How to Become Humble

I saw this offered on Reddit as “How to Become an Atheist.”

One problem is that atheists sometimes turn the critical gaze they probe religions with on their own worldview, and find that it is not without those same human imperfections, shortcomings, and unanswered questions that religious worldviews have.

Using the “outsider test” (as John Loftus calls it) has turned religious people into atheists, but also into liberal religious people, and it has also turned atheists into other things as well.

If you think that rational examination leads only to your worldview, then you probably haven’t fully applied the outsider test to your current worldview. If you had, you would know that it is not without its shortcoming either.

Treating other religious views the way you want your own to be treated isn’t inherently atheistic. It is an application of the Golden Rule, and thus fundamentally – although not exclusively – Christian.

The one thing it should make you, if done fairly and honestly, is humble, whether you remain in your own tradition, or decide to try another one on for size.