Fashionable Atheism

It seems the favourite catchphrase of the patronisingly religious, particularly now with the rise of new atheism, to call atheism fashionable, trendy, or cool.

This is just another way of stating the same condescending remarks as the infamous line “I used to be an atheist, but now …”. It is so revoltingly arrogant and dismissive. It suggests that atheism is a childish notion that one grows out of, or that is just a phase.

What a hideous notion it is. It is exceedingly rare to come across someone who is atheist for the sake of going along with a trend. There is a very good reason why it is rare, and if the religious would only think about it then they would see it too. To conform is inherently to not contemplate the advantages and disadvantages of something, just to go along with it. But if anyone mentions that they are atheist, they will almost without fail fall into philosophical debate, and if they haven’t thought about atheism then it will show, probably within the first sentence they say. At this point they will be forced to move to a position of undecidedness, no longer permitted to identify as atheist.

Then the religious will often have the nerve to suggest that their falling numbers are due to a popular surge in atheism, rather than because their doctrine is incorrect and irrelevant.