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Atheist "identity"
I agree (but only partially). We're getting back into the concept of rationalist taboo again, and, once again, I have to say it depends on the context. Sometimes there are terms that are so loaded it's easier to just avoid them altogether.
Here's the context that made me wonder about atheism as a useful term - well, strictly "agnosticism", but there's always that "oh, but atheists should always be agnostic!!" crap going on.
Someone says "I'm agnostic, because I think we'll never know if there's a God"
Everyone applauds such open minded fairness. After all, you have to be soooo deep to be open minded.
Then I say "wait, you say we'll never know?"
They say "yes". Well, they didn't, I cut that step out. I'm a little drunk, this could be fun to explain from now on.
So I add "so, you'll never know if God is real. Therefore there's no way of detecting God."
"Right"
"So there's no way that God can make a meaningful interaction with the world?"
"Erm..."
"So what is the fucking point in believing in God?"
"Derp"
Then someone else like chimes in and says "hey, so you must be an atheist then!!!"
And I'm like "bitches, please. Just shut up."
So basically, yes, "agnosticism" seems to be used as a loaded term. It's a term that says "hey guys, I'm totally open minded about God because I'm cool and open minded and intellectual and look at how open minded I am". When really it's saying "actually, I've just given undue privilege to a hypothesis with fuck all evidence for it. I just want the connotations of being open minded despite having no belief whatsofuckingever in God or gods or any of that crap but am too scared of putting my bollocks on the line to say so."
Though why a girl would be scared of putting her bollocks on the line is beyond me.
I should stop steam-of-conciousnessing... it never ends well.