A lot of Atheists, in turn, have embraced it, proudly wearing the term that was initially imposed on the community by others. Some even have online communities labeled as “non-believer” rather than “Atheist”.
But this is one bandwagon that I can not get on. I can not embrace or endorse using the term “non-believer” on myself – because even though I do not believe in God, there are lots of things that I do believe in. Though these beliefs might not all be shared by all Atheists, many of them are indeed shared by the vast majority. To call us “non-believers” is to suggest that these beliefs somehow count less than the things that theists believe in that we don’t, and therefore, that these beliefs are somehow less valid, or less powerful.
I believe in the power of logic and reason – and in the importance of evidence. I believe in the effectiveness of science. And though I do not believe scientific theory to be infallible, I do believe that it is indeed a more reliable source of knowledge than any alternative available to us.
Science is more than just the sum of current scientific theory. Science is a process – the process that brought scientific theory to its current state of development and which has the potential to develop it further. This I believe.
And I believe in interpreting science in the most honest way possible – and in following the dictates of logic, reason, and evidence wherever they lead, no matter what preconceptions I have to let go of in the process.
Are there no theists anywhere who also believe these things? I’m not going to make any statement that bold. I have spoken to theists who claim also to believe in the effectiveness of science. No doubt a part of me wonders whether they have taken this faith in science to the point of asking themselves about the feasibility of the notion of God given all that science has taught us. Granted, there is no proof (scientific or otherwise) that God does not exist – but I find it to be an inescapable conclusion that the probability of anything matching the conventional definition of the term “God” existing is very very, very tiny – and even tinier than that when you get into the specifics of what any given major religion teaches about God. However, nobody’s faculty of reason is perfect – and as such, I can not let that be enough for me to automatically conclude that anyone who professes to believe these things that I just described must somehow be insincere in these beliefs if they happen to also believe in God.
That said – while there may be some Theists who truly share these beliefs in logic, reason, science, and evidence – there are some who very evidently do not. There are people who believe that the world is less than seven thousand years old – a position that is completely incompatible with any respect for science given the overwhelming evidence against it. Some such groups (such as Answers in Genesis) make a show of backing up these outrageous claims with science – but even the slightest scrutiny shows that they are making a complete farce of the process. They may claim to take science seriously – but they most definitely do not.
From my point of view, to say that they are the “believers” and I am the “non-believer” is down-right ludicrous – because in the things that I feel count, it is I, not they, who believe. From my point of view, they are the non-believers.
