In this entry, I will address the fourth question which Michael Brown asks I his article 7 honest questions for atheists.
Previous entries in this series can be found here:
1. Why are you an atheist?
2. Can an atheist have purpose?
3. Are you sure there’s no god?
Keep in mind, Brown states that he does not ask the questions he poses here
to win a debate. Or to be antagonistic. Or to buttress my own beliefs by exposing alleged weaknesses in your position. On the contrary, I ask these questions so I can better understand your mindset as an atheist.
He states that he asks these questions “in that spirit of genuinely wanting to understand the atheist mindset better.” Taking what Brown states at face value, I applaud him for inviting atheists to speak for themselves, for what we typically see from Christians is referencing the Old and New Testaments and other unsympathetic sources to get their understanding of “the atheist mindset.”
Of course, what may be overlooked in all this is that “atheism” does not denote a “mindset” that is common to all self-professing atheists. Atheism only indicates what one does not believe; it does not by itself signal a set of positive convictions. Just as there are religious views across a very broad spectrum, there is a wide assortment of views which may be found among various individual atheists.
