Is there an "atheist" culture?

[Dane]

What do you think? I responded to a statement about "atheist culture" and wondered what others think.


I said "There is no atheist culture." Any apparent "atheist culture" would be borne from stereotypes about vicious, godless attackers of religion, about as accurate as a "catholic culture" of paedophiles.

[SchizoDeluxe]

No because atheists are too varied in nature. The only common interest really is logic and reason.

[ugu80]

Perhaps not a culture but personal experience is that we have to be somewhat guarded. It seems, amongst the general populace, its okay to proclaim to be whatever religion, but state that you are an atheist and you get, from people who never think or really even care about religion, the "How could you not believe in god" sort of reaction.

I was recently at my best friends home, not particularly religious people, and his wife overheard my discussing 'The God Delusion'. This woman I had known for 15 years looked at me as I was something hot, steamy, mushy and smelly that the dog had left and she had just trodden in, barefoot, and screamed (and I mean screamed) "You're an atheist. An atheist (apparently it requires two vocalisations). How could you not believe in God". Well, as she did ask, I commenced to inform her as to why. After 5 minutes she retreated with the vacuous, "Well, I believe there has to be something out there". Off she then went, taking her three daughters with her as I could be no longer trusted not to molest them.

The indoctrination of religion from childhood seems to instil more distrust of atheism than fundamentalist islam (at least they believe in a god).

[DanielV]

I'd suggest that atheists as a whole tend to hold science in higher regard than the religious, but I have to be careful because thats my view and not necessarily that of other atheists.

[Lord Blackadder]

I don't know about culture, but there seems to be a common interest in Monty Python.

As I found out after the convention, when I wound up in a pub singing with other atheists The Lumberjack Song, The Bruces' Philosophers' Song and The Penis Song and reciting verbatum large chunks of Life of Brian... :D

[atheist_angel]

Atheists come from all kinds of different cultural backgrounds. It is not a cultural-specific phenomenon. Atheism has no folk tales or dogma of its own. It did not evolve from an earlier model of itself. A few popular memes may have developed, but you still couldn't call it a culture.

[Nozzferrahhtoo]

It could be a description about atheists if you make a loose enough definition for the word culture I guess.

However the distinction is clear and should be pointed out:

Wherever humans congregate under a common theme a certain level of “culture” will emerge. Be it social, moral, intellectual conventions etc.

However in this case it is the people coming together who bring that culture to the table and refine it to suit.

This is NOT true of religions. They pre-define the culture and the people who come to the table conform to it, not the other way around. The religion under which they are meeting contains rules and regulations in and of itself by which the participants are required to act and proceed and think.

Not so for atheism. Atheism has nothing within it that dictates how those meeting under its banner should act, think or proceed. Not a single iota.

[Seamus]

I don't know about culture, but there seems to be a common interest in Monty Python.

:D

---and Blackadder:D


I'm also inordinately fond of canoli, fresh mango and chilli chocolate (separately)

There is is no identifiable atheist culture of which I'm aware. However, there are some common interest groups with almost all atheist members,and some preclude theists. EG Atheist Nexus;not that I've noticed any difference when it comes to ignorance and narrow mindedness.

Atheists are just people. I'm more interested in finding commonalities than differences between people.My life experience so far has included visiting nearly 2 dozen countries and over 50 cities,(and lived in a Muslim country) beginning in 1969.

I have been treated poorly three times;Once by a dropkick immigration officer at JFK and twice in London. (OK, I WAS terrified by a couple of New York coppers)

[Mentally Saturated]

Wherever humans congregate under a common theme a certain level of “culture” will emerge. Be it social, moral, intellectual conventions etc.

However in this case it is the people coming together who bring that culture to the table and refine it to suit.

This is NOT true of religions. They pre-define the culture and the people who come to the table conform to it, not the other way around. The religion under which they are meeting contains rules and regulations in and of itself by which the participants are required to act and proceed and think.

Not so for atheism. Atheism has nothing within it that dictates how those meeting under its banner should act, think or proceed. Not a single iota.

A most eloquent answer to an interesting question, Noz. Thanks to you and the OP both.

Gary

[Nozzferrahhtoo]

Thanks, but do not give me a big head! I was just awarded poster of the month over on the Atheist Think Tank forum today too. This is NOT good for my ego!

Drop over and partake on our free forums at http://www.atheist.ie/phpBB3/ sometime. I am there all week :)

[Caio]

Atheism seems to defy any attempt to "pin it down", as any particular thing other than non-belief. Religion, movement, culture...these are commonly accepted categories in which people possessing a common interest or belief might categorize themselves as belonging to.
The only problem with atheism is that the defining characteristic (non-belief) is very broad. Then you have many typed of atheists, two main categories would be the 'active atheists' and the 'others'. It is the first group which are the public face of atheism, are usually the more vociferous and passionate, and they do have many more common characteristics: scientific mindset, likes Monty Python etc.
At the convention many people said that it was nice to be around "like minded people", some might say that we share enough attributes to be grouped together as a movement. But as atheism as a whole, the many differences again stretch the meaning of such ideas to the point that they loose any real meaning, or correctly describe the group.

The way i see it is like this; the 'atheist movement' is the statistical rise of non-belief in a population. Its an upward movement in graph only. The idea behind it hasn't changed, its still the same old non-belief. Its not a religion, its a philosophy (I've gone through this in a previous post). There are no established traditions, no core doctrine and no real unified 'achievements' that would earn the title of culture. It may become these things as the numbers grow, but as of yet there is no collective noun which can encompass and accurately describe atheists as a whole, except Atheism of course.

[pedrico]

I'm in bed with Nozzferrahhtoo. :rolleyes:

Atheism is about disbelieving in God or gods. It's not about an organisation or group of organisations, called Atheists - although that appears to be starting to change. Since Atheists have never organised to any great extent or, more to the point, never been allowed to organise, no universal behaviours have developed, as occurs within any social organisation.

[loubert]

mmm Atheist yoghurt....mmm huh what?

[Kosmos]

Is there a drug culture? Is there a Pub culture or a music culture? Is there an Australian culture or a culture of blame?

In my opinion the question is irrelevant because a lack of belief is not the same as a lack of culture and neither are they mutually inclusive.