The Benefits Of Atheism

Angelpuriran recently posted a few questions in a comment to an old post about Questions for God.

Why you decided to become an atheist..? WHAT gives you benefits to become an atheist? does it makes sense? what if you died and you proved that there is hell, eternal death in hell and the only way to go to heaven is to believe to Jesus, what would you do? will you repent?

I don’t know if “decided” is the correct word to use. I would have said it was more that I “realised” I was an atheist. I did so because I saw that whilst I had believed in God and Jesus for many years, I didn’t have a valid reason for believing in them. There was no evidence for God existing apart from in a book which is claimed to have been inspired by him. Such circular evidence went against how I came to know reason. I also saw problems with the whole form of a God that created the universe, because it doesn’t answer the questions about what created God. Why did something so natural like the universe have to be created by a non-natural phenomenon, especially when there have never been any recorded supernatural phenominon in science.

I guess the major benefit to being an atheist is the freedom from the constant worries about death. I believe that when I die, that will be it. My mind will cease to function and I will become a non-concious entity. This is actually one of the hardest things to wrap your mind around, and I think it might be why some people have problems with atheism. Trying to imagine no life after death is akin to trying to think what “not thinking” would be like. It is a mental impossiblity to do because such an action is a contradiction of itself.

A universe existing without a God, and without any form of afterlife makes most sense to my brain. I do understand how it does not for a lot of people though. At the end of the day, I guess some people like having a security blanket of belief wrapped around them, reassuring them that death is not the end. I oppose such a view because it makes life look less spectacular and important than it really is. No person should live like they have an eternity ahead of them, but like they have almost no time at all. The phrase “Live today as if it were your last” really should be at the top of people’s priorities.

So now we move onto doubts and correctness. This is a wavy area, because on one hand I would love to live forever (who wouldn’t deep down). On the other, if I had to believe in a God of the Bible to get it, I might have to reconsider some things. I don’t think, faced with a choice between Hell and eternal bliss by worshipping Yahweh, I would be able to choose immediately. I would certainly have to ask some questions of my new God before I could justify worshipping him.

Why does the Bible claim homosexuality is a sin when we know it is perfectly natural?
Why does science continually disprove Biblical statements?
Why do you create humans with free will and then demand to be worshiped by them, given that you gave them their skepticism in the first place?
Why did you create the universe in a small number of steps and then make it look like everything came about naturally?
If you intervened once before with Noah’s flood, why did you make a stupid promise to never do it again when you knew fully well that the world would get messed up even more in the future?

I could probably ask God questions until the end of time, keeping myself in purgatory for eternity (at least it would be better than Hell). Of course, being an omnipotent being he probably has the answers, but if even one answer is not satisfactory I would have my doubts about worshiping such a being.

If anything, it would prove that his creation turned out better than the creator. Our morals are so much better than those written in the Bible, and so is every aspect of our species compared to the humans written about. Perhaps the Bible was right all along in Genesis, where the snake says that by eating the apple, humans would be “like Gods”.

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Written by Adrian Hayter

August 19th, 2008 at 4:07 am

Posted in atheism, belief, bible, christianity, god

Tagged with atheism, belief, bible, christianity, god, questions

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Comments to “The Benefits Of Atheism”

Samuel Skinner Says:
August 19th, 2008 at 5:21 am (GMT)

The benefits of atheism? Isn’t that like asking what the benefits of altruism or not being a racist are- basically missing the whole point.

Modern Girl Says:
August 19th, 2008 at 12:10 pm (GMT)

I get why believing in the Bible is difficult. To me, it isn’t the word of God, it’s just the opinion of some men who thought they were enlightened.

But even if I reject God of the Bible, I can’t total reject all notions of God. I’ve never been able to line myself with atheism, because logically to me, there must be something, some life force that keeps the universe going.

John Doole Says:
August 19th, 2008 at 3:21 pm (GMT)

Being dead will be exactly the same as not having been born yet, and we were not born for billions of years. I don’t imagine I’m alone in not having suffered the slightest inconvenience for those billions of years.

Aspentroll Says:
August 20th, 2008 at 1:42 am (GMT)

Not believing in a god(s)is not so hard once you realize that the god the three desert religions believe in was founded away back when they thought they were the only people around. They didn’t know about all the other humans that populated the world when they first dreamed up the idea of some super power that they had to worship because they didn’t understand about nature. All the other groups of people also had to have some reason for understanding nature for their own situation. All of this proves to me that some kind of god or power was necessary to understand their plight.

In every group there were more intelligent people who knew how to exploit their dumb friends.
If you look closely it’s the same today. We have people who exploit others by keeping up the tradition of religion. The Catholics have the Vatican, the Americans have their Pat Robertsons and all their pastors. The Muslims and the Jews have their so called intelligent people who dictate
to them.

