Vivat Libertas

So there's apparently been a bit of a flurry over Atheism Plus - which is, depending on how you want to define it, humanism, a new religion, a bit of idiocy, or atheism plus social justice/not being a dick. Some people are coming out in favour of it; some, including a fair few of the Twitter atheists I follow (though I could just be mistaking being vocal with actual numbers - I've not seriously tried to tot up any statistics, being a lazy shit), are opposed to it. I suppose it wouldn't be fair of me to launch into my opinion without first trying to provide a definition of Atheism Plus, so here's Jen McCreight , who appears to have launched the whole thing, in her own words: " We are… Atheists  plus  we care about social justice, Atheists  plus  we support women’s rights, Atheists  plus  we protest racism, Atheists  plus  we fight homophobia and transphobia, Atheists  plus  we use critical thinking and skepticism. " As some peo...

So atheism and happiness seems to be bouncing around, as ever, around atheist circles on the internet as to who's happier: atheists or theists? (As far as I'm aware agnostics get marginalised at times; for reasons I'll go into later, the argument doesn't interest me that much.) People put forth study after study, shiny graph after shiny graph, hell, they even whip out some anecdotal evidence if they're feeling a bit lazy. And the flamewars, they burn...They very quickly seem to degenerate into personal attacks and essentially seem to run on stupid. Call me an idealist, but I expected better from people. After seeing people fuck up so much, I still expected better from them. I'm an idiot. But I digress. All these arguments hinge on the idea that whether atheists or theists are happier actually matters to whether atheism or theism is right, which - as the quote in the picture helps to illustrate, and as common sense should show - simply isn't true. Hap...

I apologise for not having gotten around to this sooner - when the book arrived I was actually away and didn't come back until the 4th. So Alom Shaha , a physics teacher at a comprehensive school in London who also works as a film-maker, writer, and science communicator, has written The Young Atheist's Handbook , which is essentially a personal account (at least, that's how I see it) of one man's journey towards atheism. As I first opened the book, one of the things I noted is that it wasn't  evangelistic in tone; it doesn't aim to convert people to atheism, and as such it flatly goes against the stereotype of atheists as a group of shouty evangelists. Shaha makes no bones about thinking atheism is better than religion, but his book encourages people to doubt and question rather than reject God unthinkingly, and it's all wrapped up in a richly detailed personal account. Opening with a vivid and funny account of tasting bacon for the first time while work...

First of all, sorry for not posting. I'm really, really sorry. A combination of exams and (oddly for me) nothing to write about is not a particularly great thing. Secondly, being a fairly vocal atheist and a person who actually pays attention  to what people believe in, I've had more conversations about atheism and religion then I really care to remember. I've also got a fair bit of experience...and really, I'm just getting sick of it all. I just see the same thing over and over and over again. I just see repetition. It's not something I signed up for - I want to think , to engage my brain, not to see the same tired old clichés. So here, in no particular order, are conversations I'm sick of having. (Also, if there are any conversations you're sick of having/you want to criticise anything/etc., feel free to leave comments.) Anything along the lines of "Atheism is stupid LOLOLOL".  I've heard it before. I can refute your arguments. Anythi...

"Atheism is a religion!" I'm sure pretty much everyone's heard that. I'm sure some people of any belief position hold or have held that idea, because in a twisted way it makes sense - equating belief positions to religions and saying that holding certain ideas is the same as being dogmatic. (Well, it makes sense if you concentrate on the details and ignore the bigger picture, which is disturbingly easy to do.) Sorry to say this (not really), but phrases like "Atheism is a religion like bald is a hair colour" or "Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby" don't help. They're right, but they don't seem to get the point across. Atheism is not a religion, it's an idea. It's the idea of "not-a-God". That's basically it - and ideas aren't religions. Atheists don't have not-God-worship services or take The God Delusion  or God Is Not Great  as our holy text. We don't recite not-prayer...

(I think you people have seen this image before . That's because it's one of my favourite religion-related ones.) I very frequently get told by religious people to respect their religion whenever I open my mouth to protest "Actually, no, I don't want to be forced into sitting in chapel for three-quarters of an hour when I have better things to do with my time" or something along those lines - basically, any defence of atheism or secularism seems to get me a telling-off for being disrespectful, which is obviously the worst thing in the world. So, if you're the kind of religious person that would do that, I've got a couple of questions for you. Why is your idea (since religion is an idea) inherently deserving of respect, especially when there are more holes in your holy book than there are in Swiss cheese? Why does my idea not deserve equal respect - in other words, why do you get to trash it without fear of reprisal? And if your idea's so goo...

This was originally written as a guest post for AtheistRollCall.com and can be found in its original form there . I suppose I first started off being an atheist when I was a child; I was an immigrant, born to immigrant parents, and we lived in London, a fairly multicultural place. My father used to tell me Bible stories, I suppose to  pass on his cultural heritage to me, but I don't recall ever believing them and my parents certainly didn't pressure me to do so. I lumped them in with fairy tales and other fiction - I mean, talking snakes?! Oh, please . It didn't hurt that my parents and I never went to a synagogue, not even for special occasions, and that if we did venture into any place of worship it was never to pray to a God. I didn't believe, but never really openly identified as atheist until I read The God Delusion ; I didn't think there was a God and wasn't really comfortable with being told that unfounded belief was a virtue. I don't think anyon...

As an atheist, I often get theists telling me to respect their religion (in all fairness, I was singing "there is no God" under my breath before a service I was forced to attend - try singing that in a house of the Lord, it's fun). How dare I openly say that I'm doing just fine without a God?! Leaving aside the question of whether any beliefs are inherently deserving of respect (I don't think so - respect is earned based on their logic - but I'm already in enough trouble as it is), I'd just like to ask some theists this. You force your beliefs on others. You force me to attend your services and sit through things I don't believe in, as well as pouring your vitriol on me for being a young atheist feminist bisexual woman, while claiming that all this is justified because "Britain is a Christian country", then order me to respect your religion if I sing "Glory Hallelujah" under my breath (OK song on an excellent album). Right, s...

As foretold, I have been on a bit of a hiatus due to school and, more importantly, our impending House Music - which we're going to flop, but at least Part Song will be fun. Anyway, we had a chapel service as per usual. In the chapel service two drama students performed a "play" (read: thinly veiled piece of religious propaganda). Now, I've performed thinly veiled pieces of religious propaganda before. It's strangely fun if you throw yourself into the part and ham it up. However, my piece was actually well-written (poor drama students, you are lovely people and you're only doing the best you could with such an awfully written script), and, more to the point, it didn't make my blood boil with its assertion of Christian misconception about what atheism actually means. I realise I've probably pissed off a lot of theists with my misconceptions about what theism actually means. I'm not proud of that. I do genuinely want to communicate...it just gets...