Religion/Spirituality What Are the Benefits of Atheism?

[Johnny Kilroy]

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.

Breh, I'm not gonna talk about prison rates with you anymore. It's completely irrelevant.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

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.

lol...you ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition?
whether or not the religion teaches you morals humans pervert those
teachings by thinking they need to defend them at any cost...including killing people who don't follow the same religion.

it happens over and over again throughout history.

organized religion is probably the worst thing to happen to humanity since cancer.

i'm not an atheist btw....i do believe that there is a higher power
that i can't begin to imagine and any priest, rabbi, mullah, ascended master, etc.
that claims to "know the truth" can eat a dikk...same goes for atheist who claim to know that there is no God.

i know enough to know that i don't know shyt. but i do know that something greater than me or anyone else is at work in the Universe.

 

[daze23]

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?

there's more options further down. seems you're closest to: "I have faith in God. I believe he watches over me"

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Breh, I'm not gonna talk about prison rates with you anymore. It's completely irrelevant.

/ragequit

So you can't counter the argument? Don't worry, I'm sure that the obvious flaws in your argument won't keep you awake tonight.

PS: This was about immoral behavior and rate of religiosity, not simply incarceration rates. I guess you can miss the boat purposefully if you don't wanna address it.

 

[Mr. Pink]

what do you mean by this exactly? Anti Life?

It's a....very big, complex discussion. But in a nutshell: All afterlife and heaven/hell based religions(Christianity the first among them) shift focus from this life to the 'next life', the afterlife. They only diminish and inhibit humans. By creating a life beyond the present one where alone true happiness is to be found, it encourages man to despise the present life and turn away from it.
Christianity for example only guilts man and condemns him for doing what is natural. The Christian notion of "original sin" denigrates and diminishes our life on this planet.

 

[Brown_Pride]

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.

Not really. The point of the crude analogy was to say that if you've not "tried" religion and not done so out of "it's a waste of time" then by going to church (playing the lotto) you have nothing to lose. (technically you lose 1-2 hours of a sunday morning, but ultimately you're not contractually obligated to anything).

IF however you've tried (played) and don't like it or whatever, the as I said, K.I.M. It's ultimately your responsibility and your choice.

 

[Brown_Pride]

It's a....very big, complex discussion. But in a nutshell: All afterlife and heaven/hell based religions(Christianity the first among them) shift focus from this life to the 'next life', the afterlife. They only diminish and inhibit humans. By creating a life beyond the present one where alone true happiness is to be found, it encourages man to despise the present life and turn away from it.
Christianity for example only guilts man and condemns him for doing what is natural. The Christian notion of "original sin" denigrates and diminishes our life on this planet.

hmm that's an interesting view of it.

I would say the opposite. It actually creates immense importance on the brief bit of life you do have here because in that short amount of time (0 to ~120 years) you'll solidify how you spend eternity. I'd argue it encourages you to embrace life and utilize it to the fullest of it's measure unto you. Original sin starts you in the red so it further encourages you to get on the ball and do some good.

 

[FrederickDouglas]

I don't understand why a person would go to church and pray to God in order to hedge their bets. You're following a man made concept and you think that if you are wrong and your eventual result is dust, then it's no harm no foul.

What if there is a God, but he's looking for those who don't just accept what people tell them about him? What if he wants you to actually use the brain he gave you to observe the world around you and realize that religion is crap? What if he wants all the horrible things in this world to shock and offend you, therefore causing you to reject his existence instead of blindly claiming its his will? What if only atheists go to heaven and all the presumptuous lying hypocritical contradictory ignorance associated with religion and its members is going straight to hell?

Care to hedge your bets then?

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

is it possible to behave immorally in the afterlife?

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

/ragequit

So you can't counter the argument? Don't worry, I'm sure that the obvious flaws in your argument won't keep you awake tonight.

PS: This was about immoral behavior and rate of religiosity, not simply incarceration rates. I guess you can miss the boat purposefully if you don't wanna address it.

According to your logic, white people are more moral than black people. Look at the numbers!

Now, are you white? If so, you're either racist as fukk or ignorant as fukk. If you're any other race then you're just ignorant as fukk.

Prison rates have nothing to do with morality. Now I can break it down to you but it's pretty elementary and I'm not gonna waste my time. If you can't understand that then I feel sorry for you but unfortunately I'm not going to be the one to bring you into the light. Next I'll be tying your shoes and teaching you how to drink out of a big boy cup.

