Personal experience is not, by itself, enough reason to believe something is true. And that’s just as true for religion as anything else. Our personal experience told us for centuries that the sun orbited the earth. To be reasonably certain that what our experience tells us is probably true, we need to rely on rigorous testing of hypotheses. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

“You have no right to make your case” is an argument people make when they don’t have a case themselves. And that’s true of religion as much as anything else. If your anti-atheism argument focuses on why atheists are bad people just for making their case, maybe your case for religion isn’t very strong. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Oh, quick note about Twitter: Some people have asked me to make the Memes Twitter-ready. I think I’m not going to do that: I already have a hard time saying what I want to say in 420 characters for Facebook, without trying to say them in 140 characters for Twitter. But if you want to edit these down to a Tweetable format, I heartily encourage you to do so.

Atheists are not shut off from the universe. Many atheists experience deep connection with the universe, and a sense of transcendent wonder at its majesty and complexity. We just don’t think those experiences imply anything about God or an immaterial world. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Yes, I’m still doing the Memes. I stopped for a few days when my Facebook feed was bolloxed up, but now they’re back.

However, I stopped posting them to my blog every day. It seemed clumsy: it was taking up a lot of room on the blog page, making for a lot of scrolling to get to the more thorough bloggy content. So I thought it might be better to post them to my blog once a week instead.

If there’s a general clamor for me to post the Atheist Memes of the Day here every day, I’ll switch back. If not, I’ll just keep posting them once a week or so.

For those who are just tuning in: I’m doing a project on my Facebook page, The Atheist Meme of the Day. Every weekday, I’m posting a short, pithy, Facebook-ready atheist meme… in the hopes that people will spread them, and that eventually, the ideas will get through. If you want to play, please feel free to pass these on through your own Facebook page, or whatever forum or social networking site you like. Or if you don’t like mine, edit them as you see fit, or make some of your own.

(BTW, if you’re on Facebook, friend me!)

Here are the last few Atheist Memes of the Day:

Our choices for dealing with different religious beliefs aren’t limited to uncritical ecumenalism or fundamentalist theocracy. We can question and criticize religious beliefs we disagree with, while passionately supporting religious freedom and people’s right to believe whatever they like. That’s where most atheist activists are coming from. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

The reason many atheists care what other people believe is that beliefs affect decisions. Including political decisions. Political decisions should be made based on evidence about what works in this world, not on what an invisible being whose opinions we have no way of evaluating supposedly wants in an otherworldly realm nobody can agree about. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across. (Posted the day after same-sex marriage lost in Maine.)

“Believing is a safer bet than not believing” is a terrible reason to believe in God. Which God should we bet on? If we’re believing in God just to hedge our bets in the afterlife, which of the thousands of contradictory religions should we follow? And how would that be sincere belief? Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

If there’s no possible way to show that a hypothesis is wrong — if any possible event can be interpreted to confirm a hypothesis — then that hypothesis isn’t useful. And that applies to religion. If anything that happens, bad or good, can be seen as a sign of God’s existence, then God’s existence is indistinguishable from God’s non-existence. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Atheism doesn’t mean cynicism, nihilism, or despair. Atheists can and do have happy lives, full of meaning and joy, and with comfort and solace in difficult times. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

“Something had to have made the universe, things don’t just make themselves” is not a good argument for God. If things can’t just exist forever or pop into being out of nothing… where did God come from? And if God can have existed forever or come into being out of nothing… why can’t that be true for the universe? Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Religion is not just a matter of personal opinion or different perspectives. It’s a hypothesis about how the world works and why it is the way it is. And it’s not unreasonable or intolerant for atheists to treat it as a hypothesis, and to point out when that hypothesis is inconsistent with the evidence. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day:

Yes, some atheists can be jerks. Especially on the Internet. Some people in every group can be jerks — especially on the Internet. This doesn’t make atheism an inherently jerky worldview. And it doesn’t make atheism mistaken. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day:

It is hypothetically possible that, if you jump out the window, fairies will carry you to the ground. You can’t prove with 100% certainty that it won’t happen. Are you therefore going to jump out the window? If not, why would you base any other major decision on a religious belief you have no evidence for but that can’t be 100% disproved? Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day:

In human history, supernatural explanations of phenomena have been replaced by natural explanations thousands upon thousands of times. Natural explanations have been replaced by supernatural ones exactly never. So why would we assume that any given unexplained phenomenon is probably supernatural? Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day:

Atheism is not a religion or a faith. It is not a 100% certain belief in the non-existence of God; and it is no more a faith than not believing in unicorns. Atheism is simply the conclusion that the evidence for religion is weak at best — and that unless we see better evidence, we’re going to assume that God doesn’t exist. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day:

Most atheists passionately support believers’ right to believe and practice whatever religion they like, and we oppose anti-religious discrimination as vehemently as anti-atheist discrimination. We may disagree with what people believe — sometimes passionately and vocally — but we will defend with equal passion their right to believe it. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.