RE: Atheist or Anti-Theist
October 1, 2012 at 9:39 pm
(This post was last modified: October 1, 2012 at 9:43 pm by will_alltogether.)
(October 1, 2012 at 12:54 pm)Minimalist Wrote: God is irrelevant but religion is dangerous.
I couldn't disagree with this more. I think it's incredibly important that whatever we believe ultimately aligns with what is true. If there really is a God (which I think there isn't), it's completely irrational to say that religion is harmful, because that claim implicitly favors "worldly" gratification over eternal salvation. The only way our lives on earth are more significant than our eternal souls is if our eternal souls aren't real. If they are, Christianity (or whatever religion the supposed God arbitrarily chooses to favor) is entirely right in imposing itself upon the world.
If we say that even if God exists people shouldn't believe in him, we're encouraging people to abandon the pursuit of what's true in favor of what's favorable. And not even what's favorable in the long run, but only in a worldly sense! A clever theist would have a field day with that argument! Which of course wouldn't prove him right, but it would certainly validate his beliefs in his own mind, thus deepening his delusion.
I think it's fundamentally imperative for us as rational atheists to make the claim that God Isn't Real a little more boldly, and make atheism a little more appealing and acceptable, and even less taboo and offensive (people do hesitate in de-converting because of the assumption of moral degradation), because that's the only way we can reasonably expect to diminish the numbers of the religious zealots who are disrupting the quality of the only life we'll ever get.
