RE: Would the world be better off if all theists became atheists.
May 14, 2011 at 7:42 pm
(This post was last modified: May 14, 2011 at 7:46 pm by Oldandeasilyconfused.)
Quote:we wake up tomorrow and everyone has converted to atheism.. is the world a better place to live in?
This question comes up on forums with monotonous regularity. It's fun to answer as my opinion tends to differ from the majority:
Nobody would notice the difference. We would still be the same self interested, greedy,vicious and stupid animals we have always been.
Good people use religion as a motivator,bad people use it as an excuse. Atheists don't use it at all; we have the wonderful tool of rationalisation. so far I've never been able to work out an individual's beliefs simply by observing their behaviour.( I conceded that being a suicide bomber seems to give a few hints)
Nature abhors a vacuum, so be careful for what you wish for; it could be replaced by something worse, say a dictatorship with a personalty cult.
PS atheism is not a belief system, so one cannot 'convert' to it; one deconverts from a religion.
