Why would you NOT want to be an atheist?

Jan

Why would you NOT want to be an atheist?

Archived in the category: Earn While Living The Life You Want

Now there are of course a variety of theisms, but lets compare and contrast some theists with atheism. For the purposes of this thread I am not even trying to discuss the veracity of the claims of the various belief systems

1. If you are a christian you believe that most of humanity will burn in hell for all eternity, your loved ones, perhaps you own children will be tortured for all eternity while you sit in heaven, groveling and worshiping the very deity that put them in hell

If you are an atheist you are freed from this aweful belief.

2. If you are a buddhist you believe that this life is just a series of harships and tests that you must repeat again and again until you achieve perfection. A long cycle of reincarnations, each time making the same struggles and trials.

If you are an atheist you know you simply have to enjoy and relish this life.

3. If you are Jewish (or Christian) you believe in the Old Testament God…you must make up excuses (euphemistically called ‘apologetics’) explaining why your God murdered babies, ordered genocide, allowed slavery in his chosen people, ordered the death penalty for trivial offenses, etc.

If you are an atheist, you have no need to make excuses for the primitive war God worshiped by ancient hebrew sheep herders.

4. If you are muslim you believe in a lifestyle that is total subservience for women, very little human rights, and that treats non believers as lesser beings.

As an atheist you are free from all that and can join the modern world.

5. As any sort of theist you find yourself giving your hard earned money so some ‘minister’ can pontificate and tell you how to live, from an elaborate pulpit in a church that looks more like some eastern potentates palace. You give up your time every week for listening to this man tell you how to live. You let others make major decisions for you.

As an athiest you are free from all of that. You spend your money and your time how you see fit. And you make your own decisions about life.

Now with all of that, why would anyone NOT want to be an atheist?

atheism is freedom . religious dogma chains the mind to stone age superstitions.

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21 comments for “Why would you NOT want to be an atheist?”

Atheist E C

hmm..
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January 21st, 2010 at 8:40 pm

Assorted Jelly Beans

correct, to much to read
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January 21st, 2010 at 8:53 pm

Mops and Buckets

cuz then u live worry free and do bad things and go to the hell u never believed in
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January 21st, 2010 at 9:05 pm

Bruce McDonald

Religious people would stereotype you.
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January 21st, 2010 at 9:28 pm

Ol' Doc

There are so many holes in those, I just don’t know where to begin
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–It is the soldier, above all others, that prays for peace. For it is he that must bear the wounds and scars of war. - MacArthur

–I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are nothing like your Christ - Gandhi.

January 21st, 2010 at 9:43 pm

??åƒ?? ??????? ?á??çá? ?ìvÎ?íóñ

I want to be an atheist! Me! Me!
.
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January 21st, 2010 at 10:14 pm

Rawrz

Nice. People who just say "If you do not believe in Jesus you will goto hell" get some common sense.
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January 21st, 2010 at 10:54 pm

FFF

yeah but if you are not an atheist you get to believe that maybe you will live on after death instead of just rotting in a box
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athiest

January 21st, 2010 at 11:18 pm

thorny rose

Atheism makes total sense to me! No fear, guilt, torture, etc.
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January 21st, 2010 at 11:28 pm

.10

Citizen of the Cosmos, 1 of many

Being an atheist did not inspire me. Regarding your issues, I don’t believe that the Bible supports eternal damnation. Moreover, I understand it as a human written document that reflects in many ways the culture of the times. It is not a divinely written history textbook.

My minister is a woman, and I enjoy thought-provoking lectures. It is impossible to abdicate one’s life decision-making capability. Even the choice to surrender it to another is still your choice. Donations to the church are not mandatory.

The bottom line is that you have created a strawman that does not reflect the way many people believe and worship. You’re only hurting your own credibility and inviting others to decline to take you seriously when you do that.
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Liberal Christian

January 22nd, 2010 at 12:01 am

.11

Pablito

Well, I’m a Pagan.

I don’t believe in Hell

I enjoy and relish life.

