[Serious] Comfort in Faith at Death

[Belacqua]

I began this by pointing out one of the merits of theism that lead me to be unable to utterly oppose theism, which is what antitheism is. Cutout the babble, antitheism is anti . . . theism. I am not opposed to theism. Therefore, I'm not anti-theist. I didn't say comfort in death has anything to do with you or antitheism. I said he has to do with me and my feelings about theism.

To me the danger of anti-theism, as practiced by many of the anti-theists I've encountered, is that it relies on a great deal of fantasizing. It imagines counter-factual states and history, and posits that these would be better. Granted, it's fun to imagine these things, but it's impossible to prove them. And such fantasies are very susceptible to ideological prejudices. 

How can we possibly know that no theism in history, or in the present world, would be better? There is no reason to think that, when the irrationality of religion is removed, people become rational. Nor is there any way to measure whether the positive influences outweigh the negative ones. 

I see no reason at all to think that a lack of theism in the world would improve things, though improved theism certainly could. (Better education, better economics, etc.)