Teen Atheist’s personal tenets
Everything I believe in (including a handful of non-atheism related tenets), summarized in bullet points. Feel free to add if you can think of anything!
- There is no god.
- If anyone’s gonna be God here, it’s Bill Maher.
- If you’re not harming anybody physically or emotionally, it isn’t a sin.
- If you sin (be it by my standards or yours), you won’t go to hell when you die. But you will be an asshole.
- I treat others the way they treat me. Hence, my friends think I’m sweet and thoughtful, while my family thinks I’m a reincarnation of Damian from The Omen.
- Not believing in the existence of a god does not make me “misguided,” so don’t go “Oh, she just doesn’t know any better.” Bitch, please. I’ve been studying the Bible for the nine years I was enrolled in my Catholic school (from prep to seventh grade), and after years of serious consideration, finally decided that it was bullshit.
- If you make generalizations on the kind of person someone is based on his or her race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, etc., then you’re a bigot and I hate you.
- If it took you upwards of two minutes to catch the irony of the above statement, then you’re kind of slow.
- I’m not a saint, and I do judge people, but only based on their actions.
- I refuse to theorize on why God doesn’t exist, or attack and try to “convert” those who believe. I simply don’t believe (the term for this is “apatheism” — portmanteau of “apathy” and “atheism”), and it’s none of my business whether or not you do.
- Similarly, I hate people who try to shove their religion down my throat (looking at YOU, Mother Dearest)
- To summarize the above two bullet points: I think atheists who condemn religious people for being “idiots” are just as bad as fundamentalists who condemn atheists for being “evil.”
- “In God We Trust” on the US dollar bill? Rude!
- “One nation, under God?” Rude!
More tenets to come as I think of them.
Bill Maher over Richard Dawkins?! Blasphemy! :p
Hee! Cut me a little slack, I AM a newbie at this.
*rushes off to Wiki Richard Dawkins*
Besides, I’m more into the political viewpoint than the scientific one.
And Maher’s just so quotable!
Except on vaccines…
Er, what do you mean, Valhar2000?
I’m kinda slow …
Hee! That’s okay, sadrok.
Maher is anti-vaccination, one of the supporters of the mercury-thimerosal-autism hypothesis, *gasp* thinks the Germ Theory is bs and, accdg to what I’ve read, seem to commit a lot of logical fallacies in his arguments about the mentioned topics. How he believes that vaccines compromise/weaken a non-immunocompromised individual’s immune system is beyond me.
But, he seems to be reasonable when it comes to other topics like religion and politics.
I admit I’m not aware of every single one of Maher’s opinions (I mostly know just the religion- and politics-related ones), but I still like the guy. He’s smart and hilarious.
richard dawkins is god.
No. I think Joe Satriani is.
Hey, if we’re going there, I think Thom Yorke and Bjork are co-gods.
I agree. We should make this God family tree, just like how the Greeks did it. XD
bill maher is my god
Maynard James Keenan is God. Kidding.
I am.
You don’t know who Richard Dawkins is?! Shame on you.
B-b-but it’s a learning process! T_T
You’ve got a great teenager attitude. I love it.
And Richard Dawkins is not god.
He’s not? Well, he might as well be. XD I’d want to be his first Pope. XD
Thank you! *hugs*
Lies!
Killer argument. They teach you that in philosophy class, Martin?
Damn my arse to hell for being technical, but I guess all those literates who took control of the illiterates were gods. Anyways Bill Maher is dabom. Richard Dawkins…he’s cool.
The fear of all vaccines is uncalled for. Only some of the mandated vaccines are actually toxic. Sleep well
.
I gotta agree…Richard Dawkins = The Best
[...] Teen Atheist’s personal tenets [...]
There is no god… And Richard Dawkins is his prophet
As many people say: “colbert is God”
Hey, just stumbled on this page from some other atheist blogs.
I read this
“If you make generalizations on the kind of person someone is based on his or her race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, political beliefs, etc., then you’re a bigot and I hate you.”
giggled, then moved to the next point
“If it took you upwards of two minutes to catch the irony of the above statement, then you’re kind of slow.”
Then actually laughed out loud – it took me about 2 seconds. Thanks for making me feel smart and able to read irony!
I’m a 19 year old female from australia, and I can’t imagine what it’s like to be such an extreme minority in your country. Granted there are many religious types here, but I’ve never had to be a ‘closeted atheist’.
Good luck with everything happening in your life at the moment – this blog is a good read.
“There is no god.
If anyone’s gonna be God here, it’s Bill Maher.
If you’re not harming anybody physically or emotionally, it isn’t a sin.
If you sin (be it by my standards or yours), you won’t go to hell when you die. But you will be an asshole.”
If there is no God (which I would enjoy seeing you prove), why talk about a concept of ’sin’, or even more self-refute, a concept of hell. What is sin and hell if you can prove there is no God?
