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What Are Some Of The Best Things About Being An Atheist?
112 Answers
I’m leaning towards becoming an atheist, so I am curious to hear from people on here who are atheists, what are some of the main things you enjoy about being an atheist?
Answers
The word shouldn't exist. No one is born believing. Furthermore, atheism isn't a 'club'. There are no rules. Absence of belief is the default position of humankind. No more, no less. That said, whilst non-
08:53 Thu 21st Oct 2021
AH, I think I've explained well enough but since you're still struggling I'll try again. If someone is afraid not to believe, they are, in my opinion, emotionally frail.
As for your 'premise', most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they question that in later life very often a sneaking suspicion of its validity lingers. When adults 'choose' to believe I ask why? To believe in something for which no proof - or even evidence - exists is not logical. Therefore there must be a reason people make that choice and that reason is, in my opinion, the dangled carrot of the opportunity to cheat death - but moreover the evil notion that sin is innate within every human being, and the dread of the assured punishment for indulging that awaits after death. Most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they have their doubts in later life, very often the ominous prospect of punishment remains. Religion is not the choice of the rational mind. It is the choice of the emotionally frail.
As for your 'premise', most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they question that in later life very often a sneaking suspicion of its validity lingers. When adults 'choose' to believe I ask why? To believe in something for which no proof - or even evidence - exists is not logical. Therefore there must be a reason people make that choice and that reason is, in my opinion, the dangled carrot of the opportunity to cheat death - but moreover the evil notion that sin is innate within every human being, and the dread of the assured punishment for indulging that awaits after death. Most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they have their doubts in later life, very often the ominous prospect of punishment remains. Religion is not the choice of the rational mind. It is the choice of the emotionally frail.
As a child I was led to believe my mind was my worst enemy, that my reason was in fact the devil leading me astray. I cannot to this day imagine a more monstrous doctrine, a more sinister approach than to teach a child that their own mind, their own capacity to reason is the very thing they should trust the least to determine what is true and what is real and what is right. Religion is a trap designed to be sprung on the vulnerable by the victim's own hand. I can say based on my own experience that it is no easy feat to extricate oneself from such a devious trap and that attempting to do so can become an arduous and continuous lifelong process.
mibn2cweus: I agree that was an awful doctrine, I was brought up completely differently: I was taught to think, in fact I thought & thought so much that eventually I rejected all thoughts & attachments to religion & became an atheist, but I didn't then stop thinking, I kept on & on & my thoughts led me to realise that thinking alone isn't enough without feelings.
Like D.H. Lawrence, I realised that with our minds alone we can go wrong; what counts is in the blood; "the flesh being wiser than the intellect, what the blood feels, believes & says is always true."
Like D.H. Lawrence, I realised that with our minds alone we can go wrong; what counts is in the blood; "the flesh being wiser than the intellect, what the blood feels, believes & says is always true."
naomi - // AH, I think I've explained well enough but since you're still struggling I'll try again. If someone is afraid not to believe, they are, in my opinion, emotionally frail.
As for your 'premise', most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they question that in later life very often a sneaking suspicion of its validity lingers. When adults 'choose' to believe I ask why? To believe in something for which no proof - or even evidence - exists is not logical. Therefore there must be a reason people make that choice and that reason is, in my opinion, the dangled carrot of the opportunity to cheat death - but moreover the evil notion that sin is innate within every human being, and the dread of the assured punishment for indulging that awaits after death. Most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they have their doubts in later life, very often the ominous prospect of punishment remains. Religion is not the choice of the rational mind. It is the choice of the emotionally frail. //
It's not that I don't understand your notion of being 'emotionally frail' - it's that I don;t understand what on earth 'emotional frailty' has to do with my point.
My point is to refute your argument about Santa Claus.
As I pointed out, children believe in Santa Claus because they lack the mental capacity to question it, as do children told about God.
My point is, that when a mind reaches a level where it can reason, it will reject the concept of Santa, obviously, and in a lot of cases, it will reject religion as well, using exactly the same processes or thought and reasoning.