I understand what mythology is and what and how it teaches us. I therefore have no need to make excuses for any God/Goddess or myth.

I don’t denigrate women.

I don’t give my money to support ministers, or churches. I find that my spiritual practices enrich my life and I greatly enjoy the time I spend in them.

Why should I want to be an atheist again?
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January 22nd, 2010 at 12:17 am

.12

David

One day not all too far off from today, my mother will die. On another die, my father will die. On those days and the days beyond them believing deeply and truly that I will get to see my parents again (in paradise no less) will make me happier.

In addition, some people feel better believing that actions have fair consequences, a state that definitely does not exist today on Earth.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 12:31 am

.13

prairiecrow

"As any sort of theist you find yourself giving your hard earned money so some ‘minister’ can pontificate and tell you how to live, from an elaborate pulpit in a church that looks more like some eastern potentates palace. You give up your time every week for listening to this man tell you how to live. You let others make major decisions for you."

Incorrect. None of your points apply to a religion like Wicca, or in fact to most of the Neo-Pagan faiths.

They just don’t. I must commend you on taking time to set up so many strawmen in a row, though.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 12:40 am

.14

Susanna

I would NEVER be atheist…that will be the downfall of Many, they will "see" with their own eyes at the end (literally) all that u speak of atheist being free from is "temporary" and actually have no purpose…how can anyone believe in "their selves" giving themselves the "credit’ for anything good? satan uses folks like them, whether they know it or not, they are weak, hardened and ignorant souls that are the utmost suseptible to be Used to Decieve by satan who by the way Hates ALL…and u are very uninformed/miss-informed in the Truth of Christianity, I’d do more seeking if I were you….
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January 22nd, 2010 at 1:06 am

.15

purplecloud

Actually, if you are a Buddhist, you believe that you can learn to love everyone and cherish every single second of your life. You will start to expand your mind throughout your journey on the universe or this Earth to reach higher enlightenment. With Buddhism, you can find inner peace inside of yourself to truly learn how to "enjoy and relish this life."

But to answer your question: People don’t just CHOOSE to believe in something because it’s more convenient. They believe in what they do because it’s what other’s have taught them is the "right" way throughout their life. Most people are just going to get up one day and be like, "you know, it’s easiest to be an Athiest" and then go against everything they’ve already learned throughout their life.

Another thing people need is the idea that there is more after life. This is in our instincts, as so many of us struggle without the believe that more will happen.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 1:40 am

.16

Kalen

Yeah, your little rant bored me there. You should stop making generalized assumptions about Religions, it’ll get you knowhere.
You think you have a point about atheism with your- "free from all that…" garbage. Being Religious you don’t feel as bad when somebody dies, there is a hope that you will see them again.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 1:50 am

.17

mike necro

atheism is freedom . religious dogma chains the mind to stone age superstitions.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 2:26 am

.18

John S

1. For the atheist not on single person has any chance of a wonderful afterlife. This is it.

2. "…enjoy and relish this life." Are you kidding? Most of the people alive today and almost all humans that ever lived were abjectly poor and faced starvation and disease without recourse.

3. This is not an issue among believes.

4. "…join the modern world." I guess circumstances would just magically transform: plenty of jobs, sanitary water/sewer, educational infrastructure, et al.

5. Believers are spending their money and time as they see fit.
The government rules YOUR life more than any mainstream church runs the lives of its congregants. They take most of run money and run almost every aspect of YOUR life: hours you work, where you can live (try moving on to public lands), what kids learn in school, how tall your fence can be and on and on.

You have proven nothing. At best you are barking up the wrong tree.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 3:03 am

.19

Gabbar

Answer is very simple . Look around you -

1. Look at the grass grow

2. look at how from a tiny cell, a baby can be formed with all the functions to carry on life

3. look at the Vast expanse of the universe, still unexplainable with our modern science and technology

4. look at your self. Breathing even without your own atheist knowledge. Billions of tiny cells working in Harmony, your heart pumping endlessly without your control.

