Avoidance

fat-thin-atheism:

Unknown original source. Found on facebook.

This sort of phrasing drives me up the wall.  ”The burden of proof lies on religion.”  Sentences like this one are complicit in  some weird, non-atheistic obsession with religion, as well as religious violence and closed-mindedness.  There is no burden of proof on anyone if you live in a free society.  You are an atheist because you have no concrete proof in either direction and have found godlessness more practical, rational, or perhaps even easier.  ”Burden of proof” is such an arrogant phrase - it is violent and it is dangerous.  It implies that you WANT religious people to search for proof for you, yet if you are an atheist you can’t foresee them finding any proof.  So why are you doing it? (Also, organized religions aren’t perfect, but belief in some higher power or other isn’t their flaw, it’s just their commonality. Theism is not the same as religion, is all I’m saying.  Religion is a can of worms and you’ve decided to critique a word on their label.)

I do not believe in god but I don’t expect anyone to try to prove that he exists.  In fact, I don’t want anyone to try prove that he exists (unless there is a fucking sudden revelation of fact or information).  Stop trying to get me to believe, and if you don’t believe either then stop challenging people to convince you otherwise.  Your smug ass wouldn’t listen to them even if they were holding Christ by his hand.