Benefits of atheism and theism

[robvalue]

In my opinion, being an atheist or a theist is not a choice. It's a state of mind. You either have found a god proposition that you are convinced by, or you have not. You can't choose to become convinced or unconvinced of something at will, not without severe measures anyway. At least, I've only heard one person ever claim to be able to do this and I'm not sure I believe them. Of course further evidence, and deep thought, can lead to you changing your mind. So this is not meant to be a list of incentives to try and sway anyone either way, but just a study of my observations. These are not meant to be judgements either, this isn't a contest.

That being said, I thought it would be interesting to analyze what the benefits are of each position. For simplicity, I'm going to look at what seems to me to be the main two positions: a member of a popular religion, or a sceptic atheist. I realize this does not cover everyone, but that doesn't matter for this purpose. The lists would change for those who don't fit into either category, depending on their particular beliefs or thinking. Feel free to suggest what your own list is, or how yours differs from mine even if you're in one of my main two categories. I'm not saying that items on either list are definitely going to be the case, or are exclusive to that list, but they represent what I think to be an important factor.

I'm looking at this from the point of view of a theist who truly believes in their religion. I am fully aware that there are a significant number of people who go along with religion for convenience, or other reasons, but still call themselves religious. For those people, not all of the list will apply. Also, items on my list would usually be seen as benefits by the theist, but not necessarily by an atheist observer. And I am talking in very general terms about the kind of thing that happens in religions.

From the atheist point of view, I'm talking about someone who values critical thinking and has come to atheism primarily for that reason. I think it's fairly unlikely a theist would pretend to be an atheist (except to troll on forums).

Feedback welcome! I'll be interested to see if I have managed to sum up the benefits of religion at all accurately, given I've never been a part of one.


Benefits of being a member of a popular religion

---

Answers for most of life's difficult questions
Getting together for a common purpose
A sense of community and belonging
Looking forward to an afterlife rather than death being the end
Feeling loved by a higher power
A sense of purpose and meaning to life
Support and advice
Feeling forgiven for past misdeeds
A book from god to help guide you
Ceremonies, songs, events and so forth
Moral teachings

---

Benefits of being a sceptic atheist

---

Intellectual honesty from applying scepticism consistently
Freedom from cognitive dissidence
No dogma or requirements
Taking full responsibility for your own morals and actions
Seeking to make things right with wronged parties, rather than to a third party
Incentive to seek answers to life's difficult questions
Pursuit of knowledge unhindered by innate bias or fear of results
No rituals or schedules imposed on you
No worries about being continually watched and judged by invisible beings
No fear of punishment after death
Being able to study all religions objectively

---

[Spooky]

I get to keep 100% of my earnings and not 90%

(Excluding uncle sam's cut

[dyresand]

atheism is best world view.

[Nope]

I think you summed it up well but there is no 'Freedom to have orgies or eat babies' under the atheism tab.

[ManMachine]

atheism is best world view.

Not in Saudi Arabia it isn't.

MM

[FatAndFaithless]

And since when is atheism a worldview?

[Mudhammam]

And since when is atheism a worldview?

Since it's a conception of the world that has no place for Father Zeus and his Olympian hall, or any other adolescent supreme being myths?

[FatAndFaithless]

And since when is atheism a worldview?

Since it's a conception of the world that has no place for Father Zeus and his Olympian hall, or any other adolescent supreme being myths?

But it's a single stance on a single issue. That's like saying that not believing in homeopathy is a worldview or disbelief in unicorns is a worldview. I'd stick it under "secular", which has a set of ideas and a method in which to address the world, but I consider atheism as the result of a worldview, not one in and of itself.

[Mudhammam]

Since it's a conception of the world that has no place for Father Zeus and his Olympian hall, or any other adolescent supreme being myths?

But it's a single stance on a single issue. That's like saying that not believing in homeopathy is a worldview or disbelief in unicorns is a worldview. I'd stick it under "secular", which has a set of ideas and a method in which to address the world, but I consider atheism as the result of a worldview, not one in and of itself.

That's valid.

[robvalue]

Yeah... It's tricky. I wouldn't call it a worldview either, but I can almost see how it could be classed as one since 80% of the planet believe in fairy stories. But it doesn't actually tell you anything else about a person at all.