Frequently Asked Questions About Atheism

The atheistic part of my webpage is the one that consistently generates the most confusion, anger and e-mail. For some reason, people who accept without a twitch that I like to dress in black or that I regularly go out and stare at birds through binoculars just can't deal with the fact that I don't believe in a god. In an effort to make life easier for all concerned, I've written this FAQ to specifically address the questions I hear most often about my beliefs. If you e-mail me again with a question that's already been answered here, I may respond sarkily, or not at all. You have been warned.

Q1 - Why are you an atheist?
A1 - The short answer is that I was born one and never quit. For the long answer see Why I am Not a Christian in my Rants section.

Q2 - How can you prove that God doesn't exist?
A2 - I can't. I don't need to, because the burden of proof rests with the person who asserts the existence of an entity for which there is no concrete physical evidence. Besides, it's the theists who are out to convert me, not the other way around, so they have to do the proving. In the absence of convincing evidence, atheism is my default position.

Q3 - Why do you hate God? He loves you.
A3 - I don't hate God. It's a waste of time to hate something that doesn't exist. If he existed literally as portrayed in the Bible, I wouldn't be too fond of him, as mentioned in my poems (which, being works of fiction, give me artistic licensce to make the villain whomever I please.)

Q4 - Why do you hate Christians?
A4 - I don't hate Christians. I do have large problems with some things that certain (primarily fundamentalist) Christians do, and I'm not going to keep quiet about these problems simply to avoid offending people

Q5 - Why to you complain about Christians in particular?
A5 - Because I live in the United States of America, the instances of bigotry and inappropriate religious intrusion into the lives of the people that I deal with are mainly Christian-initiated. If I lived in India I would no doubt be writing about the problems caused by Muslims and Hindus.

Q6 - But what if there is a God after all? You'll go to Hell.
A6 - If I believed in Hell, I'd believe in God too, and we wouldn't be having this discussion, now would we? I can't be scared into believing something even by a credible threat, let alone a fairy tale. My mind doesn't operate in such a way that I can believe by an act of will - when I see evidence I'll believe whether I want to or not.

Q7 - If there's no God, who made us?
A7 - Natural selection, with some help from genetic drift and a few random mutations along the way.

Q8 - If there's no God, who made the universe?
A8 - Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor not a physicist. As far as I know, there's still some debate on this front. However, whether we ever find the answer or not, First Cause is a poor argument for God because it immediately implies the question 'What caused God?'

Q9 - Why don't you just read the Bible and see for yourself?
A9 - I did. KJV once and NIV twice. As literature goes, the use of symbolism and allegory was good, but the characterization was weak, and the entire first half just dragged.

Q10 - I'll pray for you.
A10 - That's not a question. But go right ahead if it makes you feel better.