What hope does atheism offer?
What hope does atheism truly offer humanity?
I mean no disrespect to my fellow atheist's on the R&S. It's just that, I understand that different faiths offer hope is many different ways. As a born-again Christian I have the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ. But to be honest atheism, as it pertains to giving hope, is an enigma to me.
41 comments
Wait, what? "my fellow atheist's" and "As a born-again Christian"... Which is he? Not to mention, he made 'atheist' possessive, not plural...
Why do you assume that the only possible source of hope is religion?
I'm a religious person, and I have other sources of hope. Why wouldn't atheists?
What a bizarre question. Would you ever ask "how does refusing to believe Nepal is in Africa give you hope?"
Of course not. The purpose of not believing in false claims is the avoidance of error. It needs no further benefit to justify itself.
False hope is better than none, eh? Why isn't this life enough? Why are you so miserable that you have to pin your hopes on a fairy tale? I bet the people taking advantage of you, and getting paid to fill your head with that birdseed, have something to do with your despair. Isn't it so much better to believe that those deserving justice will receive it in the next life?... 'cause they're just going to keep screwing you in this one. You've been trained to sit there take it! Happiness is as simple as having something to look forward to. It's so much better to have something real to look forward to instead of a myth that will probably turn out to be a worse joke than a burning bag of poo on your doorstep.
The hope offered by a superstition has nothing to do with its validity.
In fact, I would really hope to die someday and just cease to exist. Living on forever in Heaven or Hell would suck ass.
What hope does fundamentalist christianity offer?
Homosexual people with a christian fndamentalist faith are forced to abandon their partner and very probably will stay unhappy for the rest of their lives, just for the hope of a place in heaven.
The belief in the rapture, which is widespread among fundamentalist christians also promotes environment unfriendly behavior in people, because they believe that god will come on a shiny horse and carry all believers into a new shiny world, if we mess too much with the curent one.
Now assume that either atheism is corect or that at least the christian fundamentalist version of faith is false (and god/s doesn´t care about our sexual behavior but just wants us to be nice to others).
So atheism would, compared to fundamentalist christianity, lead to lots of people who can lead happier lifes and also to a healthier environment
What hope does atheism truly offer humanity?
Lack of prejudism and hate for two things.
Atheism provides the hope of A) People not killing each other for the Gods they created, B) Not being tortured for all eternity just for being human, and C) Advancing ourselves through technology.
I find it more satisfying to hope for a better future for humanity, whether or not I'm still alive to see it, than to hope that I won't get tossed into a lake of fire because I wasn't perfect.
At any rate, even if religion did provide more hope, it wouldn't mean that God is real. Wanting something to be true doesn't make it so.
Atheism doesn't offer hope to the irresponsible and lazy. It doesn't tell you that you can drop out of 8th grade, get fired from all sorts of menial jobs and end up living in a trailer park; but it's OK, you can sit on your butt, because God's going to reward you after you die for doing nothing harder than "believing".
You "hope" you'll be happy after you die, right?
Regular people in the real world have hopes that the destruction of the US government and economy over the past eight years can be repaired.
Wait ... I just got done being told I didn't accept God because I'm too greedy and want too many things. Now I should believe in him so I can live forever in paradise ???
By the way, the ingestion of my semen makes you invincible and gives you millions of dollars. We must keep hope alive, I think you know what to do.
Atheism doesn't offer hope, it doesn't offer peace, or a meaning to life. Atheism is only the absence of belief in a higher power.
Hope, peace, and meaning are things you have to make for yourself.
Eternal life through Jesus Christ, sounds more like a desperate situation to me.
Give me the hopeless but also despairless view of atheism any time.
"Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor all their own."
"What hope does atheism truly offer humanity?"
Rationality. And the morality to do the right thing BECAUSE it's the right thing, not because you're afraid of burning forever in hell.
What is hope? First you need to ask yourself that question. Then, once you can answer that, ask yourself why do you need hope?
I think of hope as rose coloured classes. I think of hope as the answer to everything.
Atheism does not offer hope, it offers palpable reality. Atheism does not offer the answers to everything, it offers the ability to objectively question. Atheism is about personal revelations on a daily basis, not a one time acceptance of a set of unchangeable answers spoon fed to you by an outside source.
If you find that you need hope, or if you find that accepting life and death as parts of an of unpredictable, and as of yet, unsolvable enigma- then maybe it isn’t for you. At least not right now at this point in your life.
You know what, I've had it. We've endured nearly 2 millenniums of Christianity and the world still sucks and you guys continuously make it worse. If it hadn't been for the Renaissance this world would be a pure Doom 2 scenario, minus the demons.
What about the hope of making this a better world together, for our kids and their grand-children, before we start pushing up daises?
I can honestly say, that dying and becoming nothing doesn't scare me one iota. I have no wish to die just jet, though; I want to do much more, experience much more, before going into the ground. I've been unconscious at least 6 times (due to epileptic seizures) and being nothing is probably something like that. The coming back is the hard part, really.
According to Fundagelical dogma, something like 99% of humanity is destined to die and then spend the rest of eternity burning in Hell. The only ones who get to go to Paradise (that is, who escape eternal torture) are the fundagelicals.
Other than misery, what does your religion offer the bulk of humanity?
I suggest you watch the film "Star Trek: Generations". The meaning of that film. Also, the last words by Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart):
Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe than time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important how we lived. After all, Number One, we're only mortal
That line offers more hope then you can possibly imagine, OP. After all: One fiction's just as good as another . Amirite...?!
What hope does B Positive blood offer?
Thing is, I did not put 'BPOS' on my dogtags out of hope. Hope was the last thing I thought of.
But one day in Biology, I offered my finger, got pricked, and watched Mr. Calhoun prepare a slide with the reagents and as near as I can tell, my blood type IS B positive.
It made sense, and was independently tested at my enlistment, got the same answer.
I'm an atheist because as near as I can tell, there are no gods. Nothing even close to matching any of the competing, conflicting descriptions offered.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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