Playing more of a ‘devils-advocate’ (pun intended), how can hell (a non-material non-physical location, but rather a spiritual eternal location), exist while the non-material non-physical spiritual eternal God cannot.
Rather flawed logic.
Unless you can point me out and empirically prove this ‘hell’ and this ’sin’, with empirical science.
PS: No insults intended in any of the comments, just inquiry into your profile explanation and concepts of Hell and Sin.
LOL, “flawed logic”? I see someone took what I said a little too seriously. Also, straw man fallacy, much? I said “you won’t go to hell when you die” because duh, there is no hell. And my concept of sin is inflicting harm on other people. I may not call it a “sin” myself (more like “being an asshole”), but it’s a similar concept.
Ok, thanks for clarifying the non-existence of hell.
Why is being an a-hole a bad thing?
I’ll leave you to figure that one out for yourself, sweetie.
No. It was a serious question concern moral rights and wrongs. I am interested in how you, as an Atheist, justify things being right or wrong. I always see such error in the moral system of the Atheist World-view, especially if they take into account a relative moral system (which is the end result of the worldview to my understanding).
How does the Atheist argue that being an a-hole is a bad thing…? If you care to cope out with your previous comment, go right on ahead. Taking a moral system for granted is always much easier.
I am amazed at how outspoken you are as to your atheist beliefs.
Hey, I just want to tell you that you need sixty more spam comments to hit the big triple-six.
I’m kidding. I respect you, although we do have contrasting views about religion. You outright denounce God’s existence, and I praise and glorify His name twice a week. I don’t get why people look down upon atheists simply because of their religious views. Being an atheist doesn’t automatically make you an asshole or jerk, right?
I have this theory that God’s existence can neither be proved or disproved. Therefore I think you should say “God’s existence cannot be proven” instead of “God does not exist”, since the former is more justified. Of course you have every right to contradict that, I’d love to converse with you about your tenets.
I was raised an Iglesia ni Cristo (please, no bashing), and if you know at least a bit about my religion, you’d imagine I grew up with a fear of God and in a very devout household. Due to this, I had a hard time grappling the concept of atheism when I first heard about it. However as time passed by, I began to form my standpoint regarding it. I’m forming a write-up right now that will basically illustrate my views about atheism, albeit perhaps not very comprehensively. It’s still in draft form. I don’t want to make any mistakes. Nonetheless, I’m leaving my blog URL just in case you want to check it out once it’s complete.
Good luck on all your future endeavors, teenatheist.
BTW, I’m 13 y/o, so please cut me some slack if you find my principles shaky. Oh, and I don’t know if you know this, but Benj (www.atheista.net) purchased the domain teenatheist.com for you. You could really go places with a self-hosted blog, although your current set-up is pretty nifty.
Thank you so much for the awesome comment, Dean! I think you’re extremely smart, especially for a boy your age. I look forward to reading your write-up, so I’ll drop by your site from time to time.
Good point, re: “God’s existence cannot be proven,” although as an atheist, “God does not exist” is pretty much the core statement of our beliefs, so it’s a tenet that applies to me personally and not necessarily everyone else. I’d say that your suggestion leans more toward the agnostic point of view.
Feel free to write me via my Contact page if you have any questions for me, or if you just want to say hi.
Ah kids. I miss the days when I pondered these things a lot. You’re lucky you have Dawkins and Hitchens and various blogs to read. We only had our wits and Asimov and Bertrand Russel.
@Dean: “God’s existence cannot be proven” is an agnostic position. Agnosticism is often mistaken as a middle ground (what “undecideds” call themselves) but is actually a position saying that one cannot know if god exists or not. Most atheists of the rational/scientific mold (Dawkins, Myers, Asimov, etc.) are technically agnostics in that they leave room for the possibility that god/s exist but assign a very low probability such that it’s pointless to acknowledge.
@TA: I noticed you have Ebonmuse’s Daylight Atheism in your links. Check him out, he’s writing a book (and blogging some of the contents) on secular morality. That might help with your tenets and with clarifying certain positions.
I found your blog on the Atheist Blogroll and just spent all day (on and off) reading it. Great job! I seem to be saying this a lot, but I am SOOOOO glad I was raised in a non-religious household.
Oh, and Richard Dawkins may not be god, but I’ve had a serious case of hero worship ever since I read The Selfish Gene back in about 1985.
@missingpoints: yes, I’m aware of that.
I just think it’s more scientifically stable to say that the existence of a deity can neither be proven nor disproven than to say that a god does not exist. ü
@Dean
There is no such thing as “scientific stability.”
Until someone provides evidence of god’s existence, it is deemed he does not exist. Y’know celestial teapot and all that. That’s how science works.
You can say, though, that the existence of a deity is beyond science since the idea isn’t falsifiable.
