Some Common Ground

A common statement atheist use is that, since there have been millions of deities throughout human history, everyone is mostly atheist for disbelieving in all of those, and we just believe in one less god than you do.  It's one of the few arguments I had never really heard a Christian (or any religious person) give a response to.  Until I saw this.

"Atheists love to tell Christians we’re just about as atheistic as they are. We’re atheistic about millions of gods; they’re atheistic about millions plus one more.

Okay, it’s silly, but I’ll address it one more time.

If God exists, then God is an atheist toward all gods but himself. Therefore God, if he exists, is very nearly (within mere thousandths of a percent!) as atheistic as atheists are.

That’s where their logic goes. The mind reels."

I'm really not entirely sure what point this person is trying to make.  Atheists don't believe in God, so using him to make a point doesn't carry much more weight that saying Scooby-Doo is as atheistic as atheists are. Really, since God doesn't believe in any other gods and only himself, you could stretch it and say that atheists are closer to being godly than Christians, since Christians believe in a god, something God doesn't do.  That's a fairly stupid argument, but one that follows the same logic this person seems to be trying to use, and seems to insult Christians more than it does atheists.  So again, not sure what their point is.

What I can do is clarify why we (or at least I) use that argument they are trying to refute in the first place.   It is an answer to the question "How can you NOT believe in God?!" which I've gotten oh so many times in my life, as most atheists have.  It's meant to draw a parallel between believers and non-believers, and show how we are more similar in our thinking than we sometimes admit.  It's easy for you to dismiss the existence of Thor?  It's just as easy for us to dismiss the existence of your god.  This does not make it a correct stance.  This argument is not meant to try and prove there is or isn't a god.  It is simply a way to try and explain why it isn't as big of a deal to not believe in your god as you think it is, and a way to push back against discrimination.  That's it.  Nothing more.  There are a wealth of other reasons atheists have for why they think they are right.  This is more of a welcome sign really.  A way to show that we've already met halfway without trying.  You don't have to agree with us (thought we'd love it if you did).  Just don't treat us like we're some kind of crazy abomination, because you are closer to being us than you think.