Why I love Atheism....

[JamesM]

I am sure that a few eyebrows went up when they saw my name and the title of this thread.

 

But it is actually the topic of an essay that I wonder if I could get written by atheists here.

 

Why DO you love atheism? Why do you love being an atheist? Why are you excited that you are an atheist?

[Green]

my guess is most athiest dont love it the way say a christian loves Jesus, they just have the abscence of love if you will for specificaly the religion they were born into and no pull toward any of the other religions or ideas pertaing to god or gods or whatever...

[Tony T]

I am sure that a few eyebrows went up when they saw my name and the title of this thread.

 

But it is actually the topic of an essay that I wonder if I could get written by atheists here.

 

Why DO you love atheism? Why do you love being an atheist? Why are you excited that you are an atheist?

 

Who would ask you to write such an essay and for what purpose? They would have to know you were an atheist and that you are excited about it. That being the case, I would think that you would fully know why you are excited.

[underpants]

I don't really know how to properly 'classify' myself. There are lovely things that I have picked up from several schools of faith that are very nice ideals to live by. That is about it though.

 

It does disturb me greatly to see atrocities done in the name of 'God'. It disturbs me greatly to see extremely warped justifications of actions in the name of (insert religious icon here).

 

Sure, there are extremist in many organized mainstream (or cultish) schools of belief. I cannot help but hold the faith itself a little responsible for 'losing their lambs'.

 

(suicide bombers, abortion clinic bombers, mothers drowning babies because God told them too....on and on....it is for me...off putting to devout religious beliefs)

 

It also disturbs me to see faith used as a 'card' to play for those faced with accountability for a bad choice. "I'm Saved"....until I am caught again to be ...saved again. It is not a God card, conveniently placed in the wallet only to be pulled out to use to manipulate people. However, I guess this works on some. Or I am jaded.

 

Maybe the lesser of all the evils is to simply ...not believe? Or to not believe too greatly? Or maybe (for me), to believe in yourself...feed the good in you.

 

I do respect good people who find strength in their faith. I just do not share the exact same beliefs. Some still respect me and that is nice. Some do not, (usually the most devout?).

 

Peace

[JamesM]

No, I see my wording is a bit vague. I don't have to write the essay. I was wondering if I could get some atheists who could write why they love atheism or why they love being an atheist.

[norajane]

Why DO you love atheism? Why do you love being an atheist? Why are you excited that you are an atheist?

 

Huh? That's like asking, 'Why do you love not believing in the tooth fairy?" or "Why are you excited that you're not a sports fan?"

 

I would never say I love atheism, or not love it. I would never say I'm excited to be an atheist, or not excited. I don't think in those terms regarding atheism. It's more of a fact, not a matter for love or hate.

 

But, ok, I'll bite.

 

I love not having to go to church and be forced to listen to someone's dogmatic interpretation of how I should worship god/s. I love not being told how to think and feel and what to believe.

 

I love not being associated with all the terrible atrocities done to man in the name of god/s and relgion/s.

 

I love that I don't have to walk around with the weight of hell in my mind.

 

I love that I can meet people and appreciate them for who they are without feeling the need to save their souls, or that I have to hate them or separate myself from them because they are infidels/heathens/whatever.

 

I'm excited that I can fall in love without worrying whether god and my church would approve of my love.

 

I'm excited that I can live my life without my god and my religious beliefs restricting what I can eat and drink, whether I can dance, whether I can go to a doctor and avail myself of all that modern medicine has to offer, what I can do on Sunday or the Jewish Sabbath, etc.

 

I love that I don't have guilt for having sex and enjoying sex, even though I'm not married. I love having the freedom to use birth control without centuries worth of Church telling me it's wrong and I'm going to hell for doing so. I love that I don't have to listen to a bunch of religious men telling me my place as a woman within a religious society.

