Atheists are religious too

What does an atheist see when they look at a theist?  In part they see someone worshipping God with fervor, eyes wide in religious ecstasy as they blindly follow a man wearing an absurd number of robes.  At times I see this too.  I have seen people so overcome with emotion in “God’s love” I wonder if the rational side of their mind is working at all.

I have seen this same blind emotion and devotion in atheists.  Read the comments under any YouTube video in which Richard Dawkins appears and you’ll find a number of atheists proclaiming “if God existed he’d be Richard Dawkins”.  Vocal atheists like Mr. Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens have a following all their own, a swarming crowd of disciples hooting at each insult to the religious.

In a sense atheists have swapped one god for another.  Theists follow a god or gods, a man or men, and a system of belief.  Atheists follow prominent men at the forefront of their belief such as Dawkins, Hitchens, Charles Darwin and even comedians such as Bill Maher and George Carlin.

Both theists and atheists make a common mistake.  A human tendency is to believe something and then seek out others who share your way of thinking.  Religious people do this all the time as they seek out a church that teaches what they want to hear.  If real truth is out there however, then shouldn’t we conform to it rather than force a version of it to conform to us?

Atheists make another mistake.  Many don’t seem to understand what men like Richard Dawkins actually believe.  Dawkins says we cannot prove God exists, but neither can we prove he doesn’t exist.  This is not the same as unequivocally saying God doesn’t exist as many of his followers do.

In the end what atheists hate the most is often what they become.  Don't believe me?  Do an internet search for "church of atheism."