As an atheist I simply do not give a
hot damn about all that crap and am able to live life free of those worries of death, heaven and hell.
And the nicest part of all this for me is I haven’t killed, robbed, maimed,or
spent any time in any jail because I was evil in any way. I have been an atheist for just about all of my 73 years and am still lovin’ it.

anton kozlik Says:
August 20th, 2008 at 5:29 am (GMT)

Hi,
I haven’t encountered any struggle in becoming an Atheist since I was mentored by an Atheist grandfather from a very early age. In that way, I have it a lot easier than those who recently “came over” and/or “came out”! What I am getting tired of, is the thousands of Atheists out there who treat Atheism as a “recent discovery” and feel a burning desire to argue the same points that have been made for centuries. If we could capture all of the energy being expended making declarations of our Atheism and the engaging in the ongoing battles with the “other guys”, we could get around to actually doing something for our world. The questions have been asked and answered so many times over my last seven decades that it is actually getting quite boring. Now, if Atheists could get over their reputation of being as difficult to get together in a common cause as attempting to “herd cats”, maybe we could save future generations from the constant bickering and proclamations and we could actually accomplish something. For example, I have never been to an Atheist social gathering where we could actually get around to being human. Man is a social animal, but most Atheists forget this point. The others just pretend they are Christians and get their “social fix” from them.

Samuel Skinner Says:
August 20th, 2008 at 5:56 am (GMT)

To number 2
Such a belief is known as vitalism, the idea that there is something special about life that distinguishes it from nonlife. Than they made urine artifically and realized that life and nonlife are simply shades on the same scale. Viruses are the best example of this- they are disturbingly like undead, lacking the requirements of life, yet still being alive. I don’t remember the determination for thei classification is now- it was a subject of debate over wheter they were life or not.

Further arguments fall under the subject of materialism.

To number five.
It is known as antitheism. If you live in the states, you’d understand it too. We have a president who thinks God speaks to him and hence those who stand in his way are evil and that anything is acceptable to reach his goals.

Besides, it is better to be too eager, than to never speak at all. Those who are silent do not count.

D B Valentine Says:
August 20th, 2008 at 12:39 pm (GMT)

I reckon a new atheist-era is approaching. This god fantasy is not sustainable in the long run, especially in this the information age. Many of us have moved on, its time for the rest to join in and help imagine a new future.

Ben Says:
August 26th, 2008 at 4:44 am (GMT)

It was the fear of oblivion that made me conceal my doubts (from myself) for a long time.

Now i live my life pretty much the same as i did when i professed to be catholic.

Only i’m happier because i know i won’t be punished after death for not obeying arbitrary rules.

Patrick Says:
October 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm (GMT)

> 1. Why does the Bible claim homosexuality is a sin when we know it is perfectly natural?

Homosexuality is not perfectly natural. The theory of evolution states that this is wrong as natural selection will not let homosexuals reproduce. And the Bible happens to agree with natural selection on this topic.

> 2. Why does science continually disprove Biblical statements?

Science is continually evolving and disproving itself. Science has eventually made the same conclusions that the Bible made thousands of years ago. The Bible even states that you should test it. So please, continue to question what you read in the Bible, but also question science in the same regard as it historically has been known to have flaws.

> 3. Why do you create humans with free will and then demand to be worshiped by them, given that you gave them their skepticism in the first place?

Our existence here on Earth is a moral test for man to see if we are worthy to live with God for eternity in Heaven. Free will allows God to see if we are good or evil. Without free will, we might as well be robots. And to worship God, you simply need to accept Jesus as your lord and savior. There’s really nothing to it.

> 4. Why did you create the universe in a small number of steps and then make it look like everything came about naturally?

Again, this is a question about science. Science tells us that the world came about naturally billions of years ago and eventually evolved into what we have today. The problem with science is that scientists can only theorize what happened in Earth’s history. Obviously we can’t test and retest what happens to a planet under specific conditions over a couple billion years. If you accept all aspects of science without questioning it, then you will not see God’s power in the creation of this Earth. Question what you read whether it be science or the Bible.

> 5. If you intervened once before with Noah’s flood, why did you make a stupid promise to never do it again when you knew fully well that the world would get messed up even more in the future?

The promise was that he would not punish the whole world in the same way. And again, our existence here on Earth is a moral test to determine if we are worthy to live in eternity in Heaven.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask. harth1026@gmail.com .

angelpuriran Says:
October 24th, 2008 at 3:05 pm (GMT)

homosexuality is a temptation from the evil and if you will let yourself to be tempted means you let the evil to use you. Anyway, sins are already paid because Jesus died for us, yet to be saved is to accept him and let God leads you. In fact, God loves you..if you dont like christians because they discriminated you before and you dont like their actions and faith. It’s fine..I hope even though you are atheist and we are not, hopefully we can be good friends..