 

I love that I don't have to bend my mind into a pretzel to try to accommodate facts and reality with my religious beliefs about Creation and god's place in the universe. I love that I don't have to suspend logical thought and reason to believe in a bunch of religious stories.

 

I love that I'm not waiting for Jesus to come back, Judgment Day, or some afterlife. I love that I can appreciate my life for what it is without needing to believe there's something 'more' after death.

 

I love that I don't have to feel guilt and trauma for having a crisis of faith or for doubting god or wondering if there is a god.

 

I am excited that my life's possibilities are up to me and not part of some 'plan' that some mysterious being has for me. I am excited to hold my destiny in my own hands instead of giving it up to 'god'.

[burning 4 revenge]

I don't love atheism I just could no longer deny his his call

[Quinch]

Whenever I see people fighting and killing in the name of religion it makes me very pleased to be an atheist but I wouldn't say I love it.

[marlena]

Great post NJ.

[Woggle]

I understand where NJ is coming from but I consider myself a person of faith and none of those apply to me. I don't follow any specific religion but I do think there is something larger than this world and there is some kind of higher power. I know it has gotten me through situations that seemed hopeless. I think that the religious right combined with radical islam is turning a lot of people pff from faith but not all believers are zealots who hate anybody different from they are.

[Road Rage]

Mama Mia norajane

 

That is a great post. I wish I had that much ability to express myself clearly and such depth.

[Herzen]

Great post norajane! If Godless Shackers cared enough to designate a spokesperson, you're it.

 

"Love" has nothing to do with my being an atheist. Atheism is not a state a "feeling," it is a state of mind. In fact, intertwining "love" and atheism seems almost Christian in its roots.

 

Unlike theistic believers, I very much doubt that "atheism" is the basis of most adult atheists' identity or orientation towards the world. Many of us are extremely wary of anyone who believes too much, too fervently, too dogmatically about any "ism."

 

We're also careful about not turning atheism into "Atheism" the new secular religion. For us, god is not so much dead or silent, but irrelevant at best, and an excuse to kill, injure and destroy at worse.

 

JamesM's question, to me, presumed that many atheists have religious feelings (like "love") towards their atheism. Many adult atheists, like myself, do not. For us god's absence is a non-issue, and cause for neither despair nor glee. It's what are our fellow "Believer" humans do in his/her/its name that often perplex and alienate us.

 

For us, the many believers' many gods don't exist: end of story.

[Citizen Erased]

Wow NJ that really hit home. We don't need to say anything more.

[FleshNBones]

Why DO you love atheism? Why do you love being an atheist? Why are you excited that you are an atheist?

This really doesn't make sense. There is really nothing to love or be excited about for an atheist. I don't think the presence or absence of a religious affiliation is something to be proud of either.

 

There are athiests who are open to the possibily of God, but for whatever reason are not satisfied (They want more). In a sense, they are religious, and I hold them in high regard.

 

There are athiests who are convinced about the impossibility of God. They are also convinced about the impossiblity many other things like travel beyond the speed of light, or time travel. I pity them because they live in a box and don't know it.

 

There are athests who are anti-religious. They aren't much different from the anti-Christian, anit-Semetic, anti-Bush, or anti-anything types. Maybe you can categorize them as being very angry religious people. They usually have a problem with authority, and the code of conduct. These are people you should watch out for.

[Green]

I dont buy into the whole athiest get to distance themselves from the horrors of somethings committed in the name of religion. Cause some times I dont even believe religion exist, just strong ideas, and as that one south park episode jokingly looked into when cartman went to the future of atheism, they all just thought over the answer to the great scientific question. your still a human, you cant ignore that we all share a bond

[lonelybird]

I don't love my old self (being an atheist)

 

if there is one more reason to convince you not to believe, it sounds like there is one more reason that terminate hope, hope for supernature healing, hope for eternal life, and one more reason to seperate you from God's perfect life-giving love. (the more I know about God's love, the more I feel heaven on earth:love:)

 

the reasons sound pretty like this

 

Because the believers I know failed at one or some areas, I don't believe in God. (you mean you fail to believe in God who is perfect because of human being's false which is predicable and obvious? you mean because of someone else's falling short of glory of God, you are going to give up believing in God? you do idolize people so much)

 

Or I will sacrifice eternal life and hope to satisfy my flesh (you mean in order to satisfy flesh you give up hope?) sex may bring some instant satisfaction and some physical connection, but sex won't bring hope and healing for broken heart.

