The dangers of Atheism

Post Reply New Topic

The atheist worldview is a bleak one. Humans are reduce to biological machinery, with an impetus to consume and reproduce. Social morality is simply a function of a system, or so we are told. We are told that human ethics and morality is nothing more than an automatic mechanism created by machines to survive, a simple convenience that happened to be optimized.

The atheist world is a world bereft of magic or gods, the atheist has no surprises. An phenomenon that is strange is reduced to the mundane. Santa Claus is nonexistent, there is no mystery or childish intrigue. The atheist shuns the notion of aliens, as it would imply a possible higher power, something that would interrupt the mundanity of the atheist existence. The only real motivation is to consume and reproduce.

If someone claims to see something interesting, such a ghost, the fedora atheist steps in immediately to rectify the situation. "There are no ghosts", claims the atheist, and provides a step by step explanation of why the world is mundane and why there are no surprises.

For the atheist, truth is a currency in of itself. Truth is the highest currency, truth is the reward in of itself. Truth trumps all things and all must be educated of the truth.

By that reasoning, At least the atheist is free from existential crisis.

You make atheism seem like a bad thing.

Have you never heard of the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, The Westboro Baptist Church, or the Branch Davidians?

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil -- that takes religion.

Amen!

Hmm. I don't quite follow the logic that the existence of Aliens would imply a higher power. However, I have heard others argue that a lack of Aliens is proof of a God.

Also, I disagree that there are no surprises. Life often surprises me. It's terrifying really how much of an impact a couple of seconds can have in carving the way of future paths.

Is the world mundane? Well, that's a vague question. That's often the problem with philosophy, it asks vague questions which means it can only gain vague answers. The fact the word mundane exists seems to suggest that there are aspects of the mundane. Yet other words, such as extraordinary exist. So, there must be parts that some people find extraordinary. It's too big and subjective a question to ever fully have an exact answer.

There are times where I find existence mundane. When I found myself in a windowless office, surrounded by people I disliked, in a dead-end toxic job.

Yet there are other times, when I find myself admiring my surroundings. Content to be a part of the world. I don't think that a lack of creator means that the world is a mundane place. I find the Earth quite remarkable.

I’m an atheist and don’t find the world or universe bleak or mundane. There are so many things to discover and explore I don’t need belief in the supernatural to find fulfillment. I was raised in a religion that claimed to have all the answers. That WAS boring. I prefer my current worldview. It’s certainly not devoid of passion and wonder.

Atheists don’t have a single worldview. There’s a wide array of philosophical views/stances when it comes to life and existence.

Yeah, I'm an atheist and the things that are mentioned in the op here aren't my reality either.

Humans are so much more than machines bent on reproducing and consuming. We are complicated...all unique unto ourselves with our own perceptions, experiences, stories, feelings, preferences, so on. It's hard for me to wrap my head around when I get to thinking on that. Every person you ever walked by has a story, a reality, everything. For me, it's like trying to truly wrap my head around how big the universe is. Blows my mind.

I mean, sure I don't believe in santa claus, but that's not an atheist thing. That's a person over the age of 5-10 (give or take, right) thing. Hell, my ex (the one I have kids with) refused to let our children believe in santa because it took the glory away from god. *shrugs* The people I've known who have had the biggest bone to pick with santa have been christians.

I'm also not sure what aliens have to do with god or faith, but I'm not closed off to the idea that aliens exist. I am a skeptic, so when things happen like the time I saw a ufo...I check to see what it was (thank you phone app) and learn it was a satellite or something. Honestly, I think it's arrogant to assume we're the only things in this universe.

Not sure about ghosts either and how that relates to faith or lack thereof. I thought ghosts were not part of several religions because when you die you go to heaven or hell or whatever, not wander the earth in a supernatural form. I don't know enough about all religions to say which ones do and do not accept ghosts as reality. I don't know that I believe in ghosts, personally, but I have seen some things I cannot explain. I know enough to know that there's a lot I don't know. I'm at peace with this. In fact sometimes it can be really fun to imagine what unexplained things really are. I've written tons of short stories because of thinking about things I cannot explain.

What kinds of atheists are you meeting that those are your views of us? It would be like me carrying on about how all religious people are dreadful and abusive because I've known some who were. Please don't make us all out to be like how you describe. It's just inaccurate. You can't go lumping an entire group of people into a tiny box with parameters you've defined for us. I mean, you can obviously, but you'd be wrong.

The description doesn't sound much like me either.

There are religions that don't have gods as such, and Santa Claus is a secularized, commercialized derivation of a Turkish saint, as is St. Valentine of Valentine's Day fame. Some Atheists also believe in afterlives etc, but no matter how bleak things may seem, if there is no evidence of an afterlife, that's the reality as far as we can tell. A host on a YouTube channel called "The Atheist Experience" once asked, "If we woke up tomorrow and everything we knew about science turned out to be wrong, how would that validate religion?"

Most people aren't fit for Atheism. People want to be happy, yet some truths won't lead to happiness. Even most atheists tend to think of things with religious zeal. Yet over the long term, people will have to grapple with the truth eventually. If they don't, society declines and the truth seekers have to clean up after the mess they chose to make. So I'm not a New Atheist, but can only fully respect atheists due to the fundamental importance of honesty.

atheism does not deny the existence of the unknown, it merely posits that there is an explanation for it that people do not know, that is not the existence of a higher power.

^^^Well Said^^^

And the atheist Piraha tribe seem happier than most humans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3_people

They appear to believe in spirits, but not in deities.

It might be bereft of magic in a supernatural sense, but the world is still magical to them. A large number of atheists have faith in peace irrespective of its chance of actually happening like it's some kind of inevitability if we pursue their values and worldviews. For many, it's almost dogmatic regardless of the evidence to support it.

You what?

Atheists in general seem to be much more supportive of the idea of aliens existing than religious people. After all, there are no aliens in the Bible.

Other than that, I'm struggling to see the downsides in the rest of your post. Atheists support truth, rationality, and do not persecute people for not following the whims of a creator.

If I was going to criticise atheism, it would be that atheists do not form the sorts of supportive communities that religious people do. However, these communities are a double-edged sword. I also think that the "nicest" people I know are all deeply religious... but the flip side of that is that they're really bad at tackling moral quandaries. Like thinking it is wrong to be gay, for example. I don't know any homophobic atheists (although I am sure they exist).

I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility of life on other planets, and given the immense size of the universe, I'd be surprised if there wasn't something out there that could justifiably be called alive, and quite likely fairly complex and intelligent, though we might not live to discover it. I don't know if the demonstration of its existence would be evidence for or against the veracity of religion.


Yes I think there are certain aspects of religion that tend to encourage the forming of something communal. Whether the beliefs that bind them together are correct or not, human bonding often has benefits, and even the authoritarian structures in most religions may help the uneducated if they feel that they need somebody to guide their moral decisions. Not that I think all moral authorities give good advice, but in principle I can see how it might work. Meanwhile in the secular world, I've seen socialism, anarchism and the hippie thing lead to some really good collective initiatives, and those atheistic and leaderless Piraha people seem to take plenty of responsibility for each other's well-being. So it looks pretty clear that subjugation to a supreme "moral" deity isn't essential for morality. And I'd certainly question whether religious moral codes are always in touch with what I accept as morality.