Atheist Memes on Facebook: Religion is a Hypothesis

I'm doing a project on my Facebook page: The Atheist Meme of the Day. Every weekday, I'm going post a short, pithy, Facebook-ready atheist meme... in the hopes that people will spread them, and that eventually, the ideas will get through.

If you want to play, please feel free to pass these on through your own Facebook page, or whatever forum or social networking site you like. Or if you don't like mine, make some of your own.

Today's Atheist Meme of the Day:

Religion is a hypothesis about the world: how the world works, why it is the way it is. And it's just as valid to criticize it, question it, expect it to support itself with evidence, and make fun of it when it doesn't make sense, as any other hypothesis. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get through.

Comments

[smijer]

Religion is a hypothesis

either: 1) Religion includes hypotheses about how the world works, why it is the way it is or 2) Supernaturalism is a hypothesis...

[the chaplain]

I'm collecting quotes for the Atheist Quote box that I recently added to my sidebar. I'm adding these memes to my collection and will be posting them in the future.

[Crux Australis]

I read that as "Religion is a hypnosis..."

[Kiera]

It's funny because my first thought is:
"Yeah I want to post this on FB!"

Then it's

"Well maybe I shouldn't...I don't want to upset anyone".

Shows how well I'm taught, huh?

[Hank]

the idea of making fun of a hypothesis only proves that this is a vindictive attack on opposers to your views and not an objectively proposed argument for your own side.

[Greta Christina]

Hank, I don't agree. Mockery and satire are ancient, time- honored forms of social and political criticism: from Aristophanes to Jon Stewart, from Mark Twain to Molly Ivins, from Jonathan Swift to Monty Python, from Chaucer to The Onion.

If we can make fun of elected officials, corporate executives, police, labor leaders, political movements, bad laws, silly social trends, etc. ... why shoudn't we make fun of religious ideas as well?

[Jesse]

Hank, it seems to me that you are being too sensitive. To make a joke about a position or argument that does not make sense is not the same as having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge. In other words, it is not vindictive.