[Not Even A Little Bit Serious] Why AREN'T You An Atheist?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

For those with a religious turn of mind, why?  Your claims are consistently refuted, your arguments discredited, your evidence non-existent.  In order to make your Bronze Age beliefs fit with the modern world, you have to twist and torture facts until they're shrieking like a mouse in a mangle.

So, what is it about religion that causes this willful rejection of facts, logic, evidence and science?  Is it fear of punishment for the use of your brain?  Is it inertia?

Why aren't you an atheist?

Boru

[LastPoet]

[tackattack]

because the food is better over here

[mordant]

Well I'm an atheist now, but the primary reasons I had for not being an atheist, could be summarized as follows:

1) Theism was all I knew
2) Theism provided my entire social support system
3) Theism had convinced me that it was essential for successful living
4) Fear of losing my support system and the approval of parents / extended family, mentors, etc.
5) Learned helplessness -- including the notion that it would be "impossible to live without god", and that certain trains of thought were utterly taboo.

All it took to undo that pretty quickly was for my life to become painful, filled with grief and loss and tragedy. Beware the man who has nothing to lose. He is apt to question the beliefs you use to control him.

Put another way, when (3) collapsed, it took a major part of my social support with it (2), made the sufficiency of theism (1) questionable, removed most of the fear of (4), and forced me to find other ways of thinking in order to cope (5).

[brewer]

The power of christ compels me. 

And the preacher's daughter is a super freak.

[ignoramus]

Boru, answer me this!

Where else can you do the wrong thing and/or hurt others and then just stroll up to a confessional, mutter a few hail Marys and you are instantly forgiven by the almighty!
The real question should be "why aren't we atheists religious!"

Oh shit, I forgot about the pesky "taking responsibility for your actions" thing... please ignore... carry on...

[The Valkyrie]

Boru, answer me this!

Where else can you do the wrong thing and/or hurt others and then just stroll up to a confessional, mutter a few hail Marys and you are instantly forgiven by the almighty!
The real question should be "why aren't we atheists religious!"

Oh shit, I forgot about the pesky "taking responsibility for your actions" thing... please ignore... carry on...

Medicine.

But without the confessional.

[Belacqua]

"taking responsibility for your actions" thing...   

This is interesting; this is something we can think about......

It seems to me that just about every group accuses the other groups of finding ways to escape responsibility. 

So you've mentioned the Protestant accusation made against Catholics, that they can sin all week and then confess on Sunday and they're fine. Protestants can evade responsibility by getting "born again," and that way shedding responsibility like a snake's skin, even if nothing has really changed -- if they've just gone through a ceremony. Or they can imagine that they talk to God in their heads and get forgiven that way.

Christians think Jews evade responsibility by following the letter of the law but not the spirit; they can break any mitzvah if they can find a clever way around it, like getting a Christian to light a fire on the Sabbath for them. 

No doubt religious people think that atheists evade responsibility by denying that there is judgement. And it's certainly true that if moral thought is internalized and we are our own moral arbiters then a lot of people will turn out to be very lenient judges of themselves. And of course no afterlife means that if no one manages to catch you out in your lifetime, you won't have to face punishment at all. 

Human beings are extremely clever about justifying their actions, I think. And since atheism is in fact only the lack of a belief in gods, it certainly isn't a guarantee of anything beyond that. There is no reason I can see to imagine that atheists are more likely to feel responsibility than any one else. We are good at excusing ourselves and blaming others, just as we're good at seeing the moral faults in others more than in ourselves.

[Lek]

Because I believe in God and nothing has convinced me otherwise. I'm also very happy and content. Atheists seem to be angry most of the time.

[Fireball]

4 of 5 people in my household are atheists. There is no anger here in our house; 3 of the 4 atheists completely ignore the internet on the issue,and I personally don't care to argue with theists (usually- I'm stepping out of character for this post- and I'm not angry, just amused). That said, if you could go look in your house, and come back with a report about acceptance of atheists as not believing what you believe, without rancor, or at least not aping the xtian line that we are all angry, that would be nice. Your turn.