Stolen from Hemant.
- Participated in the Blasphemy Challenge.
- Met at least one of the “Four Horsemen” (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris) in person.
- Created an atheist blog.
- Used the Flying Spaghetti Monster in a religious debate with someone.
- Gotten offended when someone called you an agnostic.
- Been unable to watch Growing Pains reruns because of Kirk Cameron.
- Own more Bibles than most Christians you know.
- Have at least one Bible with your personal annotations regarding contradictions, disturbing parts, etc.
- Have come out as an atheist to your family.
- Attended a campus or off-campus atheist gathering.
- Are a member of an organized atheist/Humanist/etc. organization.
- Had a Humanist wedding ceremony.
- Donated money to an atheist organization.
- Have a bookshelf dedicated solely to Richard Dawkins.
- Lost the friendship of someone you know because of your non-theism.
- Tried to argue or have a discussion with someone who stopped you on the street to proselytize.
- Hid your atheist beliefs on a first date because you didn’t want to scare him/her away.
- Own a stockpile of atheist paraphernalia (bumper stickers, buttons, shirts, etc).
- Attended a protest that involved religion.
- Attended an atheist conference.
- Subscribe to Pat Condell’s YouTube channel.
- Started an atheist group in your area or school.
- Successfully “de-converted” someone to atheism.
- Have already made plans to donate your body to science after you die.
- Told someone you’re an atheist only because you wanted to see the person’s reaction.
- Had to think twice before screaming “Oh God!” during sex. Or you said something else in its place.
- Lost a job because of your atheism.
- Formed a bond with someone specifically because of your mutual atheism (meeting this person at a local gathering or conference doesn’t count).
- Have crossed “In God We Trust” off of — or put a pro-church-state-separation stamp on — dollar bills.
- Refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Said “Gesundheit!” (or nothing at all) after someone sneezed because you didn’t want to say “Bless you!”
- Have ever chosen not to clasp your hands together out of fear someone might think you’re praying.
- Have turned on Christian TV because you need something entertaining to watch.
- Are a 2nd or 3rd (or more) generation atheist.
- Have “atheism” listed on your Facebook or dating profile — and not a euphemistic variant.
- Attended an atheist’s funeral (i.e. a non-religious service).
- Subscribe to an freethought magazine (e.g. Free Inquiry, Skeptic)
- Have been interviewed by a reporter because of your atheism.
- Written a letter-to-the-editor about an issue related to your non-belief in God.
- Gave a friend or acquaintance a New Atheist book as a gift.
- Wear pro-atheist clothing in public.
- Have invited Mormons/Jehovah’s Witnesses into your house specifically because you wanted to argue with them.
- Have been physically threatened (or beaten up) because you didn’t believe in God.
- Receive Google Alerts on “atheism” (or variants).
- Received fewer Christmas presents than expected because people assumed you didn’t celebrate it.
- Visited The Creation Museum or saw Ben Stein’s Expelled just so you could keep tabs on the “enemy.”
- Refuse to tell anyone what your “sign” is… because it doesn’t matter at all.
- Are on a mailing list for a Christian organization just so you can see what they’re up to…
- Have kept your eyes open while you watched others around you pray.
- Avoid even Unitarian churches because they’re too close to religion for you.
Only 21. Tsk, I’m barely atheist at all. Of course I blame the high number of USA specific questions for my low score. Dollars indeed. Flipping monopoly money, English ten pound notes have Charles Darwin on them, that’s hardcore.
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The Magnificent Frog 
I thought I was a evangelical atheist, but with a score of 13.5 (I thought about writing a letter to the Telegraph yesterday), I think I might as well give up and become catholic again.
At a push – i could maybe score… 3? which is a whopping 6% 🙂
I wrote an email today to a talkback radio show haranguing an Atheist Humanist guest to the show for her ‘belief’ that she was in fact a non-believer – which of course is total poppycock. Everyone is a believer – some just attribute the basic underlying premise of their belief (and of everything ‘else’) with something called ‘God’ while the rest can’t actually put a name to it or spend much time even considering what their basis for their particular ‘Faith’ actually stems ‘from’…
Atheists ‘believe’ God does not exist – but cannot demonstrate from fundamental, undeniable, unarguable and concrete principles just how that is ‘True’ for all cases.
All logic and reason – while able to show some things quite well – is incapable of proving any kind of ‘existance’ or starting point for any individual’s own life/consciousness, or life in general without resorting to unproveable or untestable axioms requiring the element of faith/belief. 🙂
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Shackleford Hurtmore , no not the faith of Tony Blair. Anything but that.
Love, except pure mathematics….anyway belief often has very little to do with evidence.
That is true but the burden of proof isn’t on the sceptic (skeptic in America), the burden of proof is on the one claiming that there is a god of some kind. As an atheist I can reserve final judgment until compelling evidence arises. In the mean time I assume that there is no God. I do not believe that God does not exist, I simply do not believe that God does exist. That makes me an agnostic atheist (and you an agnostic theist) rather than a gnostic atheist (which is pretty strange).