 

Jesus bring freedom (not freedom for sinns), not prison to people. I found many just don't have correct ideas about God or truely knowing God, and these wrong ideas prevent them from believing, healing and eternal life, and real freedom, guess what, you just agree with Satan's plan, and mess up your own life and salvation

 

anyone who don't believe in Jesus is a prisoner, quite contrary to what you freedomer think if you don't agree with, please meditate your own life so far, are you satisfying? or feel something lack, some void in heart?

 

life is a long journey, never say never

 

good luck to you all

[Moai]

It isn't a question of reasons NOT to believe, it is a question of reasons TO believe.

 

And there aren't any. Well, good ones that stand up to even cursory scrutiny, anyway.

 

Hope for supernatural healing all you want, but I recommend you see a doctor while you wait. Just a little free advice.

 

Someone else mentioned this too, but since you brought it up: one of the best things about accepting that god doesn't exist is you need not be wigged out about sex anymore.

 

I notice the one sin you mentioned, lonleybird, is sex. Why is that, I wonder? Why does a god powerful enough to do all of the things you claim (but never does any of them, ironically) care about my sex life? Why did he make sex so enjoyable in such a case?

 

I mean, the sex thing is bizarre enough, it is distributed unfairly.

 

If is easy for the very young to obey. It is impossibly difficult on teens thorugh middle age, and then becomes less so after that. Why? Why not figure something out that is just as hard for everyone and have it be that? (My apologies to Mark Twain for the paraphrase).

[Moai]

I think that since we only get one go-round here on Earth, we should do whatever we can to enjoy our flesh while we have it--provided that it doesn't hurt anyone else.

 

Really. Knock yourself out. Be as happy as you can as long as you can, and to hell with anyone who doesn't like your choices. They are yours and nobody else's. Every human has the right to determine what it is that makes him happy and should pursue it with every fiber of their being. And should be encouraged to do so.

[burning 4 revenge]

I dont buy into the whole athiest get to distance themselves from the horrors of somethings committed in the name of religion. Cause some times I dont even believe religion exist, just strong ideas, and as that one south park episode jokingly looked into when cartman went to the future of atheism, they all just thought over the answer to the great scientific question. your still a human, you cant ignore that we all share a bond

Who is this man, this KMT ?

[lovelorcet]

I am not going to try to repeat NJ's eloquent explanation as to what I love about not being controlled by the nonsense of religion in my personal life.

 

But I will say this. I am intrigued by my world and describing that world is a major part of my life as a scientist. The bible offers absolutely no answers to my world and everything I see around me contradicts what is written in that book.

 

The best example is the story of genesis, it is just that, a story. There is no debate if evolution happened or not. Biology does not make sense without evolution and it is the defining and binding force of all living things. This is clearly represented in our genetic code and one can even see on a sequence level how genes slowly change from one species to the next.

 

And if you don't believe me then download the genetic code from a Human, mouse, fish, fly, dog, cat, rat, chimp, E. coli, etc... and compare them yourself. Just google NCBI and away you go, the data is freely available.

 

In science it is possible to evaluate information in a rational way and to use that information for developing new ideas. How do you do this from the bible? How do those stories explain my world when everything I see around me conflicts with those stories?

[lindya]

I think that since we only get one go-round here on Earth, we should do whatever we can to enjoy our flesh while we have it--provided that it doesn't hurt anyone else.

