Atheism and Sadness

[GodCherry]

As I am not an atheist, I do not know the answer to this question, so I am asking you.

Are atheists generally sad, unhappy people, as opposed to Christians (true and otherwise) and other believers?


Idk, it just seems sort of discouraging to me to go around thinking that when you die, you just become like a lump of dirt, or a glob of poop, and thats it . No after life.. no paradise in the sky with your dead family members and pets.. just nothing.. so sad .

I just feel lucky that I don't buy into that ! The possibility of heaven after I die is really kind of a motivator, something to "hope for" if you will!

Part of the reason I ask, is that so many of the posters on this forum seem like grumpy sadsacks a lot of the time . It's like something is bothering you in this world.. but you don't know what it is.

Am I right? Are atheists sort of an unhappy lot (Generally speaking?)

With regard to death, the only difference between you and I is simply that I admit that I have zero idea about the mechanics of what occurs.  You buy into allegory to alleviate your irrational fear.   In my opinion, that's intellectually dishonest.

I'm not afraid of what happens after I die...I'm far more concerned about living a good, happy life.  I have a wonderful, peaceful, lovely existence that I try to deserve everyday.  

I, however, would be incredibly unhappy to fake my way through life accepting the lies and inhumanity of religion just to get a ticket to some mythological afterlife because I lived in pure fear of the unknown.

That's the problem with most religion people.  They don't actually believe...they're just afraid not to and they don't have the capacity to understand the difference.

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Are atheists generally sad, unhappy people, as opposed to Christians (true and otherwise) and other believers?

People are (a) not that great at predicting their future happiness and (b) far more adaptable than you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnsimet3X_c

And vocal atheists on forums are not representative of majority of atheists who aren't particularly grumpy or angry, they just get on with life much the same as everyone else. 

For me, I'm far more happier as an atheist for one major reason: I don't have the mental burden of trying to maintain, in my head, an imaginary relationship with an obscure god.

However, there is one dimension of atheism/humanism, that a lot of atheists struggle with. And that's (a) the loss of community and (b) the anomie/normlessness that comes with atheism.

So, there's pros and cons of being an atheist. Perhaps we can say that atheists who are strongly individualistic are happy, whereas atheists who need a structure/community might be unhappy.

I don't think the loss of an after-life, or heaven, has much effect on atheists at all.

Maybe its a product of both my husband and I having science/engineering backgrounds but I have to say that I know far more people that don't follow religion than do...and so I certainly don't suffer the loss of any community or social networking because I don't have a church lifestyle.

And the few hardcore church going people that I have met through work, etc...are sometimes very nice but honesty, they creep me out a bit.  I can't say that I'd want to spend any significant time with them hanging out.

I have traveled to states that are very bible-beltish though and I'm sure its harder to socialize there....so perhaps its very dependent on where you live.