10 myths -- and 10 truths -- about atheism
SEVERAL POLLS indicate that the term "atheism" has acquired such an extraordinary stigma in the United States that being an atheist is now a perfect impediment to a career in politics (in a way that being black, Muslim or homosexual is not). According to a recent Newsweek poll, only 37% of Americans would vote for an otherwise qualified atheist for president.
Atheists are often imagined to be intolerant, immoral, depressed, blind to the beauty of nature and dogmatically closed to evidence of the supernatural.
Atheists believe that life is meaningless.
Atheism is responsible for the greatest crimes in human history.
Atheists think everything in the universe arose by chance.
Atheism has no connection to science.
Atheists are closed to spiritual experience.
Atheists believe that there is nothing beyond human life and human understanding.
Atheists ignore the fact that religion is extremely beneficial to society.
Atheism provides no basis for morality.
We have made considerable moral progress over the years, and we didn't make this progress by reading the Bible or the Koran more closely. Both books condone the practice of slavery — and yet every civilized human being now recognizes that slavery is an abomination. Whatever is good in scripture — like the golden rule — can be valued for its ethical wisdom without our believing that it was handed down to us by the creator of the universe.
clipped from: www.latimes.com