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

[Ben Davis]

Hi Balaco, from the UK.

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Before I begin, I ask that you please avoid being hostile or anything. I'm a Roman Catholic, but I feel like many people of faith immediately jump to degrading atheists as people, rather than trying to understand their mindset. I'm heavily confused right now, and am asking both Catholic and atheist sites for their mindsets. Obviously, Catholics are going to defend Catholicism, while atheists are going to defend atheism. I ask that you please be civil about it, as this could be life-changing for me.


I've been questioning how to improve in my Roman Catholic faith lately...but this morning I came to the realization that I never really questioned my faith itself. I was lightly raised Catholic and recently took it upon myself to grow closer to God. Now, for probably the first time in my life, I feel like I'm genuinely considering atheism as a possibility.

From what I understand, atheists do not accept the possibility of a supernatural being, and restrict themselves to our "natural" human thinking. Previously I thought that atheists are simply conditioned by society to the point where they are unable to "rationally" believe in a supernatural being...God doesn't allow us universally undeniable proof of his existence as a test of faith. Now, though, I feel like it's impossible to tell whether that mindset is correct, or whether atheists are correct in their focusing on our natural human mindsets. I do feel like I've felt something while praying throughout the past. 

The other night, for example, I was planning on praying for about fifteen minutes, but felt oddly calm and ended up taking about an hour. Now I feel like that could have just been because I was comfortable, and my mind was "making things up" as I was more convinced in my faith.


Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I? I know that your answers will include "there's no evidence" and all that, but please try to explain.

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There's something I wanted to highlight that may put a different slant on your thinking. You seem to be identifying atheists as a homogeneous group whereas nothing could be farther from the truth. You see, the label 'atheist' doesn't tell you what people believe or hold as value-systems. It only tells you that they don't hold theistic beliefs. So there are atheists that are deists, buddhists, pagans, spiritualists, supernaturalists, scientismists, empiricists, materialists, rationalists, irrationalists and more besides! As I'm sure you're seeing, even amongst the people on this forum, there are differences in approach.

For me, I think the best thing to do is examine how you approach 'truth': how do you identify it, do you value it above other concerns (e.g. comfort), what are your standards of evidence, how reliable are your sources... These are deep questions and are not entered in to lightly; a good analogy for your current search.

I hope your quest is honest and fruitful.