That Word "Atheism"
Let's face it: for many people the word atheism and related terms are off-putting. It's been freighted with so much baggage over the centuries that for a long time people were reluctant to claim the label. It's understandable, and I'm happy that has changed. It's been a favorite insult even when it was incorrect. Theodore Roosevelt called Thomas Paine, author of The Age of Reason , a "filthy little atheist." There was just one three problems: Paine was immaculately clean; he was tall; and he (like many of the founders) was a deist. TR wasn't a stickler for facts apparently. Since believers from time immemorial have thought that without God morality is impossible, the conclusion followed that atheists were amoralists -- good and bad were not among their concerns. (Of course the error is in thinking that God is or could be the source of objective ethics .) Let's recall the time when atheists couldn't testify in court because no greater powe