenin, Mao, Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Castro et al, is a valid and noble objective.
20. Evolution is absolutely a “law of the universe”. Everything living evolved, except freewill: to this I freely attest.
21. There is no reason to be skeptical of skepticism.
22. Any objective that I can define as ethical (makes me happy) is worthy of whatever tactics are necessary to achieve it.
23. It is acceptable and necessary to reject any evidence that does not correlate well with the conclusion being drawn. This is especially true of eyewitness evidence of events that are not congruent with my expectations.
24. Parsimony is a law of the universe. “No first cause” is simpler than a “first cause”. There are too many religions, so all are false.
25. Use of ad Hominem is a “valid tactic”.
26. Strawmen: Russell created an orbiting teapot to compete with a logical first cause. Other strawmen: FSM; unicorns; elves, gnomes, faeries. These are taken as “absolute proof” of the lack of a first cause.
27. Theism is an accident of circumstance: you believe only what you are taught to believe. This is because you have no freewill. You have no freewill because your mind is just a lump of neurons firing away, working on stuff it has learned. The mind is capable of nothing else, because it is just matter; material. This is proved by observing the substrate; when the neuron blob is defective, the mind doesn’t work right. Since I see no physical evidence of a mind after the death of the nerve blob substrate (brain), then I declare that there is no mind to observe.
28. Since Atheists have the truth, then my Atheist mind is superior to those who believe otherwise; in fact their minds are defective, because without freewill only one correct conclusion can be drawn and Atheists have drawn the one and only correct path to truth. To draw any other conclusion or path indicates a defect in the automatic thought process.
29. Those with defective minds are defective beings.
30. Defective beings could be avoided with genetic engineering, guaranteeing that no erroneous humans would be allowed to come into existence. By engineering subjects that are happy by definition, morality would be guaranteed as well. This could be accomplished by squelching any latent freewill centers in the brain, and result in a population of auto-responders, never frustrated by imperfection, always happy: perfect subjects for a world society. (I base this last statement on Nietzsche’s class system, with a modern technical bent).
Unintended Consequences Inherent in Atheism:
1. Perfect world: Every day a perfect day. Only perfect weather, no storms, no earthquakes, no tsunamis, no hurricanes or tornados. No forest fires. No depletion of resources. No loss of forests. No loss of species. Every plant and animal would still exist: extinction could not happen. Every animal would eat only dirt, and like it. Exactly enough rain would fall, and it would contain all the nutrients needed to live.
2. Perfect humans: Everyone would agree with me. Every team would win. Every child would obey every adult. Every message would be understood. Every step would never lead to a fall. Everyone would succeed in every endeavor. Every thought would be rational. Every motive would be pure. Every communication would be perfectly understood by everyone, everytime. Every relationship would be permanent and closely held. Aging and death would never occur, so sex and reproduction would not be necessary. No problems, no hunger, no pain, no death, no birth, no change, no need for freewill; automatic response is all that would be required: machinery would have sufficed.
3. Perfect God: God would obey my ethics. God would be my slave. So, essentially I would be God.
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