*trigger warning* What if atheism's not all it seems?

[Whateverist]

Hypothetically, if all the shortcomings of atheism were conceded.  It's just, in reality, a lawless world devoid of any purpose.  What makes that untrue?  It's not great.  A nice God and meaning and eternal life seems better.  But do you really believe in God, or do you feel you have to believe in God because the alternative is really bad.   

In that way, religion reminds me a bit of cancer patients.  The Doc says "You've got a 25% chance of survival."  And the patient and their family always says "We're going to beat this thing!"  Because the alternative is dying.  And even though they know that's more likely, they prefer to believe the positive result is going to happen.  But with God, it's more of a 0% chance of survival, and religious folks still say "We're going to beat this thing!" anyways.

For some people, atheism is a bit like seeing how hotdogs are made.  And after they see it, they say "Gross, I'm going back to not knowing how hotdogs are made."   That's sort of the vibe your OP gives off.

I don't get the sense that he sees it as 0% chance. From what i can see, it seems he feels there's a pretty equal 50/50 chance of God existing and so he'd rather take the optimistic approach.

Personally for myself, I'm not an optimistic person. Or a pessimistic one for that matter. I feel I'm pretty realistic. I won't hope for something to be true unless I feel there is very good chance that it is.

As I said in another thread, I do find atheism the least likely scenario. If I wasn't Christian I would be a deist because to me, it seems logical that there would be more out there besides the physical. Though that's a conversation for another thread.

It seems obvious to me too.  Over and above the physical there is all that goes on in my mind, much of which is mysterious as hell.  Pretty sure that is where you'll find all the gods there ever were or will be.  But admittedly, I can't know that. (It's a mystery after all.)