Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?

[robvalue]

Hello, welcome I appreciate your respectful introduction. I haven't read everyone's replies so apologies if I'm repeating points.

Firstly, atheism is a description of a state of mind. It's not something you can choose to be, or not to be. You just are, or aren't. If you're actively convinced that god(s) exist, you're a theist; otherwise you're an atheist. So if you're unsure, and not convinced either way, this is called weak atheism. If you're convinced there isn't in fact a god, that is strong atheism. The most common mistake is to assume all atheists are strong atheists. I have much more material about this point if you're interested. Whether or not you identify as an atheist (if you are one), is of course up to you.

So someone can be an atheist yet remain "a catholic", or any other religious title. Outwardly they profess to believe certain things, but in their mind, they're not totally convinced they are true. So this would be an atheist in denial, or simply choosing to remain in the religious group, due to social benefits or fear of rejection for leaving.

Atheism is only concerned with one subject: the existence of gods. It doesn't tell you anything else about a person. Now, I don't even know what a god is. When I ask people to define it, I mostly get a load of nonsense. The only overlap I generally get is an intelligent creator. I have no opinion about this, things would look the same either way. So I'm a weak atheist, with respect to this kind of "God". It could be a computer programmer; whatever. And honesty, I don't care either. Whatever kind of "God" there may be, it doesn't affect me. I'll carry on behaving in the ways I think are right. I won't worship, I find that a creepy concept. And I won't compromise my morality to please some external voyeur, if their expectations differ from how I act. When it comes to very specific God characters such as Yahweh from from the bible, they are so absurd, internally inconsistent and completely unevidenced that I give them no more credibility than Superman. If they are holding my future hostage in order to blackmail me into acting a certain way or kissing up to them, that is terrorism and I can't be doing with it. I wouldn't trust such a deranged being to keep their word, anyway.

So you can be an atheist and still believe in "the supernatural", whatever that is. Again, I don't have a useful definition. But you can believe in ghosts, magic, universe creating pixies, karma, whatever you like. If you come to atheism via scepticism (logically assessing the truth of claims based on evidence and only holding positions where the evidence is of a high standard) then you'll most likely reject all those things too.

Personally, I've never been religious. Never been a believer. I wasn't "raised atheist"; God and religion was just never mentioned to me by my parents. At all. I experienced it for the first time when I was five years old, faced with a room full of people apparently talking to no one (prayer). I thought they were all nuts, but accepted that's what they wanted to do.

So yeah, not only is there no evidence of a God, there's not even a coherent, falsifiable definition. (Again, I have much more material on these points if you're interested). Without this, there cannot even be any evidence, because the whole thing is based on assumptions.

You can also continue to believe in a God, whatever you might think about it, and not be part of a religion. You can either develop your own relationship with it how you see fit; or just ignore it and carry on with your life. It doesn't do anything, if it's there. It may not know we're here at all, or that we're self aware. These are all assumptions of super power, based on nothing.

One reason for leaving the Catholic Church in particular is that they actively shield child abusers and lobby to stop law changes which might bring them to justice. I would never support such an organisation, with money or by word, on principle.

I hope this has been of some help. Please feel free to ask any questions, or to PM me!