Your extensive diatribe about reasons why people believe in religion - 'emotional frailty' are entirely a separate issue, and have nothing whatsoever to do with accepted belief in childhood leading to rejected belief in adulthood.
I pointed out that it was invalid at the time, and all you have done is bring up a parallel point about reasons for belief, which are not involved in my point, and then patronised me for 'not understanding'.
I do understand what you said, but I repeat, it does nothing to address my original point.
As for your 'premise', most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they question that in later life very often a sneaking suspicion of its validity lingers. When adults 'choose' to believe I ask why? To believe in something for which no proof - or even evidence - exists is not logical. Therefore there must be a reason people make that choice and that reason is, in my opinion, the dangled carrot of the opportunity to cheat death - but moreover the evil notion that sin is innate within every human being, and the dread of the assured punishment for indulging that awaits after death. Most adults believe because they've been taught to believe - and even if they have their doubts in later life, very often the ominous prospect of punishment remains. Religion is not the choice of the rational mind. It is the choice of the emotionally frail. //
It's not that I don't understand your notion of being 'emotionally frail' - it's that I don;t understand what on earth 'emotional frailty' has to do with my point.
My point is to refute your argument about Santa Claus.
As I pointed out, children believe in Santa Claus because they lack the mental capacity to question it, as do children told about God.
My point is, that when a mind reaches a level where it can reason, it will reject the concept of Santa, obviously, and in a lot of cases, it will reject religion as well, using exactly the same processes or thought and reasoning.
Your extensive diatribe about reasons why people believe in religion - 'emotional frailty' are entirely a separate issue, and have nothing whatsoever to do with accepted belief in childhood leading to rejected belief in adulthood.
I pointed out that it was invalid at the time, and all you have done is bring up a parallel point about reasons for belief, which are not involved in my point, and then patronised me for 'not understanding'.
I do understand what you said, but I repeat, it does nothing to address my original point.
Khandro - // Like D.H. Lawrence, I realised that with our minds alone we can go wrong; what counts is in the blood; "the flesh being wiser than the intellect, what the blood feels, believes & says is always true." //
If I understand you correctly, you are putting forward an argument that instinct should be trusted over intellect.
That I can entirely see in terms of prehistoric man, who believed that the sun and the sea and the rivers and trees were all 'gods' to be worshipped because instinct was all he possessed.
Now that we have the intellect to reason around such things, we appear to reject the notion that things we can see, like the sun and the sea and the rivers and the trees are not 'gods', so instead we believe in something that has been imagined.
That is why intellect on this occasion is faulty - it has simply made up something more sophisticated in the spurious belief that its additional sophistication gives belief in it merit over the notion of primitive man's notions of 'gods'.
They are rooted in exactly the same primal need - to believe in something 'higher' - only the cast list alters, depending which part of the world you grow up in.
If I understand you correctly, you are putting forward an argument that instinct should be trusted over intellect.
That I can entirely see in terms of prehistoric man, who believed that the sun and the sea and the rivers and trees were all 'gods' to be worshipped because instinct was all he possessed.
Now that we have the intellect to reason around such things, we appear to reject the notion that things we can see, like the sun and the sea and the rivers and the trees are not 'gods', so instead we believe in something that has been imagined.
That is why intellect on this occasion is faulty - it has simply made up something more sophisticated in the spurious belief that its additional sophistication gives belief in it merit over the notion of primitive man's notions of 'gods'.
They are rooted in exactly the same primal need - to believe in something 'higher' - only the cast list alters, depending which part of the world you grow up in.
Dedicated Christian for 30 years. Now committed atheist. It's brilliant. You know the truth (or are at least a lot closer to it in important ways). It frees you up to be open to science and knowledge in general, and not keep believing things which you kind of know don't stack up. Not to mention the huge amounts of your short life you waste singing and praying to someone who isn't there and reading from a crazy dusty old book full of smiting-talk. When you get out of religion you realise just how crazy it all is.
absolute tosh
// Like other believers, he is afraid to do otherwise. He can't help himself. //
so he cant change - wake up and say - the god I thought existed, doesnt
or
I think I will be a Roman Catholic for a few years
despite Wvan2020 saying that he leans towards atheism and therefore is liable to change ?
o well AB on a saturday afternoon .....
