(November 11, 2014 at 6:04 am)ZeldaAdmirer Wrote: I am an atheist myself and don't believe in a God or the supernatural. But I wish I wasn't an atheist because an afterlife of eternal joy would give my life the ultimate meaning and would make this one and only life more beautiful and worthwhile.
But I did have a christian belief in the past and it was my christian belief that allowed me to feel hope, comfort, and be more happy/less depressed in life. Me looking forward to going to heaven and there being a God encouraged me to find more worth and purpose in this life in striving for that reward of an afterlife of eternal joy of no suffering. Since I am a hedonist, an eternal life of pleasure is the ultimate reward that not only made me feel more happy and motivated in life, but also encouraged me to strive more in doing more great things in life and such knowing that I would obtain that reward in the end.
As for what someone might bring up which is quoted below:
“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion
This is not true. If you or anyone else here has found other things in life of greater value than your pleasure (which would include finding greater things in life than even your own feelings of love), then you obviously have not experienced these feelings nearly as profound or meaningful as I have to know that they are truly the only good and greatest things in life. I should also include that I also value the pleasure of others just as much as I value my own.
Now it's only your lifestyle aspects, attitude, and any negative beliefs associated with your delusional religious beliefs that determines whether your delusional religious beliefs are detrimental to you and/or anyone else. But since all of those things just stated above were perfect with my christian belief and I had no negative beliefs such as that God would send me to hell since I believed that God was much more loving and caring than that, then my christian belief would have given me a great life in which I would not harm myself and/or others.
Now if you are going to say something such as that "Delusional beliefs are detrimental in and of themselves because they cloud your mind and limit your thinking," this would be false because as long as there is no harm done to you or anyone else and that you are truly more happy with your life, then you are just fine with your religious belief. As for me, when I had my christian belief in the past, I never did any bad deeds through my christian belief. I was just someone who helped others and played videogames and my life was just fine for me and others around me.
Finally, even atheists can have much more depression due to their atheism and can even harm themselves/harm others and do even more bad things in their life through their atheist mindset than a religious person would. As far as I can tell, I would be this type of person no matter what and would never be able to change or even change to the point where I would be better off with my atheism than my christian belief. Although I would never harm others no matter what since I care about others. I would also never look down upon atheists if I still had my christian belief and think that they are perhaps stupid for being atheists. I would respect their atheism anyway despite me being a christian. I never did such a thing anyway when I had my christian belief in the past.
Depression is not caused by labels, it is caused by genetics and or environment such as abuse, addiction, PTSD. Minorities in other countries who are abused by a majority will go through the same thing say that blacks and gays have gone through here.
Child abuse can cause depression too. Rape can cause depression too. Losing a loved one can cause depression too. Seeing violence such as crime or war can cause depression. Atheists are no different because of lack of belief and belief, in reality can distort and make depression and mental illness worse.
Labels do not make humans a separate species. What you observe in life both good and bad goes on in every country in the world. Some country's governments are simply more abusive than others. But you will still find traffic lights in Saudi Arabia and Iran. You will still find prisons and hospitals in every country.
Atheist merely means "off", on one claim. It does not mean we are miserable 100% of the time. And just because we can have the same health issues or go through the same things in life that can cause emotional stress, does not mean one has to fill that stress with a comic book or a invisible sky hero or fictional after life.
You only have 4 posts here. I would really like to think this is not some theist attempting to pretend they are an atheist. We have seen that before.
