Does atheism inspire people?

[Shell B]

That's it! I call bullshit. Atheists are capable of extremely touching art, as are people who aren't Christian, but are still religious. There is absolutely no monopoly on inspiration or effect when it comes to art. To suggest as much is ignorant and loaded. Thankfully, I live in an area where art museums aren't loaded with religious tripe. I have seen thousands of works of art by people with all belief systems. I see no difference, apart from the imagery.

[StatCrux]

That's it! I call bullshit. Atheists are capable of extremely touching art, as are people who aren't Christian, but are still religious. There is absolutely no monopoly on inspiration or effect when it comes to art. To suggest as much is ignorant and loaded. Thankfully, I live in an area where art museums aren't loaded with religious tripe. I have seen thousands of works of art by people with all belief systems. I see no difference, apart from the imagery.

I haven't said they aren't or people of any other religions aren't. I'm saying that religion is a great inspiration due to the effect it has on the consciousness, it opens our mind to the transcendent nature of reality, we are all capable of doing this, whether we call it God or not is another matter. God is only a word in that sense.

[JessieSvendsen]

Well Atheism as in Humanism is maybe a better way to frame
what your looking for,well of course people have felt inspired,driven to do good things for the sake of humanity for progress and so on. Most of
scientific progress,the good science that have been done last 100 year's
have been from atheists so there you go. and of course people im sure do
things for the sake of humanity probably now in the u.s just do demonstrate to religious people,the religious community that atheists have a moral integrity interested in doing moral good decent things so yes atheism inspire people

[Whateverist]

Did you have a point or did you just want to share the way the world looks to you?

My point is that belief in the existence of God has been a source of inspiration for many great works of art, poetry, music etc. If you take away that belief you a losing a source of inspiration, would a prevalently atheist culture produce as much great works of art? Whenever I listen to atheists arguments, they always strike me as being a harsh, gloomy and empty way of seeing reality, Christopher Hitchens even admitted as much in one debate. This view of existence doesn't appear to be a good basis for inspiring great art.

You've got to remember that we atheists have much less in common than you Christians do. Atheism is a default category for those who don't believe in any of the particular gods that you all do. Atheism doesn't identify anything we have in common, just what we mutually lack. That doesn't mean we don't have anything going on or are dead inside, shocking as that may be to you. People here have myriad political positions, hobbies, jobs and passions. The only thing we have in common really is being inconvenienced occasionally by your lot.

Hitchens can't speak for me any more than any other atheist can. That job is best left to me. I approach many aspects of my life creatively as does my atheist-from-birth wife who makes her living as an artist. If there is any impediment to embracing both atheism and creativity/art, we just haven't found it.

Perhaps what you are thinking of is a kind of reverence that makes you feel very small and insignificant. I experience reverence and humility but nothing I experience makes me want to 'turn it all over to a higher power'. Self abdication is not the upshot of my reverie. So perhaps it is the sense that you are so unworthy and self-debasing which inspires a certain kind of art among theists which atheists are not drawn to make.

---

Upon further reflection I wonder how much more you Christians really have in common. After all, it seems any Christian you ask will reject roughly half of all other Christians as not being the genuine, 'true' kind. Still nearly all of you think the bible lays out what you can expect from your genie, including an afterlife. Only the artistic among you seem to give any thought to how wondrous and mysterious your God is. Few of you tremble in fear. Most of you act like you have Him by the balls based on your acceptance of the terms of some contract which you think your 'belief' entitles you to.

[downbeatplumb]

I havent read the full thread so forgive me if I am repeating what someone else has written.

By not pretending that there is a god that is the ultimate answer to why things work, atheism can be said to inspire people to look or better explanations.

So I give you science as what the non-belief in god can inspire.

I have also noted that quite a few of our members are quite accomplished artists in their own right, some of this work is anti-theistic so inspired by atheism.

I give you some of my favourite atheist tunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk41Gbjljfo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c8Rlq8mI...re=related

All together... why are we here..... because we're here, roll the bones....

[Polaris]

It inspires people to turn to faith.

[downbeatplumb]

If I tell you that I see the colour red how can I prove it, especially if you deny the colour red exists, I can never prove it to you, but it doesn't mean the colour doesn't exist.

Then don't compose your post as if it were an absolute fact then otherwise of course people are going to call you out.

Actually colour does not exist.

The first thing to remember is that colour does not actually exist… at least not in any literal sense. Apples and fire engines are not red, the sky and sea are not blue, and no person is objectively "black" or "white".

What exists is light. Light is real.


The grey tiles on the left look blue, and the grey tiles on the right look yellow You can measure it, hold it and count it (well … sort-of). But colour is not light. Colour is wholly manufactured by your brain.

How do we know this? Because one light can take on any colour… in our mind.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14421303

[Rev. Rye]

Well, atheism itself doesn't inspire great art, because, in essence, it is a lack of belief in God, but there have been artists, authors, &c, who don't believe in God, and here are just a few works that were created by atheists:

Books:
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
* Lucky Jim
* The Foundation Trilogy
* Go Tell it On the Mountain
* Ham on Rye
* Uncle Vanya
* Silas Marner
* Pillars of the Earth
* Room with a View
* The Magus
* The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
* Raisin in the Sun
* The Elementary Particles
* A Shropshire Lad
* A Doll's House
* The Metamorphosis
* Survival in Auschwitz
* The Call of Cthulhu
* Death of a Salesman
* 1984
* In Search of Lost Time
* His Dark Materials
* Midnight's Children
* Where the Wild Things Are
* Pygmalion
* Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
* Slaughterhouse-5
* Bonfire of the Vanities

Films (the directors of these films are atheists)
* Annie Hall
* M*A*S*H
* The Others
* L'Avventura
* The Exterminating Angel
* Titanic
* Modern Times
* The Fly
* Dead Ringers
* Singin' in the Rain
* Alexander Nevsky
* Draughtsman's Contract
* Fitzcarraldo
* Maltese Falcon
* El Topo
* A Clockwork Orange
* Chinatown
* The Jerk
* The Princess Bride
* Dirty Harry
* Ocean's Eleven
* Lola Rennt
* The Avengers (The new one, duh!)

Atheist Composers and Bands:
* Bela Bartok
* The Beatles
* Hector Berlioz
* Georges Bizet
* Flaming Lips
* David Gray
* Leos Janacek
* Tim Minchin
* Charlie Parker
* Sergei Prokofiev
* Maurice Ravel
* Rammstein
* Rush
* Pink Floyd
* Pixies
* Edgard Varese
* Frank Zappa

So, basically, we're not culturally sterile.

[Shell B]

I'm saying that religion is a great inspiration due to the effect it has on the consciousness, it opens our mind to the transcendent nature of reality, we are all capable of doing this, whether we call it God or not is another matter. God is only a word in that sense.

No, you suggested that art without religion is somehow less, which is a lie. I won't say wrong because I think you have just outright made it up.

To remind you of what you said:

I'm not talking about subject matter, I'm talking about the kind of awareness that comes from a religious understanding of reality, it is this that inspires the imagination. That's how great art has a powerful effect on people, because we all recognize the transcendent and luminous, paintings based on HP Lovecraft may be good, but they would not have the same effect as great works of art that reach out and have a powerful effect on us. Go and see the Crucifixion by Matthias Grünewald with an open mind.

Is there anything in there that is "just" saying religion is inspiration? No. You are saying that art can't be great without religion.

[Hovik]

It inspires people to turn to faith.

No.