An Inconvenient Definition: Atheism is Not a Four Letter Word!

Last week I saw “An Inconvenient Truth” for my geography class. I was profoundly affected to the point of being unable to speak for a good hour afterward. And I am already one of the converted ones. I’ve had enough exposure that I understand global warming and the consequences that we face. Still, the film knocked me on my ass.

It’s hard to explain how I felt: morose, doomed, angry, and hopeless… I didn’t walk away feeling good, that’s for damn sure. I think it had to do with the fact that the hope we should have been given to change our situation around didn’t come until the very end of the movie. The audience is hammered with evidence (to end the debate over whether global warming is real or imagined) but the solutions are almost an afterthought as part of the end credits. That was my only real beef with the film.

So I shared my reaction with a best friend of mine. I told him that Gore was essentially trying (and this is repeatedly pointed out by him in the film) to turn this from a political debate into an ethical one. Once we recognize the ethics of the situation, can we afford to stand around and do nothing? What will we tell our children when they ask why we sat on our hands? My friend said to me: “This is why I believe you aren’t truly an atheist.” Because of my (knee-jerk… hey, it’s not a bad thing in my eyes) reaction to the evidence of destruction of our planet and the empathy I had for animals and humans alike, he felt that I couldn't be -how do you say?- of a “godless” nature?

And here’s where a pet peeve of mine has reared it’s ugly head: Just because I am an atheist….


(Let’s pull out the most appropriate definition please:)

a. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
b. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.






... Does not mean that I have no morals and no conscience. I was offended when he said to me (slightly paraphrased), “you don’t have those atheistic values. If you did, you wouldn’t care what happened to anyone on earth.” Ooooookkkkkaaaaayyyy…

So I haven’t met too many atheists in my life, but I have yet to run into one that is indifferent about human life. From Ethical Atheist Dot Com comes this declaration: “An Ethical Atheist is someone who lives by a personal desire to do good things in their limited life on Earth. They don't believe in a God, religion, or an afterlife. But, that doesn't stop us from living an ethical life and attempting to co-exist with our fellow man in a peaceful, rational manner. We have many atheist, agnostic and religious friends.”

I would like to state to my religious friends and family members that just because I am not “saved” or I don’t believe in a creator, it does not mean that I am filled with apathy or hate for anyone else (save Pat Robertson... ooh here's a secret for all of you... I do like using someone's religion against them from time to time and Mr. Robertson is a perfect example. His disgusting comments are so anti-Christian I have to laugh every time he pops up in the news. I often say to myself, well if he believes in a God, he's got a lot of explaining to do when he dies. It's his problem, not mine). I am not a bad person. There is nothing wrong with me. I simply don’t believe. I still put my pants on one leg at a time, I burn chicken whenever I cook it, I prefer to procrastinate on filing my taxes, I like when the sun is shining down on me, and I bleed just like all of you. I'm not all that different from any of you. I was raised with an ethical framework (sometimes based on religion but more than not based on learning empathy through my parents) and I have carried that framework into adulthood, constantly questioning and updating it based on what I learn and what I experience every day.

Last time I checked there were no horns growing out of my head, but I haven't yet done my inspection for the day so I'll have get back to you all.