Hey Aaron. I made a Medium account just to comment here.

I hope you don’t mind me changing the subject a little bit. I’m interested in your use of the language of “choosing” beliefs. Your first line captures the issue: is moving from belief to non-belief (or vice versa) an “action,” one chooses to commit, or is it something more difficult to define/identify?

I’m not sure I would say that I’ve “chosen” any of my beliefs. I’ll say I’ve been “persuaded” by an argument, or “convinced” that a statement is true. My convictions are beliefs that I find “compelling,” regardless of whether or not I want them to be true. But I would never say that I’ve “chosen” my beliefs about whether or not God exists, or that life does/n’t have meaning.

I think I agree with you that an atheistic declaration that life has meaning is no less arbitrary than a belief in God..but that does little more than leave us with two equally arbitrary possibilities. Which makes your title, “The Illusion of Atheism,” a bit puzzling.