@missingpoints: hmm. So that’s how Science works? No wonder the world is so shitty. But, yeah, the existence of a deity cannot be falsified. I agree with that.
Hi perched on your chair,
I am creating a world size revolution to end childhood religious indoctrination. Will you come and help?
Your blog is so so much better than mine. I will post the URL to my facebook profile.
Speaking of facebook — the place for social activists in my opinion, I started a group there also. You would be most welcome to join. Much to my amazement and joy this facebook site (The End of Hereditary Religion is attracting a lot of teens lately. Not to mention some super people in leadership positions.
Do you have any evidence that unicorns actually exist, or are you just relying on revelation from some musty old book? Just asking?
Ciao,
Rich
Did I post this already. I think I posted this already.
George Carlin is god. Bill Maher is jesus. Lewis Black is John the Baptist. And Stephen Colbert is Joseph.
I don’t know if it’s such a bad thing to think of religious folks as at least having a little bit of mental disorder. After all, they believe in something so stupid, so utterly nonsensical, what am I to make of them? It certainly doesn’t make them academic.
Besides, if you as a child actually believed the fairy tales your teacher told you and grew up preaching them as gospel, people would laugh in your face. The Bible and other religious texts are little more than glorified fairy tales. If you are gonna believe in god, be a deist, for christ sakes. Don’t use belief in God to start believing in these absurd religious texts that have never been and cannot be proven. I mean, there’s 1000s of religions worldwide. The chances of you being right are less than .001%. I don’t think there are many things I’d take a chance on with those odds.
No Dean, the world is shitty because religion has held sway over it for thousands of years.
Brandon: I love that you didn’t mention Richard Dawkins. *hugs you*
Agreed, missingpoints. I don’t know how the absence of a deity would be enough to make the world shitty. Now, religion, on the other hand…
@Brandon
You do realize that Stephen Colbert is Catholic, right? The kind who teaches Sunday school. “This week in God” notwithstanding, he’s never said he didn’t believe.
Hey, it’s not like all Catholics are OMG teh enemy. Stephen Colbert is awesome, and at least he’s not afraid to poke fun at religion. That’s what really matters, IMO.
Yeah, he’s a Catholic of the non-overlapping magisteria sort, which is fine, I guess. That’s the only way he can keep his rationality while subscribing to a religion that worships a dead man on a stick.
Bill Maher, on the other hand, is an all-out woo-head. Have you seen him on Letterman denouncing germ theory? He may may be an atheist but he ain’t rational at all.
Carlin gets my vote if only for the Joe Pesci thing. That monologue is awesome.
I like the tenets, especially the third one. Looking forward to reading more of your blog. =) I really need to find out who Bill Maher is…
@Jennifer, last sentence of yours, agreed. lol
Muahahaha!!!!!!
Luv Ya!
This is my first time at your blog, and you’ve got yourself another dedicated reader……
“I refuse to theorize on why God doesn’t exist, or attack and try to “convert” those who believe. I simply don’t believe (the term for this is “apatheism” — portmanteau of “apathy” and “atheism”), and it’s none of my business whether or not you do.”
Seems to me, the whole purpose of your blog is to “convert” people to your way of thinking. That’s not a bad thing, but one hopefully recognizes that in explaining your reasons for not believing, you are as much a proselytizer as any “believer.” Again, that’s not a bad thing at all. It’s always good to be able to offer our reasons for believing what we believe (or disbelieve, as the case may be).
How come I didn’t find one word that contain Darwinsm in this page?
okay i dont know how this site works. . .but i found it and it looks interesting. help?
Hey, i just stumbled upon your blog and i already like it. I’m 19 and have been out of the atheist clost for about 8 months, so i canr eally relate to your blogs. keep up the good work and fight the good fight. ^_^
Ah, belief. Teen Atheist, count this 15 y/o agreed on every front ! Oh, and I’m Jesus.
You know, on every occasion that I found myself praying to him, I found I was talking to myself.
You know what they say Artie, “If praying did any good, they would be hiring men to pray.” That, and the queen of England would have a life expectancy upwards of 200, with the whole country praying for her and all.
““In God We Trust” on the US dollar bill? Rude!
“One nation, under God?” Rude!”
TA, the Constitution established the United States of America as a god-believing nation. it is founded in god-believing principles. Removing “In God We Trust” and “One nation, under one God” will be “rude” to the very constitution and principles that build this nation.
It is not an issue between god-believing people against atheists, it is a matter of history. those two sentences built this nation.
it is not addressed to you or any atheist but it is simply a historical declaration of what built this nation.
Reynor: False. “In God We Trust” was added long after the Constitution was established.
“God-believing nation?” Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? I never said it was a statement against atheists (or Buddhists, or agnostics, or Wiccans, or…), but don’t use “history” as an excuse for political incorrectness.
