Make This Your Atheist New Year's Resolution

Make This Your Atheist New Year's Resolution

Hemant Mehta (http://www.friendlyatheist.com, http://www.patreon.com/Hemant , https://www.facebook.com/friendlyatheist)

Happy new year! It's been a while. An infant will do that to you. I hope you're well.

Since the new year is here, and you may be thinking about resolutions, I wanted to make one suggestion for something all of you can do this year: Try spreading reason, in some way, to people who aren't using it.

That doesn't mean you have to start an argument or convince a religious relative to abandon Jesus. Good luck with that. But maybe you come across a friend spreading a picture on Facebook that contains misinformation. I want you to politely explain why that information is wrong. Back it up with a citation. I know they might dismiss it or ignore it, but do it.

Maybe you read a news story that gets the facts wrong. Write to that newspaper or reporter and politely let them know what they screwed up. (Better yet, share that letter on social media.)

Maybe someone you know promotes alternative medicine, or some mid-level marketing scheme, or thinks your astrological sign has something to do with how you act, or wants to go on a detox diet. Talk to them. Guide them to a path of reason. Do it privately if that's easier. You don't have to publicly shame them.

The point is: Try to spread critical thinking in some way, especially if that's something you don't do already. You don't have to be a jerk about it. You don't have to do it all the time. But don't be afraid of it. We could use more critically thinking people out there willing to push back when they see something that's false.

If there's one thing I've learned from making videos like these for a few years, it's that you're bound to get pushback when you try to spread what you think are reasonable arguments -- I see your downvotes and nasty comments -- but I also get a lot of really wonderful messages, privately, from people who says these videos made a difference. You don't need a platform like this to do that yourself.

And even if your corrections don't change the mind of the person who made the comment in the first place, there's a good chance you might change the mind of a stranger who's reading it. You never know.

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Видео Make This Your Atheist New Year's Resolution канала The Atheist Voice