Why I call myself an atheist (and not a secular humanist)

I've gotten a lot of shit from my atheist friends about identifying myself as an atheist instead of a skeptic or secular humanist. I do consider myself a skeptic and secular humanist (although I worry that the term humanism excludes other conscious creatures), but when it comes to declaring my beliefs, I choose atheism. I've found the same criticism just about everywhere in the atheist movement. I've heard Sam Harris say we shouldn't call ourselves anything other than rational people. I've seen forum posts by self-proclaimed atheists saying you shouldn't go around telling people you're an atheist. Invariably their reasons are unsatisfactory.

Sam Harris thinks that calling ourselves any thing other than rational people isolates ourselves from theistic allies in the rest of society, that we come off as a cranky subculture. He would rather we oppose irrational ideas as we encounter them. Some secular humanists say that we shouldn't define ourselves as atheists because we ought to present a positive philosophy rather than a rejection of god. While I agree with their reasons to a certain measure, I think they miss out on the greater advantage that comes from naming yourself explicitly in opposition to something.

I choose to call myself an atheist because belief in a god has caused more unnecessary suffering than anything in human history. I choose to call myself an atheist for the same reason I would choose to call myself an abolitionist if slavery was still legal; proposing a positive philosophy is secondary to my goal of fighting against the single-most destructive human enterprise ever. Admittedly, I could use the label of skeptic to declare my opposition to all irrationality, rather than just belief in god. The problem is that no one considers their particular belief irrational. I like to state that I oppose belief in god and then explain why it is irrational, rather than state I am against irrationality and possibly circumvent an argument with a theist who thinks faith is a rational concept.

Some atheists might take issue with my characterization of atheism as an opposition to belief in a god. After all, an atheist is technically just anyone who doesn't believe in god. If I were talking about philosophy, yes, I would stick to the proper definition. Here in Canada (and I suspect most of the world except for parts of europe) atheism has come to mean  more. A religious person sees an atheist as someone who thinks a belief in god is silly. To them a person raised without a belief in god is an agnostic. Instead of wasting our time arguing semantics, I like to let the religious person understand that I am against religion. So if you don't feel the same way I do, call yourself whatever you want. Just don't object to me labeling myself as an atheist.

Welcome!

Greetings potential readers, I'd like to welcome you to Shakrilege, a blog I began to fuel my own narcissism. I am aware that there is no dearth of atheist blogs on the intertubes, so thank you for taking time out of your busy blog reading schedule to take a look at mine. Hopefully I can offer something of interest for you, a fresh perspective on an old issue, a post on an obscure topic or news story, or even just a high school student's take on being an atheist. If you don't feel like sticking around, no hard feelings; I'll see you around the atheist blogosphere. If you do like my blog, leave a message in the comment section, I'd love to hear your input.

I will be regularly posting once I have a readership. I have quite a few posts written that I don't want to spew out to an empty blog.

Thanks for stopping by.
-Shak