It is more satisfying as an atheist, no contest.
And no, it's not because I want to "sin".
Partial list of reasons:
When I accomplish something, I know it is all me who is responsible, not some god. And yes, the opposite is also true, if I fail at something, it is also all on me. But even then, I get to learn from my mistakes.
I no longer have to worry that friends and family won't be tortured for eternity for thought crimes.
I don't have to perform gold medal levels of mental gymnastics in order to try to shape reality to my irrational beliefs.
I love having an internal representation of reality, that has much better probabilities of mapping to reality, than irrational beliefs do.
As Matt Dillahunty says, "I want to have as many true beliefs, and as few false beliefs as possible". Working for that goal, is very satisfying.
And no, it's not because I want to "sin".
Partial list of reasons:
When I accomplish something, I know it is all me who is responsible, not some god. And yes, the opposite is also true, if I fail at something, it is also all on me. But even then, I get to learn from my mistakes.
I no longer have to worry that friends and family won't be tortured for eternity for thought crimes.
I don't have to perform gold medal levels of mental gymnastics in order to try to shape reality to my irrational beliefs.
I love having an internal representation of reality, that has much better probabilities of mapping to reality, than irrational beliefs do.
As Matt Dillahunty says, "I want to have as many true beliefs, and as few false beliefs as possible". Working for that goal, is very satisfying.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
