From: Chris Ho-Stuart <>
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2000 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: Value-testing atheism


> Lawrence Meckan <> wrote:
> > Theo Bekkers wrote:
> >>
> >> I wrote:
> >> Are you saying that atheists have no integrity and are untrustworthy.
> >
> > I am saying that the ideology by which atheism is defined and expressed
> > is untrustworthy. There remains, however, a significant difference
> > between the ideology of atheism and how atheists may act. Atheists may
> > be trustworthy and reliable, but these aspects of their life may have no
> > foundation in their atheism (I'll show why soon ).
>
> This is true.
>
> What many religious folks often fail to grasp is that atheism
> ISN'T based on any particular ideology. Atheism is defined by
> a negative -- the lack of a belief in God.
>
> Now to be sure, many atheists have a definite ideology, or
> world view, or foundation for their life.
>
> But that foundation is not atheism; and atheists can vary
> enormously in their world views.
>
> All that you can know from the fact that someone is an atheist
> is that whatever ideology, or foundation, or world view, or
> substitute-the-term-of-your-choice underlies their life; that
> foundation does not involve a God. Beyond that, there is no
> common aspect you can find for atheism or atheists as a general
> class, as far as I can. Christians are a diverse bunch, but
> atheists are even more so.
>
> I think of it this way. A religion offers a way of selecting
> a path for your life. Atheism offers a heuristic for pruning
> the search space.
>
> Please don't misunderstand me folks. I am not saying that
> an atheist has no foundation! I am simply saying that to pick
> out a particular foundation as the atheist one misunderstands
> what atheism is about. To know I am an atheist tells you almost
> nothing about how I think, or manage my life, or understand
> existence or the world.
>
> To call atheism a world view or an ideology is like calling
> foreigner a nationality.
>
> Cheers -- Chris Ho-Stuart