A frequent accusation leveled
against atheists is that they don’t really disbelieve in God, but are just
rebelling against him. This seems kind of silly from my perspective, but I can
see why it might have some weight to someone who actually believes in a god.
After all, someone who doesn’t believe in a god isn’t going to be terribly
bothered by how that god wants us to behave. Therefore, most vocal atheists not
only don’t feel they are bound to follow any god’s orders, but are openly
resentful of attempts by religious believers to impose those orders on them. If
you think that god is real, and encounter that resentful attitude, it’s easy to
see why you might think it’s the source of the atheism.
It doesn’t help, of course, that
some holy books make exactly that claim. I don’t know whether the writers just
made the same mistake described above, or if they cynically exploited the fact
that it’s an easy mistake for others to make. In the end, I don’t suppose it
matters. The statements are in there, and I guess we just have to deal with the
fallout.
But let’s think about this just a
little bit. Can you think of any time in history when anyone actually rebelled
against any actually existing authority by pretending it didn’t exist? Can you
imagine a thief analyzing a target’s security, deciding that he can’t possibly
get past it, and then deciding to go ahead with the robbery on the basis of deciding
the police don’t exist? Think the American Revolution would have been successful,
if it were predicated on the idea that the British Empire didn’t exist? Do you
suppose that anyone even stood up and suggested that as a serious approach to
take to the problem? People just don’t behave like that.
Or perhaps, even more nonsensically,
you think we’re rebelling against a god we believe exists, and we’re just
telling you it’s because we don’t believe. As if, somehow, we have the balls to
spit in the face of the all-powerful creator of the universe, but are scared to
admit it to ordinary people. Does that make any sense at all?
On a more personal note, allow me to
tell you a little something about myself: I’m not a particularly rebellious
person by nature. I am a go-along-to-get-along kind of guy. I’m a follower. As
a rule, I do not like to argue. I don’t like to contradict people about things
they clearly feel strongly about; I just don’t feel comfortable with that kind
of conflict. I especially do not like to engage in those conflicts if I don’t
believe I have a really solid reason
for my contrary position. I don’t go around breaking laws (well, except maybe
the occasional speed limit. Shh! Don’t tell!), even ones I don’t agree with. I
am not a brave person. The idea that I could stand up to the ultimate authority
in the universe and “rebel” makes no sense at all. That’s not me.
And yet, here I am telling you that
I don’t believe that such a being exists. I’ve spent more than three years
writing with fair regularity about this perspective. This isn’t a testament to
my vast desire and capacity for rebellion. It’s a testament to just how
ridiculous the very idea of a god seems to me, how utterly wrong-headed it appears
to me that anyone should bind themselves (and attempt to bind others) to the
dictates of an imaginary being.
So, to sum things up, the idea that
people are atheists because they just want to rebel against a god gets the
equation backwards. Rather, because we don’t believe a god exists, we see no
reason to take its demands seriously. And it isn’t necessarily even a case of
rebelling; if a god doesn’t exist, then many of the dictates attributed to it
don’t even make any sense. There’s no reason
to care what it wants. We evaluate the demands, therefore, on what we perceive
to be their merits in the real world, and feel pretty free to disregard the
ones that are evidently harmful or pointless. That’s really all there is to it.
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