 

Really. Knock yourself out. Be as happy as you can as long as you can, and to hell with anyone who doesn't like your choices. They are yours and nobody else's. Every human has the right to determine what it is that makes him happy and should pursue it with every fiber of their being. And should be encouraged to do so.

 

I had a discussion about death with a little relative recently. Charming, I know....but she was the one who brought it up after we encountered a dead bird during a walk and she expressed sympathy for it. She then mentioned a deceased relative of ours, and also a family pet that had to be put down. Said "they're gone." I agreed that they were. The conversation was along these lines:

 

"They won't come back."

"No."

"Everything stops, and doesn't start up again when you die."

 

For a moment, I was tempted to start telling her comforting tales about loving reunions with dead family members, friends and pets in Heaven. I can really see how people give way to the temptation to do that with children. Then I realised that she was being quite accepting and matter of fact about the notion of her own and everyone else's mortality. If I tried to impose some false, comforting belief about how we "don't really die" on her I suspect she'd do the same thing that she does when I get immersed in reading a fairy tale to her. Listen for a while. Enjoy the story, then inform me:

 

"None of that's real, though."

 

I can imagine her in a church, solemnly regarding all the grown-ups praying to God. Joining in with it all, in the spirit of participation and play....then saying to the adults.

 

"That was fun, but you don't really believe you're going to live forever though, do you? That's a bit silly!"

[a4a]

NJ said it well........

 

Only thing I have to add is that I love not needing an imaginary parental figures to blame or praise and take responsibility for my own life, choices, and actions.

 

The devil did not make me do it......

 

anyone who don't believe in Jesus is a prisoner, quite contrary to what you freedomer think if you don't agree with, please meditate your own life so far, are you satisfying? or feel something lack, some void in heart?

 

:rolleyes:

quite satified, quite happy, no void...... I do need a vacation, but I fear I would become bored.

 

Very few people have a path to follow..... perhaps they fill that void with a fantasy known as a "higher power".

 

Don't drink the Kool Aid.

[Aintayankee]

I'm a naturalist. But as long as athiesm can work hardcore obstructionism, then I'm fine with it.

[popey]

So far I've thought of two more to add to NJ's:

 

I love that I don't cop out of thinking deeper, and seeking more answers and additional knowledge b/c I just comfortably "believe in something that can't be proven."

 

"Faith, the excuse not to think."

 

and I'm love that I feel responsible for figuring out for myself what being a good person in this world means, and what kind of behavior, attitudes and attributes I must embrace, develop, work on to become that.

[lindya]

I love that I don't have to bend my mind into a pretzel to try to accommodate facts and reality with my religious beliefs about Creation and god's place in the universe. I love that I don't have to suspend logical thought and reason to believe in a bunch of religious stories.

 

I like this too. I like the fact that if I feel there's useful wisdom to be learned from a particular religious philosophy, I'll take that piece of learning without becoming a slave to a doctrine. Having not professed any loyalty to the religion, I don't feel obliged to accept rules, perspectives and beliefs that I find ludicrous, wrong and completely out of kilter with the world I live in, and my own experiences of it.

 

If someone angrily accuses me of not being a true follower. I can just agree that they're perfectly correct....and carry on sifting through their religious philosophy for any interesting and insightful bits, while chucking out all the nonsensical, dysfunctional bits that they've signed up for...eg

 

It must be remembered that the purpose for all creation and all creatures is to glorify God. God is glorified when His nature and attributes are on display. If there were no sin, God would have no opportunity to display His justice and wrath as He punishes sin. Nor would He have the opportunity to show His grace, His mercy, and His love to undeserving creatures.

 

If others want to cry Hallelujah and fall on their knees to worship the idea of that that's up to them. Or maybe it's not up to them. I guess if they feel they've signed up their souls to that religion then they have no choice but to agree. I don't rate that kind of self-glorification obtained via the suffering of others....whether it's carried out by a dictator or a deity. I don't feel I have to try, or pretend, to agree with it just because some book tells me I must.