Now as a Christian Believer, I can rest in peace because i know who is in control. Now as an Athiest, you are clueless, on what’s making all these things tick like a clockwork.

Wow ! wake Up Dude ! Dont tell me you are relishing life ( like you say) knowing that there is no order behind all this. And somehow everything is working.

You dont have to be a christian, but doesn’t all of that not make you think of a higher power ?

Now Coming to you point of Christianity, Yes it is awful that some people will go to Hell, while others will go to heaven. Unfortunately/Fortunately, it is their choice.

Do you think your parents are happy with all your choices - Probably Not ! But they have given you the freedom to choose. Similarly our heavenly father above has given use the freedom to choose. If he did not give us the right to choose, then he will be called a Dictator !
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January 22nd, 2010 at 3:11 am

.20

Blarp

Because I know what the Bible REALLY Teaches.

1. They are not Burned eternally.
Is Death Really the End?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200712/article_02.htm
What Really Is Hell?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020715/article_02.htm

I for one do not have the hope of going to heaven but to life forever in a paradise earth just as Jehovah originally purposed.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20061001/article_02.htm

2. I am not a Buddihist and have the the understanding of why we do go through problems now and hope of a time when problems will be no more.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020615/article_02.htm

3. "god murdered babies" -not true, as a child they are judged they same as their parents untill a time when they are able to make decicions for tehmselves, their parents killed them.

"genocide"
I am assuming you are talking about the flood:
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020301/article_02.htm

"allowed slavery in his chosen people"
Did God Condone the Slave Trade? (modern times)
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20010908a/article_01.htm

When his chosen people did not listen to him, he stopped giving them his protection. Then others could over power them without that protection. When they repented and turned around, he did rescue them. -the account in Egypt, when moses recues in behalf of Jehovah.

"ordered the death penalty for trivial offenses"
who says they are trivial? If god condons them and he is the one who created us he has every right to demand obeidience.

4. again im not a muslim, i am a woman and know Jehovah’s and Jesus’ view of them and how he treated them.
How Do God and Christ View Women?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/200801/article_02.htm

5. My offerings are voluntary. As Jehovah’s Witnesses we do not pass a plate or have tiths (were you have to give, i think thats what they are called) there is no announcement as to who gave the most.

we have a box in the back of the hall where we can give money if we want too. no one beside me and jehovah ever knows how much i gave.

as for the great joy of being able to go and get uplifting information and hope and timeing councel, I dont know what i would do without such a provision! "A man" is not telling me what to do. Some of our brothers give talks and sisters too. I have the privledge of being able to give parts as well as some younger ones in the hall, one of which is only 7!
We use the Bible to explain and councel so it is gods wisdom not our own.

I also spend my time and money as i see fit, but i also see past myself ans my needs. I see the needs of brothers and sisters in other lands where 100% of my donations can go to build them a kingdom hall, to send missionarries to them to encourage and uplift them, to print more literature and bibles for us in the U.S. and other countries and much much more.

—I would not want to beleave in a lie that there is no god, we have no purpose in life but to be born by chance, live a few years and then die. I would not want to beleave my life is for nothing, or no one and so have 0 accountablity to one higher than me.

would not want to life a lie with no hope of a better future.
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http://www.watchtower.org/

I am only 20 and had to look up some of your questions, i hope i have answered them to your satifaction.

January 22nd, 2010 at 3:37 am

.21

Alexandra

I wouldn’t want to be an atheist because I wasn’t raised on being a nonbeliever, however I wasn’t raised in a strict Christian home either. I believe that believing is right, its true even without proof.
Many atheist believe that Iwe evolved… But who made what we supposedly evolved from?
And I know a lot of people wonder who made God, and that question is very tricky and noone knows the answer to it, so many people refuse to believe…
But if they don’t believe in God because of that than why would they believe in atheism if they don’t know who made the "something" we evovled from?
Its all very tricky you see..
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January 22nd, 2010 at 4:02 am

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