[Not Even A Little Bit Serious] Why AREN'T You An Atheist?

[Belacqua]

"taking responsibility for your actions" thing...   

This is interesting; this is something we can think about......

It seems to me that just about every group accuses the other groups of finding ways to escape responsibility. 

So you've mentioned the Protestant accusation made against Catholics, that they can sin all week and then confess on Sunday and they're fine. Protestants can evade responsibility by getting "born again," and that way shedding responsibility like a snake's skin, even if nothing has really changed -- if they've just gone through a ceremony. Or they can imagine that they talk to God in their heads and get forgiven that way.

Christians think Jews evade responsibility by following the letter of the law but not the spirit; they can break any mitzvah if they can find a clever way around it, like getting a Christian to light a fire on the Sabbath for them. 

No doubt religious people think that atheists evade responsibility by denying that there is judgement. And it's certainly true that if moral thought is internalized and we are our own moral arbiters then a lot of people will turn out to be very lenient judges of themselves. And of course no afterlife means that if no one manages to catch you out in your lifetime, you won't have to face punishment at all. 

Human beings are extremely clever about justifying their actions, I think. And since atheism is in fact only the lack of a belief in gods, it certainly isn't a guarantee of anything beyond that. There is no reason I can see to imagine that atheists are more likely to feel responsibility than any one else. We are good at excusing ourselves and blaming others, just as we're good at seeing the moral faults in others more than in ourselves.