// Like other believers, he is afraid to do otherwise. He can't help himself. //
so he cant change - wake up and say - the god I thought existed, doesnt
or
I think I will be a Roman Catholic for a few years
despite Wvan2020 saying that he leans towards atheism and therefore is liable to change ?
o well AB on a saturday afternoon .....
stifle one pile of tosh and there is another steaming ipile pleading for attention
It frees you up to be open to science and knowledge in general
so there were no scientists who were christian
I am sorry there wwwweeeeere (say in sing sing-y coice) - LeMaitre - the one who modelled the universe without Einstein stabilising constant
17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966 was a Belgian Catholic priest, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain.
o god sometimes I find saturdays too much
It frees you up to be open to science and knowledge in general
so there were no scientists who were christian
I am sorry there wwwweeeeere (say in sing sing-y coice) - LeMaitre - the one who modelled the universe without Einstein stabilising constant
17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966 was a Belgian Catholic priest, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain.
o god sometimes I find saturdays too much
I am writing an answer on a question website , not writing a treatise. Not saying I'm wrong, just that I use broader brushstrokes.
NO....I did not say those that are deists are closed off to science. Or that all atheists are suddenly all scientifically literate.
There is science. There is religious belief. But they are kind of trying to explain the same thing in certain ways. What made the universe? Atheist: 'Don't know/some other universe/dimensional distortions/bubbles' Religious guy 'An all-powerful person'.
So if you are religious, you have an answer to that already. You are closed off to the possibility that it was not a Personal Being but rather nothing/another universe/a ripple.
The same goes on now in many fields, and has done for millenia.
Charles Darwin made many advances in Evolutionary Theory. He was scared witless of going public cos of all those who were closed off by religion to the notion that we came from other apes.
So my point broadly holds.
#SaturdayAnswerbankers
NO....I did not say those that are deists are closed off to science. Or that all atheists are suddenly all scientifically literate.
There is science. There is religious belief. But they are kind of trying to explain the same thing in certain ways. What made the universe? Atheist: 'Don't know/some other universe/dimensional distortions/bubbles' Religious guy 'An all-powerful person'.
So if you are religious, you have an answer to that already. You are closed off to the possibility that it was not a Personal Being but rather nothing/another universe/a ripple.
The same goes on now in many fields, and has done for millenia.
Charles Darwin made many advances in Evolutionary Theory. He was scared witless of going public cos of all those who were closed off by religion to the notion that we came from other apes.
So my point broadly holds.
#SaturdayAnswerbankers
Psychology:
It may emerge that certain materialist atheist psychologists are right and there is not really free will. Maybe they will be able to prove this.
No christian psychologist will ever be able to accept this because christianity is founded on the notion of free will, sin, evil, evil choice, redemtion through sacrifice. Without these there is no christianity.
So basically all real christians will be closed off to one of the most important scientific truths.
But wait, some big scientists historically were christians. Therefore there is a god and I'm talking nonsense.
#Strawman
It may emerge that certain materialist atheist psychologists are right and there is not really free will. Maybe they will be able to prove this.
No christian psychologist will ever be able to accept this because christianity is founded on the notion of free will, sin, evil, evil choice, redemtion through sacrifice. Without these there is no christianity.
So basically all real christians will be closed off to one of the most important scientific truths.
But wait, some big scientists historically were christians. Therefore there is a god and I'm talking nonsense.
#Strawman
AH; Was choosing your life-partner done solely as an intellectual decision?
Most of life's major decisions are done on feelings.
I once spent a lot of time on selection committees interviewing students for university entrance. We frequently rejected interviewees who had all (& more) the required exam results, & ticked all the other boxes, but in the end we just 'didn't like them', they wouldn't 'fit'.
That is why I believe we had such a successful, flourishing department.
Most of life's major decisions are done on feelings.
I once spent a lot of time on selection committees interviewing students for university entrance. We frequently rejected interviewees who had all (& more) the required exam results, & ticked all the other boxes, but in the end we just 'didn't like them', they wouldn't 'fit'.
That is why I believe we had such a successful, flourishing department.
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