The Fundamentals of Atheism

Someone should write a book with that title, a book describing what atheism really is, and what it is founded upon: Science. Atheism is not inherently an opposing force directed at the world’s religions any more than a mountain is an attacker of clouds. A mountain is rock upon rock upon rock, and if it stands so high it disrupts the passage of the weather, it is but a side effect of its existence. Science is the process by which knowledge is carefully build upon knowledge, and if it stands in the way of religion, it is but a side effect.

In a Telegraph article, Cardinal George slapped the label of “fundamentalism” upon atheism several times. And he’s not been along in that. It’s not that old of a word, only coined 60 years or so ago in regard to a Protestant movement. It’s since taken on the (negative) connotation of adherence to a basic set of beliefs in the face of all contrasting evidence. It’s even reached the level of slang with the use of the “fundie” epithet.

But the base word, fundamental, fits atheism and skepticism perfectly. In fact, most of the definitions of the word pertain to science and the physical world. If a fundamental is “something that is an essential or necessary part of a system or object” then what can be more essential and necessary to the universe but reality itself. And atheism and skepticism are all about reality…

The fundamentals of science are what the atheist view is entirely based upon. That simple, basic process by which information with measured and interdependent levels of confidence can be assembled and grown. The same process through which we have derived all of the knowledge and technology we use in our day-to-day lives. And not just our cell phones and automobiles, but “fundamental” things like the arch, the lever, the wheel, and fire.

Each thing we know suggests other things we might learn, all starting from those most humble of simple pieces. What happens when we burn wood? What happens when we burn a rock? What happens when we burn this smilodon? What if we just use the smoke?

And still there’s always more to learn, even from the simplest things. Little did our smilodon jerky-eating ancestors know, but spheres of 60 carbon atoms were drifting through their fire’s smoke. What’s a buckminsterfullerene to a Homo Erectus? Not much, but fullerenes are proving damn useful now.

The fundamentals of science are the fundamentals of atheism, and as some groups have deemed the atheist viewpoint their enemy, so they have waged war on science, knowledge, and the critical observation of reality. But this mountain isn’t going anywhere.

~ Chris Innanen
~ Nonsanity