GPLindsey

Atheism's biggest problem is that it offers no solace. When a father gets a phone call that his son was hit by a car after a soccer practice and is gone, what comfort does atheism offer? When you are overcome with the banal, petty humdrum of life, but come Sunday you can experience a cathedral full of people belt out "Amazing Grace" with a massive pipe organ backup, what does atheism have to compete with that? What would most people like to listen to in December--Christmas traditionals to feel the warmth of the season, or an atheist pointing out the flaws and contradictions of the Bible?

Atheism has no songs, no festivals, no holidays, no rituals--nothing that appeals to people's emotional need for comfort when they are down, to give them a sense of community when they need it, or to lift them to a loftier plane. I'm an atheist, but I can readily see that atheism's inability to meet most people's emotional needs in these areas is its biggest problem.

cydonia

some people take solace in fantasy, some don't.

diana

That he isn't burning eternally in hell.

The game, a beer, a swimming pool, a striking lack of pretention, a game with your friends, interesting and intellectual discussions, the music of YOUR choice, good drugs without guilt, etc.

False dichotomy. I think there could easily be a third option, something like: "I love you honey. Here are the keys to your new Mercedes." I'd fucking love to hear that.

The community in which you're posting at this moment is evidence that one needn't have songs, festivals, holidays or rituals to give them a sense of community. I appeal to people's emotional need for comfort all the time by helping them in any way I can. I do not, however, offer them something I cannot give, as Christians do. I don't feel a lack because of this.

And again, I can't speak for everyone, but the very acknowledgement to myself that I sincerely didn't believe in a god automatically lifted me to a higher plane. I no longer felt that overriding vague sense of guilt and shame that had been instilled in me from birth. I no longer felt lacking because I could not feel what everyone else claimed to--love for a being I couldn't convince myself to believe in. I walked with my head higher. I looked people in the eye and took responsibility for myself. IMO, this is a higherh plane than the one based upon self-delusion.

I think it's a mistake to generalize. I don't think they're emotional needs. The things that religion offers satisfy people's emotional desires. I am living proof that having a warm fuzzy that you'll go someplace special when you die while all your enemies will be tortured for eternity isn't necessary.

Just an aside, but I also think this thread is better suited for GRD. Welcome to II.

d

Rousseau_CHN

The Greeks in the island of the Cyclop was leading a comfortable lives before it became their time to be lunch.

The comfortable life? Bah, humbug.

My job is to comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable.


or as Samuel Ullman would say:

We have no songs...bull, you just wait, you so called atheist.

Spaz

What is with people? Perhaps what they need are classes to get with reality. You can fulfill your emotional needs yourself if you want to. (or with friends or family) Why must people be so dependent on a god? Why do people need rituals or songs or other such activities?



BTW: I have plenty of good atheist songs

Jet Grind

Atheism doesn't offer anything to anyone. Atheism is only the lack of something. We're not a bunch of evangelicals attempting to advance a religion, we're merely individuals who have applied reason to religious questions. If I had to inform someone about the loss of a close relative, I'd probably emphasize that persons life and the memories he left behind. Not how he's burning in hell because he didn't accept a 2000 year old corpse as his savior.

Your's truely,

Jet Grind

Viti

Many people celebrate Christian holidays as a cultural tradition instead of a religious observance. I know I do...our culture has added secular traditions to every holiday...Santa Clause and reindeer and snowflakes decorate my home instead of nativity scenes and Easter is all about chocolate and pretty eggs.

There is no comfort in religion when someone dies...they lie and say they are comforted, but they grieve just the same. I see nothing scary or "uncomfortable" about non-existence...grief is for ourselves because we miss that person.

tekora

I may be misunderstanding the point, but you don't need religion to have celebration, epiphanies, or to be deeply moved from time to time. I personally can go into fits of exaltation listening to really good music, having sudden realizations about some philosophy or another (mine is constantly changing, LOL), or reading about quantum physics, or losing myself in a book or movie. I can do these things alone in my room or, more often than you'd think, I can discuss these things with total strangers at coffee shops or bars, and have a magical night of briefly connecting with someone I'll never see again. I dunno, to me it's thrilling, fun and exciting. I never got that sort of rush out of religion.

As for death...well, this will sound mystical, but it's based largely in physics. Everything is energy; when people die, the energy that was their body goes somewhere and is recycled. It won't (in my belief, at least) be a person again, but it does continue. If thoughts and memories have any energy, those continue in some form too. To me, that's more comforting than the idea of afterlife presented by any religion I know of - reincarnation, heaven/hell, whatever.

To me, the universe is pretty amazing and fascinating on its own, without a god.

Mageth

Being an atheist does limit one to a dull, meaningless, hopeless deterministic life. One doesn't need to be a theist to affirm life, to accept death, to find happiness, comfort and solace, to experience wonder and awe, to celebrate holidays, to contemplate the mystery of the universe, to enjoy and be uplifted by ritual or music (yes, even some religious music; think of the uplifting classical music written with religious themes).

I've felt more wonder and awe sitting in a desert canyon on a cold, clear dawn, watching the day shift of nature wake up around me, than I ever felt in any cathedral. I've felt more inner peace reading good poetry, or listening to soothing music, than I ever found at the altar. I've found more solace staring into a campfire, and into myself, than from any offered prayer to "God with us."

Wake up and smell the rose of life. It's wonderful.

tekora

Question, as I'm new here.

Can atheists not believe in mystical things at all? My understanding was that Buddhists are atheists, even though they are religious. I thought it meant ONLY not believing in a deity.

I'm neither religious nor a theist, but I can look at a sunset and feel so connected and peaceful that a god would just interfere with it.