Agnostic Atheist

It's really not a big deal and, in my mind, barely worthy of writing a blog post about but thought it might be worth mentioning that I'm an agnostic atheist. The two (agnostic, atheist) aren't mutually exclusive. Calling myself an agnostic atheist is just a fancy way of saying: "I don't believe there's a god and I don't know if there is or isn't one." Atheism is about belief, agnosticism is about knowledge. So whilst I don't believe there's a god or gods I can't prove it to you any more than someone can prove there is.

I could go into all of the details why but there's nothing original in my reasons. You can find them all in this resource:

http://www.atheist-community.org/index.php/resources/atheism-faq

If I had to choose a religion then here's the one I'd go for:

http://www.venganza.org/

But I'm not a big fan of organised religions. I think there's a lot of wisdom contained in holy books so I think religious scholarship is a worthwhile pursuit.

It's also important to point out that first and foremost I consider myself a sceptic who believes in free thinking, secular humanism and the scientific method. My agnostic atheism is a result of that.

In any event, the only thing that upsets me is that the atheist position (a lack of belief in god/gods) is sometimes considered such an affront to theists. I simply don't believe, how is that a problem if you're a theist?

According to many belief systems I will get punished in the afterlife for my non-belief so theists really don't need to worry about it. According to many doctrines vengeance belongs to their god/gods so you're off the hook from trying to convert me.

Then there's also the fact that some countries will kill or imprison you for not believing in a god/gods: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/10/the-seven-countries-where-the-state-can-execute-you-for-being-atheist/

This is the only time you'll see me post specifically about religion. I tend to avoid it as a subject along with most ideological discussions for the reasons outlined here: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html

I have friends who are theists and I don't think being a theist necessarily says anything more about you than that you believe in the existence of god/gods any more than you want it to mean something about you. But I do think they're wrong about this in the same way that I'm often wrong about a lot of things.

Of course, if someone can prove to me that I'm wrong I'll gladly accept it (scientific method FTW!). So when I disagree with theism it's not me judging someone. Of course, my theistic friends don't try to convert me or preach to me and if they did then it wouldn't be an enjoyable friendship for either of us.

The other thing I should mention is, in Australia, it's often rare for us to think or ask about another person's beliefs. Our former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was an unwed atheist woman. This only occurred to me about 2 or 3 years after she became our leader. Before then it never registered as an issue. In my mind that's the way it should be. Religion and politics are best kept apart.

We should all be allowed to believe what we like without neither fear nor favour.