I do not believe in gods. And let us expand that statement to what I intend it to mean: I do not believe in God. But I am careful with my phrasing for a reason.
By saying that I do not believe in God, there is the implication that I am, at my core, against Abrahamic religion. And I am, but it’s more than that. I am against all belief in the supernatural. I’m not trying to single anyone out; I’m trying to single everyone out.
Careful also, I am, to avoid saying that I believe that God does not exist. The wording there is subtle. “I believe there is no God” implies that I give the idea any thought. I do not. None of the things that I do, day to day, require me to consider the existence of supernatural beings and refute it. There is the universe, and that is it. Why would I waste my time with any more than that?
Maybe I have a degree of prejudice towards the idea of counting myself amongst a codified group — being raised Catholic will do that — but it is for that reason that I do not identify as Atheist, even if I agree that gods do not exist. Giving myself a label implies that I subscribe to whatever overarching doctrine that label represents. I want to avoid the perception that I do not carefully consider my beliefs. I do, to the point, in fact, where they become more like theories and it denigrates them to even call them beliefs.
Quite a few (yet, I hope, a minority of) Atheists toe the line of belief without rationale, or worse, have stupid, hackneyed reasons for their beliefs. “If God exists, then why do bad things happen to good people?” is one of the worst, for example. The statement is parroted so often that it sometimes sounds like a credo. And I think a lot of people who call themselves Atheists realize this, and actively avoid falling into the trap of a belief system.
I sometimes wonder if that resistance to unity actually a flaw. The Church is as powerful as it is because it has billions of soldiers fighting for its cause. Skeptics, by their nature, do not blindly agree with each other. We question each other — and even ourselves — daily. And while that ever-questioning nature is ultimately our greatest strength, perhaps it is also what makes us, at least militarily, weak. Perhaps that is why those who believe in ghosts and magic thwart us at every turn.
See, there I go saying “us”. I’m slipping already.
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