Any Schmuck Can Be an Atheist

The virtue of reasonableness is the most potent weapon in the atheist's moral arsenal. Atheism has value only when it flows from reasonableness. There are irrational forms of atheism, and these are usually worthless. Suppose, to take an extreme case, that you deny the existence of everything. Nothing, you argue, can be known to exist. Naturally this position will lead you to deny the existence of a god along with everything else. You are an atheist, but so what? The irrational and self-contradictory nature of the premise from which your atheism proceeds negates the value that your atheism might other have.

Atheism is a consequence, not a cause, of reasonableness. There is nothing praiseworthy in atheism as such. Any fool can disbelieve; any idiot can proclaim to the world that God is an illusion. There is nothing inspiring in this, nothing to command respect. That one disbelieves in a god is unimportant, but why one disbelieves is supremely important.

--George H. Smith, Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies (1991) 

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