Gnostic Atheist? you might just be closer there than you’d think! 😉
I was not expecting you to prove God exists and i certainly can’t (just yet) 🙂
What i hope i was pointing out and you seem almost close to accepting is that whatever you DO believe in you reach a stage where ‘proof’ (of the ultimate origin of our own existance) is impossible without relying upon SOME kind of pure Faith or Belief in some pre-existing ‘thing’ (or things) and if we could all agree upon that then none of us are all that much different where our Faith is concerned! 🙂
Where you want to let some kind of ‘logic’ lead you from there is where religions and the rest start to diverge, accepting various items of ‘evidence’ as viewed from certain unilaterlal perspectives and interpreting them in diverse ways.
My key point though is that there is no such thing as a non-believer – only non-believers of a particular form of a (or The) God.
I merely see a certain usefulness and benefit (and perhaps even some small comfort?) in viewing everything that ever exists/existed, including that we currently have very little to completely no idea even exists, when taken as a ‘whole’, meets my ‘definition’ of ‘God’ and could very well have some ‘consciousness’ (since we do – why would the sum total of everything not?)
The usefulness i see being a ‘commonality’ – of ‘purpose’ perhaps?
It is amazing how, when one entertains such a concept, something seems to be ‘added’- or a feeling of not being so individually isolated develops – and a certain ‘power’ is gained from/through it.
I think that is in some way responsible for the ‘ecstatic’ experiences many religious devotees claim to undergo? But that is an unproven theory – so far 🙂
I’m not saying anyone has to swear allegiance to a particular ‘supreme’ being or even that the total of everything has some kind of ‘personality’ or definitely does have some kind of divine plan – i’m just saying all of us put our Faith into ‘something’ and there could be some benefits to us all allowing for the possibility of entities (single or plural) greater than our own – unless otherwise proven 😉
I also happen to believe that as individuals our ego’s pull us all in billions of different ways to billions of different ends and that seems a little ‘haphazard’ to me – and the cause of much divison and conflict, both within our own consciousness/life and within (and against) the entire human race.
We will never all agree on everything, that is definitely not in our own natures, and what would then be the point of having so many individuals if no-one thought differently? But i do see advantages to us all at least thinking with common accord and a uniting faith/understanding of our potential common destiny and values.
Why some are so insistant upon denying they have faith and belief is a mystery to me.
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Love wrote:
Well along with the Christian God I also don’t believe in Thor, Ra, or the Flying Spaghetti monster. My lack of believe extends to all gods though so I’m not sure if I can agree with you.
That isn’t to say that there isn’t one only that I choose to not believe until presented with a compelling reason to change my mind. These experiences that you mention along with miracles and curses have valid explanations in nature even when wildly improbable. Even if we cannot explain something that isn’t to say that God did it, just that we don’t have sufficient understanding yet.
Still, I could be wrong. The list of things I know anything about is infinitesimal compared to the list of things I know nothing about. I just find existence interesting enough without gods to explain things.
Mr F,
Good to see you are still keeping the blogging going, it must be about 4/5years now surely?
On the subject above I trust you remember my past from my old blogs of 2005. With that in mind, and opining only, I can honestly say that my life has been materially and unrecognisably changed since turning to religion. And changed for the better I would add!
I won’t go into detail because I find blogs much like vesicles of unwanted information these days. Nevertheless there is a lot to say about dropping your defences and just giving things a go.
Best,
Q
Quips, you did an Alpha course if I remember rightly but then said that it wasn’t for you. Clearly things changed since then.
It isn’t a defence though, it’s more that I find the whole idea of religion vaguely silly. No offence. Still, it doesn’t matter what I think, if you’ve found something that works better than your lucky underwear and makes you a better person then you are free to make the most use of it as you can. It’s not for me though. I can honestly say that religion would not help me at all and anyway, it’s not as if you can choose to believe.
Mr F,
Gracias for the super-quick reply and you’ll be happy to know that the lucky underwear are still set aside for rainy days, although they are rather more holey than holy these days.
You are, in your final statement, completely right, it is impossible to “choose to believe”, just as it I think it impossible for anyone to “convince” someone else that there is a God (that tends to get me off the hook with my more evangelical buddies).
Effectively it is a journey you have to make on your own, without pressure and without the prevarication of the occasional know-it-all Christian. Whether or not you are prepared to make that journey is the only choice you have to make which leads me to my final point. If people are prepared to expend energy, time and life creating a 50 point list of why they shouldn’t be religious, couldn’t this time be invested in something (anything) a little more benevolent?
And just a minor correction, if I may, I actually went to 8 Alpha courses such was my atheistic stubbornness. It took that many for me to get through my reems of questions on the subject. I recall I may have even invited you to one in one our less peculiar msn conversations? In any case, I lead one now so I would certainly recommend them for even the most steadfast of doubters.
Best,
Q
I contribute to Off the Map web sites in my spare time :). The organiser, Helen, was after an atheist perspective from someone who is “usually” able to avoid antagonising the theists. In an effort to find out a bit more about the subject matter I did look into an Alpha course…about two years after we’d briefly talked it over. For some reason there isn’t one in my local area. Clearly I either live in a hotbed of satanism or in such a pious location that the Alpha course is not needed…or there is no desire to put one on.
That’s a shame because I’d be interested in attending. If nothing else it’d give me a couple of months of writing material and a new perspective. I don’t think I’d be interested enough to go EIGHT TIMES though. The tea and biscuits must have been heavenly. 😉
Admittedly the first six times were during my student years. There’s only so much un-buttered bread one person can take.
In case you are still interested in filling your pages, here’s the link “http://uk.alpha.org/findacourse” and I promise not to be too deflated if you choose not to go.
Best,
Q