I posted this question on Reddit a while ago and it was an interesting discussion so I wanted to hear what Lemmings think.
It’s common for religious people to be against the above mentioned things due to their beliefs, but how common is it for atheists to be against them? What reasons would they have? How would they base their opinion if there was no belief system/religion to rely on?
I’m not trying to provoke or insult anybody with this question, and I don’t wish for people to hate on each other’s beliefs. I just think this is an interesting concept to think about.
I think a better question would be:
How common is it for secular humanists to take a stance against access to abortion (and/or) equal rights under the law for people who identify as something other than heterosexual?
I think the atheist part of the question is a bit strange since it really only informs us about whether or not a person has a belief in a god or deity, where as secular humanism tells us a bit more (in theory) about the social ideology of an individual.
I personally hate equivocating atheism with anything else other than the god/supernatural/intelligent design question because it can further justify the slippery slope of lumping other topics in with atheism as though it is a prescriptive ideology like religion tends to be. However, I understand what you are going for by asking this question, and I don’t want to be overly pedantic.
To answer your question:
I think, as another poster already said, it probably matters if we are talking about people who self-identify as atheists vs. people who don’t believe in god/gods but don’t spend a lot of time thinking about their beliefs.
Generally I would venture to guess that in the first group there is a large majority who also self-identify as secular humanists, and probably take a more progressive stance on access to abortion as well as equal rights for all people regardless of sexuality/gender identity. I’m not sure I have ever met a self-identified secular humanist who took an oppositional position on either issue.
As far as people who do not self-identify as secular humanist, I would say it probably mirrors the support for the issues in a relatively similar way as the general population in their geographical area.
Secular Humanism ftw
I just want to say, I really like your comment - it felt the most right to me. You take in a lot of considerations and all that. I like that.
Thanks, I appreciate that mate. I’ve watched a lot of Atheist Experience, Aron Ra, and other YouTube commentators over the years. With that I learned the importance of specificity and explanation of terms when forming a response or argument.
That’s what I personally respect and enjoy so I try to make that a part of my discourse whenever I can. It isn’t for everyone, and I have gotten called out for being overly verbose more times than I care to admit 😅