Atheism not antitheism.

Before I tackle the New Zealand religion issue I thought I would unload my thoughts on atheism.

I am an atheist and I am very comfortable with that position. Some people will see that word and recoil - as if it meant something unsavoury or distasteful - and this is the result of many many years of religious teaching that this is so. For obvious reasons religion sees atheism as a direct threat to their numbers and yet in my view, ironically, atheists are not doing nearly enough to challenge religion. In New Zealand in particular, atheism stems more from apathy rather than any real interest in the topic.

But what exactly is atheism? It may disturb some readers to realise that absolutely every single person on the planet is an atheist. Most Christians for example would never label themselves as atheists because they have been brought up to see an "atheist vs other religion vs us" view of the world. Atheists will life unfulfilled lives and eventually rot in hell for not believing, while other religions are simply idolatrous. The arrogance inherent in this is staggering but I will talk to this issue later.

Christians are atheists as are Muslims and Jews and any other religious sect you can think of. In fact a fundamental part of their doctrine requires atheism towards every other possible deity other than their own. No Christian believes in Zeus for example. Every Muslim is atheist towards Amon-Ra. Richard Dawkins magic quote leaps to mind... "We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further." Atheism is not a belief, it is the absence of belief in some kind of supernatural deity.

It does not imply any lack of spirituality, and it does not mean atheists eat babies and burn down churches. Most atheists are in fact quite fond of babies and see many churches as wonderful examples of architecture. Even the bible has some merit in the eyes of atheists - there are some wonderful stories and interesting historical lessons in it.

The word atheism is made of two parts - "a" loosely meaning "not" and "theist" loosely meaning "a believer in a god". So an atheist is simply not a believer in a god. This point is absolutely critical. Atheism is not antitheism ("anti" meaning against - so against believers in god). I personally do not dislike people who believe in a god - that would be an irrational prejudice and as I intend to discuss at some stage, most religious people do not consciously realise their belief may not be true thanks to the nature of religious organisations.

I do however have some pretty fundamental issues with the teachings of religion and the manner in which they are taught.

With that in mind, my next post will talk about my views on religion in New Zealand .

Ian.