It is important to keep in mind that atheism and skepticism are separate. For skeptics the line separating the two can become blurry from time to time. This could be due to the fact that many if not most skeptics consider themselves atheists and that most of our intellectual skeptic hero’s are atheists (James Randi, Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins); however, there are many notable skeptics who are not atheists or agnostics (Harry Houdini, Martin Gardner, Hal Bidlack). Skepticism is a methodology which promotes critical thinking and the scientific method. There is no reason to needlessly burn bridges with important skeptics because they hold religious beliefs, or as Daniel Loxton put it in What do I do Next, “You don’t, after all, have to be against god to be against fraud.” It is important for skeptical groups to remain areligious for this reason. When religions make testable claims or hold stances that are blatantly anti-scientific then it is up the the skeptic community to call them out on it; otherwise, religious dogmatic claims are not the purview of science.

The differences between skeptics and atheists have come front and center recently after Bill Maher was announced to receive the Richard Dawkins Award by the Atheist Alliance International. Maher hit it off with the atheist community after his movie Religulous came out, which culminated in being awarded the prize at the AAI convention in Burbank, California this last weekend. An atheist organization giving an atheist a prize is not of concern to skeptics; however, when the criteria for the award states:

“The Richard Dawkins Award will be given every year to honor an outstanding atheist whose contributions raise public awareness of the nontheist life stance; who through writings, media, the arts, film, and/or the stage advocates increased scientific knowledge; who through work or by example teaches acceptance of the nontheist philosophy; and whose public posture mirrors the uncompromising nontheist life stance of Dr. Richard Dawkins”.

Skeptics should cringe. Bill Maher has a long history of promoting anti-science. He is an anit-vaccine, germ theory denialist, who openly shares his delusion that western medicine is a conspiracy theory to make money and keep everyone sick. To any critical thinking skeptic Bill Maher is an Enemy of Reason.

Atheism is the lack of belief in a god, it says nothing about what someone actually does believe in. Sam Harris himself stated at the 2007 AAI convention that atheism is not a worldview or a philosophy. It is not incompatible to identify oneself as an atheist and someone who believes in astrology, psychics, or alternative medicine. Sasha Pixlee likes to say that people become atheists one of two ways, by thinking critically about the subject and the world around them, or because they are mad at their parents. There have been several movements attempting to unite those with purely naturalistic worldviews, these include Freethinkers, Secular Humanists, or the Sacramento based Brights; however, even with the popularity of some of these the nomenclature “atheist” is still favored.

Also Check out:

For more information on Bill Maher’s anti-science visit Orac’s blog Respectful Insolence.

Why I am Not an Atheist by Robert T. Carroll

What do I do Next Edited by Daniel Laxton