The sentiments displayed in the following comment that I received on my post about Saint Paul’s bones seem fairly common and therefore worth addressing:

wow…it must be nice to be such a skeptic. Listen: if you and other atheists don’t believe in God, why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to disproving religion? It’s interesting too how atheists seem to focus solely on western religion and not eastern religion. I don’t remember seeing any atheists parading outside a Shinto temple…
Live and let live. If you don’t believe in anything, don’t worry about it. If you believe in something, go for it. End of story.

–George Spencer

Let’s break this down into its component parts:

(1) if you and other atheists don’t believe in God, why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to disproving religion?

For whatever reason, it seems that some of my theist readers are under the impression that this is more or less all that I do. In fact, I probably spend around 5-10% of my time devoted “to disproving religion.” It is not a significant part of my life. Nevertheless, what George is really asking here is why an atheist should even bother to devote any time to critiquing religion. After all, if we do not believe in God then why do we care if others do?

I honestly find such a question to be terriblely naive. It is kind of like asking: If you and other pacifists don’t believe in war, then why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to discouraging war? Or how about this one: If you and other vegetarians don’t believe in eating meat, then why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to get others to stop eating meat? Such questions would only make sense in a world where the vast majority of people are already atheists, pacifists, or vegetarians. The fact of the matter is, we live in a world in which the vast majority of people, at least, are theists.

If beliefs did nothing more than stay inside a person’s head then it probably would not matter. On the contrary, beliefs frequently motivate behavior. Bad beliefs can potentially motivate bad behavior. One only has to look at the Middle East to see that conflicting beliefs about what God wants people to do with a strip of desert land has not made that part of the world more desirable in which to live.

I think that the Conversational Atheist makes a good case for why atheists should engage believers in religious debate in his essay on the subject here. He lists four main reasons:

A)If people are loudly proclaiming their false beliefs, they should not be encouraged or go unchallenged.

If you are convinced that a person’s beliefs are wrong or mistaken, then do you not have a moral imperative to explain to that person why you think so?

B) Faith-based religion wastes the time, money, and resources of well-meaning people.

Time and money spent devoted for religious purposes could better be spent elsewhere.

C) Religion teaches inappropriate responses to real world problems.

Whether it is praying for a solution or witholding valuable medical treatment for a child, religions promote magical and superstitious thinking that as a society we can do without.

D) Promoting faith as a virtue gives credence to religious leaders who have “authority” for terrible reasons

In more general terms, promoting faith as a virtue has serious consequences besides simply being an error in thinking. Would you rather have the US commit to a war because the President has faith that God is on his side or because there really is credible intelligence that a nation is harboring weapons of mass destruction? Making decisions or choosing beliefs without firm evidence or even despite evidence to the contrary is a recipe for disaster.

(2) It’s interesting too how atheists seem to focus solely on western religion and not eastern religion. I don’t remember seeing any atheists parading outside a Shinto temple…

This critique of Western-centricism is embodied in this other recent comment that I received:

have yet to see atheists laugh at Buddhist monks, or burn a copy of the Tao Te Ching, or fiercely debate with a Jainist. It seems hilarious, in fact, that so-called atheists only seem to focus on Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. If you are a real atheist, be an equal opportunity one. Focus your energy on all religions. Put your money where your mouth is; I see “ex-catholic” shirts and “flying spaghetti monster” shirts…but where is a shirt making fun of the Dalai Lama? Or why is there no shirt that has “ex-Jew” in bold letters? Where is a shirt mocking Sheeva or Vishnu? Why not have a shirt that says “Thor never existed”? I see no shirts mocking pagans or earth-based religions either…where are those? How about a shirt making fun of Jainists and their ethics of non-violence? Is there a shirt making fun of the aborigines of Australia and their beliefs? If not, then why not? If you are an actual atheist, then noth ing should be held as sacred. Or is it only a select few beliefs that you feel it is right to mock?
Think about it.

–Jason

I have thought about it, Jason, and the answer should be fairly obvious. Certainly, I am against all nonsense no matter what the content or the context. I am not just skeptical of Western monotheistic religions but all religions, past and present. However, I happen to live in a society that is dominated by Christianity and with Islam frequently a subject of the news. This is why I focus most of my efforts on critiquing Christianity and the other monotheistic religions that have the most effect on my life and my culture. The government of the United States is dominated by Christians. Every president past and present has at least been nominally Christian. I am only aware of one congressman who has ever come out publically as a nonbeliever (Fortney “Pete” Stark).

If I lived in India then I would probably spend more time taking apart Shiva and Vishnu. Since I don’t, and neither do most of my readers, I don’t see much value in doing so.

(3) If you don’t believe in anything, don’t worry about it.

Atheists don’t believe in God, but we believe in many other things, as Proud Atheist recently pointed out. We believe in humanity and our potential for good and positive change. We believe in friendship and love. We believe in rationality and our capacity for reason. What about you? What do you believe in?

POSTSCRIPT: If you really want to see an atheist mock all religions, and not just Western ones, then you might want to check out the book Your Religion Is False by Joel Grus. Short description from Amazon: “Whether youʹre a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu, a Rasta or a Jain, an Environmentalist or a Cheondoist, a Scientologist or a Giant Stone Head Worshipper, your religion is false. In this long-awaited book, Joel Grus reveals the details of not only how your religion is false but also how every other religion is false.”

Well, I am sympathetic to that project.