Hyphenated-Atheists

On God Discussion's podcast on January 21, someone in the chat room floated this question at me: “How can we best advance atheism in our own lives?”

It was late in the show and I’d gotten into a pretty good stream of conscious thought, which made for an interesting answer. It was interesting to me, anyway, because it really reflected the what we’re trying to do at the Avangelism Project.

That answer (and the question behind it) spawned this post and this week’s post series grew out of it: Focus less on the atheism and more on the issues that you value and things that are important to you, but do so as an atheist.

We ought to be willing to define ourselves as atheists but not to define ourselves by atheism.

So instead of thinking as atheism as something to be advanced what if we understand atheism as something that allows us to advance ourselves? What if we become hyphenated atheists?

This is how it works. Think about the things that really define you. Labels that you gladly accept, whatever they are. Here are half-a-dozen of mine: dad, husband, entrepreneur, capitalist, college football fan, and feminist.

Now hyphenate them with atheism:

Atheist-Dad
Atheist-Husband
Atheist-Entrepreneur
Atheist-Capitalist
Atheist-College Football fan
Atheist-Feminist

—and consider what it means. How does atheism affect or how has it affected us in those parts of our lives?

It really should have little effect beyond freeing us to think about what we believe and why. An atheist-entrepreneur is an entrepreneur without theism. There’s nothing there to inform his entrepreneurship. Mine is governed by the laws of economics.

Here’s another example.

As an atheist-dad, I’ve said publicly that hitting my children because a primitive and hateful book said to is my biggest life’s regret. That’s true, but I didn’t stop hitting them because the bible says that I should.

That’s as unthinking and religious as having hit them in the first place. My regret is not having done what the bible said—if it forbid hitting children, I’d not have started upon deconversion—my regret is having failed to think about what the bible said.

I stopped hitting them because I considered whether I should hit them.

That’s what atheism does for us. It enables us to break religious thinking patterns and to notice when others thinking religiously or using religious thought stopping techniques.

Talk to exChristians and you’ll find something in common among us, almost universal: Something interrupted the religious inertia that made us stop and think so that we could break through those patterns.

That’s what I’m suggesting here. Let’s stop defining ourselves by atheism and define ourselves by the positive self descriptions of our personhood.

Let’s take our reasoned opinions about those issues into the world. and inspire, encourage, and influence others.

Let’s become the impetuses that halt their religious inertia, not by out debating them or by demolishing them but by engaging, inspiring, and influencing others.

Let’s hyphenate our atheism.

You’ve seen some of my labels. What are yours?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Editor's Note – Our podcast with Vince was insightful and the show flew by quickly because Vince, our guests and host Deborah covered lots of interesting subjects.  Vince's background and journey is fascinating and inspirational for all who are in the 'questioning' stage of their lives.  If you would like to hear the archive, visit our home page and click on the BlogTalkRadio widget, or go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/god-discussion.  We'll also have Vince's interview on YouTube as soon as we can.

Sphere: Related Content

Related posts:

1. Atheists Unable to Think for Themselves
2. Avangelism This Week on GodDiscussion Radio
3. Mythology Is Mythology. Pass the Eggnog.
4. Christians and Atheists Duke It Out On YouTube
5. Discrimination Against America's Most Hated Group: Atheists
6. The Atheists Way – Living Well Without Gods
7. The Myth That There Are No Atheists in Foxholes
8. Religious News Verses: On Death, Nuns and Atheists
9. No One Sees God – The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers
10. Atheism Remix A Christian Confronts the New Atheists

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

IMPORTANT NOTE: We welcome and encourage comments. However, we are receiving many 'junk comments' from people looking for back links. As of noon, November 16, 2009, comment submission authors must use a name. For example, names such as 'Payday Loans' or 'Home Accessories' will be deleted. You may continue to link to your website, but we want names (pen names are all right). Additionally, only substantive comments that have to do with the content of the article will be accepted. Comments such as 'Nice post, thanks,' will be deleted. Comments that link to pornographic or hate sites will also be deleted.

Website

By submitting a comment here you grant this site a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. While we offer immediate approval of comments that are not screened as spam, we reserve the right to delete your comment pursuant to the site's terms, conditions and policies. GOD DISCUSSION RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DELETE OR EDIT COMMENTS FOR ANY REASON, WITHOUT NOTICE, including without limitation grammar errors, "trolling" and spamming.

Security Code: