Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheists Are Atheists Because We're Open-Minded

Today's Atheist Meme of the Day. Pass this on; or don't; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Enjoy!

Atheists are open-minded, and we are willing to consider the possibility that we might be mistaken. In fact, most atheists used to be believers -- it's the fact that we are open-minded and willing to change our minds that made us become atheists. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Comments

[Joshua Zelinsky]

While this is true for a large fraction of atheists, I'd be curious to see data showing that "most" atheists are in fact former believers. As a matter of anecdote, that seems to be strongly the case, but I've never seen any stats backing the claim up. I suspect that this is true in the US but may not be true worldwide given the large fraction of second-generation atheists in the former Soviet Union and China.

[Maria]

You might be right in this Joshua, if we are talking about religious beliefs, and especially Christianity, which is the most common religion in the Western world. Where I grew up, few people believed in the Christian god. I've been an atheist all my life, and most of my friends were too.

But we did have a lot of woo woo beliefs, and this is still the case with most people I know. Most people here doesn't believe in the god of the bible, but they have a lot of more or less vague newage and superstitious beliefs. The 'somethingoutthereism' is strong around here, I'd say.

So, I'd say that most atheists I've talked to was either Christians, or some sort of newage/woo believers. Though I'm sure there must be atheists who were never any of these things.

Yeah, you're right, it certainly seems to be the case, but there might be no statistics actually backing it up?

[Eclectic]

I have changed my mind about other things, but I'm an always-atheist. (It did take me a few years to learn the word, but I've never treated bible stories as anything but fanciful fables: do you want to hear about Noah and the Ark or Jack and the Beanstalk?)