Sometimes I get asked why I consider myself atheist. A lot of people I know consider themselves agnostic and think that any "smart" person would do the same. They'll tell me that "there's no way you can disprove the existence of a God or gods, so you should be agnostic, right?" That may be true, but the reason I consider myself atheist is because that is not a useful position to take. If, back in the middle ages, someone came up to me and said "I'm doing an experiment and I want you to tell me whether gravity exists," there would be three reasonable responses: it does not exist, it might exist, or it does exist. Based on the evidence at the time, I'm pretty sure gravity exists, but I don't have proof. The first response is right out because it isn't supported by the evidence I've seen. The second one just isn't useful; telling the person that it might exist isn't going to help him in the slightest. The best answer is the third one: I tell him gravity exists because the evidence I've seen supports, because there's no reasonable reason to believe otherwise, and because it's more useful than the second answer.
I think this is a pretty clear analogy. Like gravity, there's a lot of evidence supporting theories like evolution. The theory is by no means perfect, and creationism certainly can't be disproved with the knowledge we have right now. However, there hasn't been compelling evidence to suggest creationism is correct. Additionally, being able to say that I am atheist means that I've completely shed myself of the morals and such associated with religion. My morals are my own, and I choose what I think is right and what I think is wrong based on logic, societal norms and taboos, and maybe a little emotion. I think being able to think about morality without considering the whims of an almighty creator is a useful position both for myself and for society at large. It allows us to formulate our actions based on what we think will help people (or, for the more self-serving among us, help ourselves without hurting others) without regard for what some cosmic force might do to us for disobeying his or her rules.
On a similar note, a number of my atheist and agnostic friends ask me why I'm tolerant of religious people given "all the problems religious people cause" or some nonsense like that. Putting aside the fact that I'm generally tolerant toward anyone whose actions don't hurt others, I think religion is still a force of good for many people, and it wouldn't be helpful to get them to question their beliefs. First of all, while in my heart I am a bit disappointed that more people don't try to understand (or even think about) morality and how the forces of the world work, it's not my position to tell others what they should or should not believe. Again, as long as their actions don't bring suffering to others, I see no problem with them. There's no reason to try to stop people from doing good.
It's also worth considering that a lot of people have structured their entire lives around religion. Some people are able to get through the day purely because of their beliefs; others do good works for others because they believe that their deity or deities desires it. Assuming any argument I could make would actually cause them to question their beliefs, it would be cruel to the people they help to interfere with their actions, and it would be cruel to the believers themselves to try to take away something that gives them satisfaction in life. In fact, it goes against my morals to do so, for the same reason I gave above: I begin to question actions when they bring pain to others. Forcing someone to question their beliefs and the very way they have lived their life? That's horribly cruel and will undoubtedly bring them a lot of mental anguish, and for what? So they are without a cause or direction in life? Given enough time (provided they don't do something horribly destructive first), they may come to find their own purpose in life without religion as many non-religious folk have, but I hardly think that's worth it, especially given how little time we have before we die. And in the end, will they be any happier? Will those that they associate with be any happier? Maybe, maybe not. Even assuming a positive outcome, I don't think it's right to put them through such pain to achieve such an end if they don't want it to begin with. If they begin to question their beliefs themselves, that's a different story, but nobody has the right to force them into that position.
And finally, more often than not, attacking someone's beliefs isn't going to cause them to question their religion at all, it's going to polarize them and get them upset with you for the exact reasons given above. That's more likely to cause a war than a particular belief is.
I think this is a pretty clear analogy. Like gravity, there's a lot of evidence supporting theories like evolution. The theory is by no means perfect, and creationism certainly can't be disproved with the knowledge we have right now. However, there hasn't been compelling evidence to suggest creationism is correct. Additionally, being able to say that I am atheist means that I've completely shed myself of the morals and such associated with religion. My morals are my own, and I choose what I think is right and what I think is wrong based on logic, societal norms and taboos, and maybe a little emotion. I think being able to think about morality without considering the whims of an almighty creator is a useful position both for myself and for society at large. It allows us to formulate our actions based on what we think will help people (or, for the more self-serving among us, help ourselves without hurting others) without regard for what some cosmic force might do to us for disobeying his or her rules.
On a similar note, a number of my atheist and agnostic friends ask me why I'm tolerant of religious people given "all the problems religious people cause" or some nonsense like that. Putting aside the fact that I'm generally tolerant toward anyone whose actions don't hurt others, I think religion is still a force of good for many people, and it wouldn't be helpful to get them to question their beliefs. First of all, while in my heart I am a bit disappointed that more people don't try to understand (or even think about) morality and how the forces of the world work, it's not my position to tell others what they should or should not believe. Again, as long as their actions don't bring suffering to others, I see no problem with them. There's no reason to try to stop people from doing good.
It's also worth considering that a lot of people have structured their entire lives around religion. Some people are able to get through the day purely because of their beliefs; others do good works for others because they believe that their deity or deities desires it. Assuming any argument I could make would actually cause them to question their beliefs, it would be cruel to the people they help to interfere with their actions, and it would be cruel to the believers themselves to try to take away something that gives them satisfaction in life. In fact, it goes against my morals to do so, for the same reason I gave above: I begin to question actions when they bring pain to others. Forcing someone to question their beliefs and the very way they have lived their life? That's horribly cruel and will undoubtedly bring them a lot of mental anguish, and for what? So they are without a cause or direction in life? Given enough time (provided they don't do something horribly destructive first), they may come to find their own purpose in life without religion as many non-religious folk have, but I hardly think that's worth it, especially given how little time we have before we die. And in the end, will they be any happier? Will those that they associate with be any happier? Maybe, maybe not. Even assuming a positive outcome, I don't think it's right to put them through such pain to achieve such an end if they don't want it to begin with. If they begin to question their beliefs themselves, that's a different story, but nobody has the right to force them into that position.
And finally, more often than not, attacking someone's beliefs isn't going to cause them to question their religion at all, it's going to polarize them and get them upset with you for the exact reasons given above. That's more likely to cause a war than a particular belief is.