TA, you can do better than that.
finding the expression of belief by others as “rude(ness)” is like saying that expressing one’s atheism is offending to theist. who are we kidding, its not…unless you will take that expression as if it is a personal attack to your belief which is clearly not the case.
the separation of state and religion is there to protect religion from the state. it allows us both theist and atheist (eventhough it is debatable still if atheism is a religion on its own) to express our belief or in your case your unbelief. let us try not to impose it on each other. let them/us express their belief as you are free to express yours.
Reynor: Atheism is an absence of belief in respect to a theological claim made without proof. You are an atheist towards Islam I presume. That alone does not make you “religious.” The belief shapes a religion – absence forms nothing.
USA was NOT founded on religious principles. Claim of contrary is present only in Christian indoctrination. Teen Atheist is correct with her facts regarding the distasteful slogan presently found on US currency. (Also noteworthy, “One nation under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, with no mention of ANY god from 1892 until that time, despite two revisions in between. See the historic versions of the Pledge at the Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance )
Having said the above, would you not find “In Allah We Trust?” written on a bank note offensive, or rude? How would you feel to be judged in a court of law which displays with pride and openness the principles of Islam? Respect your fellow citizens if you are going to ask for their respect.
What is happening in the USA is the Christianisation of a secular nation, NOT the secularisation of a Christian one.
No. If atheists were truly as free to express religion as theists, like you claim, then “In God We Trust” should be taken off since it favors one over the other. P.S. your arguments hold no water since they’re based on something factually incorrect, so: fail.
P.P.S. Don’t patronize me with “you can do better than that” when you hardly know me. Proper debate should not include any remarks on the person making the argument.
Reynor–
There are numerous sources to which one could refer on either side of the proposition that the founding generation intended the United States to be a “God-believing nation.”
But the Constitution (1789) is not one of them. Here is the complete text: http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html . Please let us know when you have found the part that talks about a god. (Hint: there isn’t one.)
The Declaration of Independence (1776), on the other hand, does contain explicitly theist language — and the story of those 13 years in between, and what led a group of (mostly) Christian revolutionaries to found a nation that was conspicuously not Christian in its central organizing text, is worth understanding.
TA, it’s not a flattering remark but an encouragement for a better argument.
You are free to express what you believe as evidenced by this very blog but what you are asking for is an imposition of your belief on what was intended to be historical in nature. It has nothing to do what we believe right now but with what the founding fathers believe.
Holy Prepuce, I apologize for giving you a wrong impression. What i meant to express is on the second sentence, “it is founded in god-believing principles.” I should have been careful.
and just to be clear, i am not defending it because i share the same belief. the two sentences are there because the people who built this nation believe so and removing it i believe would be violating Amendment 1-Freedom of religion… “…prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ” (http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html ) Thank you for the link.
Eh, my comment got nuked here, I assume due to a link (leading to WikiPedia.)
Salvaged, Arthur. Thanks!
(Bad Akismet! Bad!)
Lol. Thanks!
But maybe it was not Akismet? There is an option in WordPress to nuke or put into moderation anything with X+ number of links. I believe WP would have counted comment as one with two links – one for the link to my blog through the name link, the other in the body to WikiPedia. Might be a setting worth looking into…
hi teen athiest i’m a 14 year old african american and i am an atheist. i stumbled upon ur site by pure accident but it was the best accident i’ve made in a long time lol. i read ur tenets and i agree with every single one of them.
i try to tell my friends about how i feel and they just think i as you said, “don’t kno any better” because im younger then them. i only have one friend that feels the same way as me and she’s also black.(btw i skipped a grade so i am a 14 yr old sophomore).
ne ways, i feel idk lost because i refuse to say the pledge at school because it says “under god”. i told my dad about that and he gave me this huge lecture bout how im not grateful to live in this “great country” b/c i refuse to say the pledge. but it’s weird cuz he isnt a church going man. he was an alter boy as a kid but hasn’t gone to church since. he’s not religous basically is what im trying to say.my moms a christian, always has been and she frowns on me b/c i tell her that i dont believe in “God”.
i used to go to church, sunday school, i got baptized, had my 1st communion, etc. and just like you i thought it was all a bunch of bs. so it makes me mad when my “friends” say i dont know any better b/c i’ve been educated on that stuff and i simply just don’t buy it but they don’t seem to understand that.
well i mainly just wanna say thank you for your site it makes me feel more in touch and realize that i’m not alone in the way i think and feel.
Solderboy: Read the disclaimer before making comments.
Hello Teen atheist, I was wondering something about one of your tenets.
If you’re not harming anybody physically or emotionally, it isn’t a sin.
Do you mean anybody else or anybody including yourself. Because if you include yourself then that makes doing drugs a sin, but if you don’t then it makes it a sin if you distribute(and illegal). Just curious about this.
Note:I am not using or distributing drugs.