Do you know many atheists who do not adhere to those tennets? I don't but my exposier to atheists is probably more limited than yours.
There is no law which says an atheist must
Didn't say there was.
An atheist does not even require to be rational.
Didn't say that either.
The term used was "expected to accept" and with regards to that list, it seems to hold true in general, which makes the items on the list qualify as dogma.
You were stating beliefs.
Dogma is not a set of laws or requirements, it is a fixed belief or set of beliefs people are expected to accept without any doubts, not necessarily even written. If it were written it would be considered doctrine.
Atheists are people, not a definitions...people who are diverse of course but who also identify with certain general ideas and belief sets.
The fact that many of them are accepted scientific ideas does not have anything to do with atheism.
Science is a tool involving methods. It is impressed by phylosophical ideas and beliefs but those ideas and beliefs are not scientific since they are not observable. Science is a tool requiring the replicable observation and collection of data, formation of hypothesis, testing the hypothesis under controlled conditions, interpreting results and drawing conclusions. Atheists are not being scientific when they declare adherence to those tennets on the list. They are simply, as you correctly labeled them "belief statements;" a set of belief statements atheists are expected to accept without any doubts.
"The universe is self-existing and self created, the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, life began as a result of spontaneous generation, Mankind is a result of organic evolution, Morality is an artificial construct of humans-there is no transcendent moral standard, religion and religious belief/dogma is harmful to human development, religion is antithetical to reason, etc" |