It was a dumb point. Period.

 

[Mr. Pink]

hmm that's an interesting view of it.

I would say the opposite. It actually creates immense importance on the brief bit of life you do have here because in that short amount of time (0 to ~120 years) you'll solidify how you spend eternity. I'd argue it encourages you to embrace life and utilize it to the fullest of it's measure unto you. Original sin starts you in the red so it further encourages you to get on the ball and do some good.

And it comes back to belief. What you say would arguably be true only if an afterlife existed. If it does, then your behaviour would be justified. But if an afterlife doesn't exist, you wasted the only life you had.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

lol...you ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition?
whether or not the religion teaches you morals humans pervert those
teachings by thinking they need to defend them at any cost...including killing people who don't follow the same religion.

it happens over and over again throughout history.

organized religion is probably the worst thing to happen to humanity since cancer.

i'm not an atheist btw....i do believe that there is a higher power
that i can't begin to imagine and any priest, rabbi, mullah, ascended master, etc.
that claims to "know the truth" can eat a dikk...same goes for atheist who claim to know that there is no God.

i know enough to know that i don't know shyt. but i do know that something greater than me or anyone else is at work in the Universe.

Again, you're talking about people, not an ideology. No religion teaches you to kill other people. Does that mean a religion's followers won't kill anyone? Not at all. But the religion doesn't teach that.

You're confusing an ideology with a human being.

Now I can definitely vibe with your last point. I don't know shyt. And I believe there at least could be something out there greater. Makes sense.

But I can't get down with all your generalizing, because technically, EVERYBODY can eat a dikk in that regards so why only point the finger at religious people?

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

According to your logic, white people are more moral than black people. Look at the numbers!

Now, are you white? If so, you're either racist as fukk or ignorant as fukk. If you're any other race then you're just ignorant as fukk.

Prison rates have nothing to do with morality. Now I can break it down to you but it's pretty elementary and I'm not gonna waste my time. If you can't understand that then I feel sorry for you but unfortunately I'm not going to be the one to bring you into the light. Next I'll be tying your shoes and teaching you how to drink out of a big boy cup.

It was a dumb point. Period.

Not white, but I'm not going to ignore the factors besides race that go into whether or not someone is incarcerated. You can put up blinders regarding the issue, but that won't mean that it's not there. I've definitely pointed out many, many times that black people have it much, much worse regarding their relationship with the penal system. That said, we're talking about the behaviors and actions of people with various religious viewpoints.

This was just supposed to be a microcosm to address whether or not someone is more or less moral because of their atheism, though. You seem to have missed the main issue at this point because you want to try to paint me as ignorant or racist because you failed to see all the factors that play into whether someone gets put behind bars.

 

[FrederickDouglas]

Again, you're talking about people, not an ideology. No religion teaches you to kill other people. Does that mean a religion's followers won't kill anyone? Not at all. But the religion doesn't teach that.

You're confusing an ideology with a human being.

Now I can definitely vibe with your last point. I don't know shyt. And I believe there at least could be something out there greater. Makes sense.

But I can't get down with all your generalizing, because technically, EVERYBODY can eat a dikk in that regards so why only point the finger at religious people?

Exodus 22:18
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Exodus 32:27
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side ... and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.
Numbers 15:35
And the Lord said unto Moses, The man [who was found picking up sticks on the sabbath] shall be surely put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones.
1 Samuel 15:2-3
Thus saith the Lord of hosts ... go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare him not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

 

[Ian1362]

Exodus 22:18
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Exodus 32:27
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side ... and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.
Numbers 15:35
And the Lord said unto Moses, The man [who was found picking up sticks on the sabbath] shall be surely put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones.
1 Samuel 15:2-3
Thus saith the Lord of hosts ... go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare him not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Among others:

Deuteronomy 22:25
But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die.

Leviticus 20:14
And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.

Leviticus 24:14
Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

Here's a good one:

Apostasy - If most people in a town come to believe in a different god. (Kill everybody, including animals, and burn the town.)

Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,.... This could not be the work of a single person, nor of the whole sanhedrim, but was what the whole nation was to join in, according to the above note:

destroying it utterly; pulling down the houses, and demolishing its walls and fortifications, or burning it, as afterwards explained:

and all that is therein; men, women, and children:

and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword; this severity was used to show the Lord's indignation against the sin of idolatry, and to deter persons from it, both individuals and bodies of men.


People actually believing stuff written like that is partially what turned me off to religion.