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Believers Ask... How And Why Do Atheists Become Atheists?

Or Why Your Assumptions About Us Are Probably Wrong

8/10/07

So how and why do atheists become nonbelievers in the first place? Answer: there are lots of different hows and whys for atheism, just as there are with the beliefs of religious believers. Atheists are human, after all, so there's obviously an infinite variety of "causes" for atheism. A lot of believers seem to have trouble buying that, but - believe it or not - it remains true. Let's consider some really basic examples so you can see what I mean.

As described on The Atheism Tapes from BBC Four television, Richard Dawkins began doubting the existence of God when he was about nine years old. The argument from design (that the universe is too complex to have arisen from natural forces) later changed his mind. His position changed again at age 16 as he began to get a better understanding of how evolution really works. This lead him to conclude that a designer wasn't necessary after all. It seems that Dawkins main reason for believing was the argument from design because - in his view - God was necessary to explain the things around us. Then, when he saw that God wasn't necessary, he let go of the idea.

In God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens tells us a different story. Unlike Dawkins, Hitchens says that he saw flaws in the arguments he'd been given by his teachers from the age of nine. One of them had told him that God had made the grass green because it was "most restful to our eyes." But Hitchens realized that our eyes, in fact, were adapted to the color of green and not the other way around. He began questioning other things that he was taught about God as he got older.

So both Hitchens and Dawkins came to atheism for intellectual reasons. But for Dawkins, it seems that science was the key, while it was more an issue of reasoning and philosophy for Hitchens. Note that both of them were raised in Anglican schools which taught Bible principles in accord with the Church of England (the state religion in the U.K.) and that religion had an influence on their life as children. Both men are atheists today. Hitchens is a conservative who agrees with the war in Iraq, while Dawkins is a liberal who sees it as a serious problem with the Bush administration.

In other words, both men have different social and political ideals. And while there are some similarities on their path to atheism, there are also considerable differences.

In his standup act, David Cross has suggested that he has always been an atheist. In other words, there was no journey for him to make. While Julia Sweeney details a lengthy search for God in her one-woman show Letting Go of God that took her on a quest through many religions and even to various parts of the world! After years of study and contemplation, she finally came to the conclusion that she couldn't find God because he didn't exist. Then there's Stanislaw Lem who says that he became an atheist for moral reasons. (I don't know if he was referring to God's morality as described in the Bible or to the morality of religious believers)

The point of all of this is that atheists become atheists in a wide variety of ways. Some get their quickly on their own, others get there after many years and with lots of help from other thinkers. This seems obvious to most nonbelievers. It's just part of the human condition. Why would anyone assume otherwise? Note that none of these people had a bad religious experience that caused them to feel bitter against God or religion.

A lot of people seem to think atheism is just a bitter person's temper tantrum against a God that failed them somehow (thanks for that, by the way) but nothing could be further from the truth. If you want to understand how someone you know became an atheist, you'll have to ask them one on one. And whatever you do, put any assumptions you may have aside. Their journey may have been very different from the one you were expecting.

I plan on doing a few articles like these, so stop back to see what I've got for you in the next week or two...

-the Atheist Geek-

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