The above image is pretty famous amongst many religious people and internet prophets. Firstly, the picture is talking about evolution and not atheism. Secondly, it defines atheism as a belief. The picture, is just wrong.
To me, God is just another pink elephant. I’ll explain this later. People ask me: Atheism is a religion, Why do you believe in atheism ? Why are you an atheist? What’s your proof ?
Loading ...Perhaps, every atheist, agnostic, and skeptic would easily understand my frustration. After all, there is no right answer to this question. Every rational and logical person would realize that, atheism is not a religion. The question pre-supposes that I “BELIEVE” in atheism. I’ll start off by saying, I don’t “believe” in atheism. Atheism is not a belief. Atheism is a dis/un/non-belief. I can’t prove a negative.
Every one of you is an atheist, with respect to the gods that you don’t believe in. For some of us, this notion is hard to grasp. Especially, for the believers. The believer has a tendency to think, he/she ”Must Believe” in something. This is not true. Belief is not a requirement. I sometimes wonder if the believer realizes that, Non-belief is not a belief. Atheism is a Non-belief. Therefore, Atheism is not a belief. (I’m sure some would enjoy a little bit of circular reasoning lol ) Anyway, I’ll show you where the confusion arises. Let’s try an experiment. Don’t think of a pink elephant. Try not to think of a pink elephant now.
What did you do ? You did precisely the opposite of what I told you. Why ? This is how our brains work. Our brains can’t easily process negation. As a hypnotist I know this very well. My point is, Non-belief is also a negation. You must already know, or already have a vague idea about who/what God is, in order to NOT to believe in God. Do you believe in the pink elephant ? Of course not. But were you a non-believer, before I directed your awareness to it ? Probably not. Your non-belief in the pink elephant is very similar to my non-belief in god. Atheism is a non-belief in god. Atheism is not a religion.
The problem arises because you already believe in God. When you already believe in God, and you try to understand Atheism from within that frame of mind, It can be compelling to think that atheism is a religious belief. One must not be criticized based on his/her non-belief in something. You can’t be held responsible for your non-belief in a pink elephant. You can’t prove your non-belief. In fact, it wasn’t in your mind until I focused your awareness to it. You are an atheist and so am I. To me, your god is just another pink elephant.
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