The following post was submitted by guest contributor Scumps.

This question doesn’t make sense on its surface, but I’ll try to explain why I think it’s true.

I am not here to convince anyone to believe in God or gods, but to explore a problem in the basic beliefs of most atheists.  (They don’t hold these beliefs because they’re atheists, but simply because they’re humans, and the beliefs I refer to are everyday ones we all use.  They just become inconsistent when you declare yourself to be an atheist.)

First, let’s define “god” or “a god.”  A god is, minimally, an entity that acts on the physical world (or universe, to be more general) outside of the chain of causes and effects that are purely within the realm of that physical world.  That is, a god would be able to cause things to happen such as curing leprosy, levitating, or parting a sea without there being any chain of causes and effects in the physical world that lead via natural physical laws to the event.  A god can carry out supernatural acts that have no possible explanation in the physical world.  (By physical, by the way, I mean to include chemical, biological, geological, astronomical, and other phenomena that can, in principle, be reduced to the operation of the basic laws of physics, whether we have discovered them all yet or not.)  There is no need to consider how many gods there might be (especially when talking to atheists, who put the number at zero) or to consider how powerful a god might be.  This definition simply states the minimal criterion necessary to qualify as a god.  If an entity can cause things to happen without there being a chain of causes and effects in the physical world behind the occurrence of those events, then that entity is a god, even if only a minor one.

A religious person is one who believes in the existence of at least one god.

I believe that most atheists, like most humans, believe that they have what is commonly called free will.  That is, they believe that they can decide for themselves at least some of their actions, such as deciding to skip lunch, think about rhododendrons, or marry Ralph instead of Ollie.  Even if certain factors from the external world influence us, most people believe there is a spark of free will in their thinking and action.  You may or may not like the term free will; that doesn’t matter.  The belief is that a person can make decisions that are not purely determined by either the physical universe or the random chaos of the universe.

I submit that any entity that has what I call free will qualifies as a god, according to the definition of god given above.  That is, a person who acts externally on the physical world or internally on the state of their own nervous system without those actions being caused purely by deterministic chains of physical causes and effects is, by definition, behaving supernaturally.  Randomness at the quantum level or anywhere else does not allow an escape from this conclusion.  When people see themselves making decisions, they do not believe they are acting purely randomly.

So anyone who believes in just their own free will is a religious person because they believe in at least one supernatural being, that being the person holding the belief.

What does that have to do with an atheist.  Well, nothing at all, as long as that atheist accepts that there is not one iota of free will or personal autonomy in any of their thoughts or actions.  To admit one smidgen of will into one’s conception of one’s self is to conceive of one’s self as a supernatural being, i.e., a god of sorts.

Atheist responses to this line of reasoning include, “Oh, so what, I don’t think about things like free will.”  That’s fine.  I am writing for the reader who does care about having logical consistency baked throughout the cake, not just a bit smeared on top (or thrown in the faces of religious folks!).

Of course, the through and through atheist will say, “Yes, I accept that and I relinquish any claim to any personal autonomy in any of my decisions!”  To you, I drink a toast … but I think you have an uphill slog in your efforts at atheistic evangelization.