The Lack of Dogma

One of the things that makes Atheism so hard to pin down and define is the lack of any sort of centralized dogma. On the one hand, this makes it very difficult to unite the growing percentage who identify as non-theistic around any cause. On the other hand, it remains Atheism's greatest recruitment tool.

In a society where literacy is damn near universal, and where we increasingly value the ability to think critically and independently, it should come as no surprise to see attendance and adherence to any form of Theism. For all the beauty and spirituality found in various places of worship, each and every one practices according to some 'universal' accepted views. As humanity continues to evolve socially, some of these views fall out of favor/practicality/accepted moral scope and are de-emphasized. A critical reading of spiritual texts will still find them, and I believe more and more are electing no religion as a result.

Take the following from Deuteronomy 22 (text from NIV, emphasis my own):
"¹³ If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her ¹⁴ and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” ¹⁵ then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin. ¹⁶ Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. ¹⁷ Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, ¹⁸ and the elders shall take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They shall fine him a hundred shekels^[a] of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
²⁰ If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, ²¹ she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you."

 This post isn't going to devolve into bashing any particular faith, I promise. But please, re-read that passage and think how it must look to someone born in the modern age. If the man lies, he owes the family money - and the WOMAN is forced to stay married to someone who made a false accusation that, if upheld, would have had her killed!

This is the downside to dogma. When things change, your dogma can attempt to adapt, but each adaptation detracts from your message of having a universal truth. It's why some Catholic hard-liners are infuriated at the mere mention of women being allowed the priesthood, despite the growing difficulty obtaining enough men of the cloth. If they accept this one change, they are fully aware that it could cause a genuine crisis of faith among members of their church.

This is where Atheism definitely comes out ahead. We have no sacred books. While we do have some famous speakers (Richard Dawkins is a household name) we do not treat their pronouncements as divine writ or infallible. The South Park episode "Go God Go!" skewers Atheism, and in my personal experiences every Atheist who has watched it with me has just about died laughing. 

Here's the secret why - we are all atheists for our own damn reasons and follow its relatively few 'tenets' as we damn well please. The notion that any one of us could be absolutely right is just... well, it's weird. Unsettling. 

Dogmatic.

Next week, a look at what I think the tenets are of Atheism. Hopefully you'll have forgotten this post by then! 

Bourbon Count: 2