Religion/Spirituality What Are the Benefits of Atheism?

[Brown_Pride]

And here you go assuming something else about these people, you are assuming they are "salty" or "hating". Why is it so hard for you to think that these people may not believe simply because the evidence that there is a higher power isnt convincing enough for them?

You can commune with people trying to do good in this world outside of a church.

I absoluate did not I said IF.
IF you're going to be salty then it's not gonna work.
I tend to believe people dont' believe because of the evidence or lack there of. My religion is based on faith, not proof so i expect as much.

I cannot PROVE God exists. I believe he does.

And yes you can commune in other places. I was just saying you could ALSO do that at church...

are you actually reading my posts entirely before your eyes glaze over and you hit reply?

 

[Mr. Pink]

atheism is not a philosophy on life

I can't believe it took 4 pages for someone to say this...

The OP started out on the wrong foot from the very beginning. Atheism can't 'teach' anything because atheism is not a dogma. It's not a religion or a philosohpy. It's simply the lack of belief in "God". You can have a mass-murderer atheist and a Nobel Peace winning atheist, and the same applies to a theist.

As for the 'benefits' of atheism... the benefit is freedom from the shackles of a philosophy which is decidedly anti-life(which all afterlife/heaven and hell based religions are).


Also, I suspect many theists, both on the forum and in everyday life, are not actually theists. They're not true believers. They are Pascal Wagerists. They only 'believe' in God because it's the "safe choice" and you "have nothing to lose".

I don't want to offend anybody, but Pascal's Wager is a patently stupid idea.

 

[the cac mamba]

for one thing, i dont have to fear that by worshipping one god, i am angering the hundreds of others that have been said to exist throughout history. which is 100% true from an objective standpoint

 

[Brown_Pride]

I'm daze23. the pigeon hole I mostly fit in is "weak atheism"

I'm not sure why you'd assume anything about what I've 'tried' to believe

i assumed because i didn't know and i was having an discussion without all the facts. Now i know

what does "weak atheism" mean anyhow?
oh and if i straight tell you i'm assuming the assumption is that you understand that i'm fully aware i run the risk of being 100% off base. I also assume you understand that when I tell you i'm assuming that I'm also asking you to clarify my assumption.

 

[Ian1362]

did you plan to go to college or did you forego that in lue of having a "biotching" high school experience?

I didn't mean that kind of planning. I mean the whole conditioning you get from birth to death, about being a good person to go to heaven. Teaching kids every single thing they love will be waiting for them after they die, spending unusual amounts of time dedicated to discussing what awaits after death.

Not having to worry about that sort of planning and just living my life for the experience is refreshing for me. I don't have to weigh how my acts add or detract from that afterlife pool.

religion does not = morality.
religion teaches morality.
If you have morals in spite of not being religious then...well you just learned them from a different place.

I know, I didn't say religion = morality. The section I quoted presumed that religion = morality, which I think as a moral non-religious person isn't the case.

fair enough. I'm the same but reverse. I've no beef with atheists. I find it funny a lot of them get all frantic and offensive in regards to my beliefs...but to be fair i understand where some of the animosity comes from in light of the many...many...many horrible things carried out in the name of God and religion.

Yeh there are a lot of atheists who are really more about antagonizing religious people than believing in whatever. They consider it more of a cool kids intellectual club.

I mean, religious people historically would love to burn or otherwise kill me for my beliefs, but that isn't the case now and I wasn't around then so I don't care about that type of animosity.

Hmmm so you're saying not having a goal is a benefit? IDK about you but I HATE getting lost. I have goals for pretty much everything I do in life. When I made this thread it was to get the opinions of my fellow brethren on a certain issue. Even if my goal was to troll that would still be a goal. So me, personally, I wouldn't view that as necessarily a benefit, the question is subjective.

Oh, I definitely still have goals. Not having "eternal afterlife" as one of those to juggle is a nice release though.

I don't attribute morals to atheism, no. Atheism isn't a moral code.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Prison rates don't mean anything to me. We all know prisons are disproportionately over-represented by blacks. We also know most atheists are white.

Mentioning prison rates in any way other than pointing out racism is the weakest point that can be made no matter what the discussion. It's absurd to mention something so idiotic.

How do you know that the ratio doesn't carry over to the black atheists or the religious whites?

 

[The_Sheff]

I absoluate did not I said IF.
IF you're going to be salty then it's not gonna work.
I tend to believe people dont' believe because of the evidence or lack there of. My religion is based on faith, not proof so i expect as much.

I cannot PROVE God exists. I believe he does.

And yes you can commune in other places. I was just saying you could ALSO do that at church...

are you actually reading my posts entirely before your eyes glaze over and you hit reply?

Why even bring up "hate" and "saltiness" when discussing these people? You put those words into your post. Why speak on people with hate and saltiness and not the overwhelming majority of people who dont go places with that in their hearts? Lets talk about those people and their views on religion.

Also since we going hyper technical now, you didnt say anything about communing with people trying to do good in church, you said these people should just open their mind to it. How do you know these people arent open to that to begin with?

