Look!
Here’s a 
guy holding up a sign that says, “Religion.
Because thinking is hard.”
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t call someone out
like this directly, but given that this guy
is holding this sign and he's posed for the
picture with a wide grin on his face, he either
wants everyone to see how the tax dollars
spent on 5th grade arts and crafts class didn’t
go to waste, or he is proud of what the sign
says.
If he isn’t proud of his crafting skills,
then let’s give him the courtesy of taking
his slogan seriously.
His sign reads, “Religion.
Because thinking is hard.”
Apparently so.
Now I have some close atheists friends that
aren't afraid to attempt to prove that God
doesn’t exist.
They do this by offering arguments against
the existence of God, and one way they do
this is to attempt to try and show that there
is a contradiction in the concept of God.
So for example, this is what the problem of
evil and suffering is all about.
These guys are not afraid to embrace the classical
and philosophical definition of atheism, which
says that, “God does not exist” is a true
statement.
But many others, predominately those online,
avoid the burden of proof like Ebola.
So instead of affirming the claim that God
does not exist, they claim that atheism simply
means, “a lack of belief in God.”
We can call this the second definition of
atheism.
They claim when it comes to God, they don’t
believe anything; they simply just lack belief.
But for those that claim that atheism is simply
just a lack of belief in God, then perhaps
I can make a suggestion.
First, change the sign to make it more accurate.
Like this:
because my suggestion is, if you want to stop
thinking completely, then try atheism.
No, seriously.
This isn’t just me cracking jokes.
If atheism only means simply a lack of belief,
then it literally wouldn’t take any thought
to hold to atheism.
No matter how little thought someone would
put into believing in a particular religion,
no matter how ridiculous, atheism could take
even less thought.
In fact, if atheism is only a lack of belief,
then I could be near brain dead and still
be an atheist.
I could be quite literally the dumbest person
on the planet and still be an atheist.
I could literally be incapable of thinking,
and I could still be an atheist.
Atheists will often say to picture a world
of only atheists.
Challenge accepted!
Okay, but really, if the poster is is trying
to show that religious people aren’t always
thoughtful and don’t think their views through
well, that much is true.
I completely agree.
Because many aren’t.
But, as holding up this sign objectively demonstrates,
non-religious people aren’t necessarily
always champions of thoughtfulness either.
For those who sincerely believe that religious
people aren’t thoughtful, you may just not
be aware of the work put out by scholars on
the rational reasons for belief.
If not, I would advise you to start off with
books like this:
And if you’re not the reading type, then
subscribe to this channel, to stop yourself
from sharing memes like this:
What's exactly wrong with memes like this
that claim that Christianity came from pagan
mythology?
Well for that, go ahead and check out my video
with Mary Jo Sharp on this very issue.
So the next time someone tells you to try
religion if thinking is too hard, what are
you gonna say?