 

[Brown_Pride]

As for the 'benefits' of atheism... the benefit is freedom from the shackles of a philosophy which is decidedly anti-life(which all afterlife/heaven and hell based religions are).

what do you mean by this exactly? Anti Life?

Also, I suspect many theists, both on the forum and in everyday life, are not actually theists. They're not true believers. They are Pascal Wagerists. only 'believe' in God because it's the "safe choice" and you "have nothing to lose".

I don't want to offend anybody, but Pascal's Wager is a patently stupid idea.

biblically speaking this is true. Most are "luke warm" as it were. The point of taking the "safe choice" or "having nothing to lose" is to expose someone to the word. IF you remain with those being the motive for your belief then IMHO you've missed the whole message and as you've point out are not really a theists i understand it.

BUT, as I stated earlier, coming to the lord, even if for one of those two reasons has a better chance of you finding the message then NEVER coming at all.

 

[daze23]

i assumed because i didn't know and i was having an discussion without all the facts. Now i know

what does "weak atheism" mean anyhow?

on this chart, it would be an "atheist agnostic"

Atheist, Gnostic, Theist, Agnostic

(this is pretty much the default position of most 'modern atheists' btw)

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

do you realize how many atrocities have been carried out
by people against other people because of religion in the name of God?


and like Bundy said before, a person does not have to believe in a God
in order to live a moral life, i.e. treat other people kindly, don't cause harm to others.

Why would you quote Bundy when he pulled that straight out of his ass? I never said a person has to believe in God to live a moral life. So did you pull that out of his ass too? I know how much you like other men's asses. Just look at your current location.

But I think you're under the assumption that a "religious person" must be a saint. No doubt people do terrible shyt all the time but I'm talking about religion, not people. Religion, itself, never committed any atrocities. Only people claiming to represent it.

There is no religion that teaches people to kill one another. You show me that and I'll show you an idiot.

 

[Brown_Pride]

Why even bring up "hate" and "saltiness" when discussing these people? You put those words into your post. Why speak on people with hate and saltiness and not the overwhelming majority of people who dont go places with that in their hearts? Lets talk about those people and their views on religion.

Also since we going hyper technical now, you didnt say anything about communing with people trying to do good in church, you said these people should just open their mind to it. How do you know these people arent open to that to begin with?

I brought up hate and salty because you stated that people would be forcing themselves, the connotation i got was one of bitterness about the situation. My bad.

So to speak on people forcing themselves to sit in church but doing so with...a easy going temperament then again...why bother? If you don't believe in it and have tried it K.I.M. if that is what you choose.

also hyper-technically speaking yes. So the implication was that I was speaking about them opening their minds to doing good in the world with people IN THE CHURCH who were also doing good in the world. Better?

Also the people forcing themselves to go to church may be open to doing good things.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

How do you know that the ratio doesn't carry over to the black atheists or the religious whites?

How do you know it does?

I'm not the one who brought up prison ratios because I know how dumb and pointless an argument that would be. So if you would like to present more evidence to support your otherwise ridiculous point, feel free to do so. If not, please stop embarrassing yourself. No offense, but that is just a really dumb point.

 

[Brown_Pride]

on this chart, it would be an "atheist agnostic"

Atheist, Gnostic, Theist, Agnostic

(this is pretty much the default position of most 'modern atheists' btw)

A theist gnostic is someone who believes in a god/gods and thinks that the existence of gods can be known. This position is usually referred to as just ‘theist‘, since people who believe in gods, usually also think that their existence can be known.

A theist agnostic is someone who believes in gods, but thinks that they could not know for sure that their god exists. Another fairly unusual position, as people who have faith in gods usually also think that their god can be known to be real.

hmmm sorta black and white.

I believe God exists.
I believe we can know he exist, however we cannot prove it.

What does that make me?

 

[The_Sheff]

I brought up hate and salty because you stated that people would be forcing themselves, the connotation i got was one of bitterness about the situation. My bad.

So to speak on people forcing themselves to sit in church but doing so with...a easy going temperament then again...why bother? If you don't believe in it and have tried it K.I.M. if that is what you choose.

also hyper-technically speaking yes. So the implication was that I was speaking about them opening their minds to doing good in the world with people IN THE CHURCH who were also doing good in the world. Better?

Also the people forcing themselves to go to church may be open to doing good things.

Thats been my point this entire time. Flies right in the face of that absolutely ignorant statement you made about a free lottery and having nothing to lose.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

How do you know it does?

I'm not the one who brought up prison ratios because I know how dumb and pointless an argument that would be. So if you would like to present more evidence to support your otherwise ridiculous point, feel free to do so. If not, please stop embarrassing yourself. No offense, but that is just a really dumb point.

I am pretty sure it'd carry over because of the education level of atheists lowers their liability to land in prison in general and the way people always use religion to "cleanse" themselves of their sinful (immoral) behavior and be generally bad to one another. An atheist has to answer for his or her crimes and they don't scapegoat and delude themselves into thinking that they're somehow getting their slate wiped clean because some poor guy 2000 years ago was unfairly tortured and nailed to a cross.

You can't hide behind race on this one, there are many factors that make religious people immoral. I'm an atheist but I don't hurt people. It's called having empathy. I don't need to fear god to feel badly for someone that I wrong.