I'm an atheist with the mentality of a religious person who seeks self-enlightenment and even though a positive perspective can be achieved through atheism, some people are better off with their positive perception of religion. Atheism recognizes the reality of situations (in this case, there being no God and no afterlife). Even though it is good to recognize the reality of a situation in most cases, this is not always the case. In situations where not recognizing the reality of a situation does no harm to you or anyone else and brings you personal pleasure, then recognizing the reality of the situation is pointless. In other words, since believing in God and such would do me no harm and wouldn't make me harm others and would bring me personal pleasure in life, it would be pointless for me to be an atheist that I am now.
The more pleasure you have and the less depression you have in life, the stronger the pleasure circuits in your brain will be and the weaker the depression circuit will be. Therefore, if you use delusion in escaping stressors of life (in this case, belief in religion), this would be a good thing because the comfort and such that you get from these delusions strengthens the pleasure circuitry in the brain and keeps the stress circuitry weak which is what would later give you a good chance of eventually facing and overcoming a stressor in life that can't be escaped from using delusion. Since obviously it's a scientific fact that pleasure overcomes depression and the more pleasure you have (positive outlook on life), the more you will be able to overcome and prevent depression.
When you face a stressor in life without having any delusion to escape from it, the situation in terms of emotional well-being would be the same as having such a delusion in the sense that you are still using a positive outlook in combating the stressor. For example, a positive outlook you would use in combating the obvious stressor of not having a good life if you are religious is that when you die, you will have an afterlife of eternal joy. And if you are an atheist, a positive outlook you would use in combating this stressor would be making the best of the good things you have in this one and only life. Both of these situations are the same in the sense that they both use a positive outlook in combating life's stressors. One may be an escape while the other is facing the problem, but they are both the same in the sense that they ease and perhaps rid of the depression and give you a chance of overcoming other stressors in life.
But what would determine which of these perceptions would be better and give a life of greater pleasure and stress coping to a specific individual depends on how this individual's mind is wired. If this person's mind is wired in such a way that a perception of religion offers him/her a greater life of pleasure and stress coping than any such atheist perception could ever achieve, then believing in religion would be the best thing for this person. Which is why I say here that I am at a great disadvantage being an atheist since my mind is wired to achieve the best life of pleasure and stress coping through belief in religion.
If, for example, knowing that there is no God and no afterlife is your stressor because you feel that it makes your life inferior and hopeless and that you deserve these things, then it would be of benefit to believe in religion and there would be no benefit whatsoever in facing the stressor itself through atheism (since this is something mental and not an actual situation that needs to be addressed such as a situation that actually endangers your life, and there would be no difference in facing this stressor as opposed to using delusion to escape this stressor because, again, both of these situations are the same in the sense that they both use a positive outlook in combating this stressor. One may be an escape while the other is facing the problem, but they are both the same in the sense that they ease and perhaps rid of the stress). Therefore, in this case, it would be good to just eliminate the stress itself through any positive perception and not have to face this source of stress. As for being poorly immunized to hardship because you are not facing stressors in life, I do not believe this to be the case because, for example, if you wish to have a good immune system to things such as the cold, what you would have to do is make sure you exercise and eat right and such (not keep on experiencing these ailments). Therefore, this would also be the case for this situation as well because if you wish to be immune to stress, then you would make sure you experience all the pleasure you can and experience as less stress as possible.
Some atheists might think that if you don't need to work for your pleasure through having struggles in life, then life is unfulfilling and the pleasure is meaningless and that there being a God and afterlife makes this life less valuable. But this all depends on the person. Many people (such as myself) would find that a life of perfect pleasure with no struggles is a completely fulfilling life and that these struggles are pointless and that no positive value whatsoever can be deemed from them as well as that there being a God and afterlife actually makes this life better than a life without these things.
Now if you had the choice, would you be a person who is a genius and has absolutely no pleasure in life (as in literally no pleasure center at all), or would you be someone who is retarded and has all the pleasure in the world? I doubt any human being would choose the first option which obviously says that pleasure is the most important thing above having knowledge because if we just had knowledge without emotions, we would be nothing more than logical machines (this also applies to actual things we do in life because without pleasure, then these things themselves have no value). And if you were to somehow think that having a balance of pleasure and knowledge is better than having all the pleasure in the world with no knowledge, the fact of the matter is that based on the argument I just made, pleasure is still the most important thing than any amount of knowledge no matter how you try to justify otherwise. Knowledge may be useful in helping others, but going out of your way in helping others is something you are free to do--you are not expected to do so and a way of life in helping others is not better than a way of life in experiencing personal pleasure and not going out of your way and helping others because to think so is a moral, and morals are not logic (fact), they are false and irrational. Therefore, you can experience all the pleasure you want without going out of your way in helping others and that would not make your attitude bad at all. In the case of you wanting to help others though, just simply recognizing the reality of the situation of those who need help would be necessary. But as for not recognizing the reality of the situation of there being no God and no afterlife, it would be unnecessary to recognize the reality of that situation as there is no need.
Now I have come up with 2 more reasonings against atheism offering a better life of pleasure than religion. Although these 2 reasonings do contradict one another, I'm going to present them here as individual reasonings:
Reasoning #1: As I stated before that there are in fact things in life that recognizing the reality of the situation is either pointless or actually does much more harm than good, I am proof of this because I would have, in fact, lived a life of greater pleasure and stress coping if I still believed in religion and me being an atheist has brought me no such things. As for the concept that anyone can change and that I can change my attitude, you cannot always completely change your attitude (for many they can only change their attitude up to a certain degree while still living their lives filled with negativity). I feel that I could definitely be one of these people because if your mind has been wired a certain way your entire life (which would be my case as I have lived a positive life through my perception of fantasy and believing in religion), then completely rewiring your brain to live a positive life through atheism just might be an impossible goal. Therefore, you would of been better off believing religion in this case.
Reasoning #2: A reasoning in support of atheism might be that it would be a good idea for someone who believes in religion to convert over to atheism because the more pleasure you recieve from this belief, the more your life will be filled with negativity when you realize it's not true and that the sooner they convert over to atheism, the better (since the more pleasure and comfort you obtain from using delusion to escape life's problems, the worse the depression response to that problem would be when you realize that these delusions are not real). But I ask, why would living a life of pleasure (no matter what it is) make you more suspectible to negative emotions? If anything, it should make you more immune to depression because, again, the more pleasure you have (positive outlook on life), the better you are able to overcome depression. Please explain this in terms of science.
In conclusion, this universe might portray the message to atheists that we are nothing special and have no grand special purpose, but we are the ones who are special and this universe is what's not special only in the sense that it has given us no grand special purpose for us. We already deem ourselves special in the sense that we experience love and such. Therefore, since we are obviously already special, we should be living in a universe that "views" us as special by giving us things that a universe that "views" us as special would give us such as a life of perfection and perfect joy with immortality. But, of course, that's not the case and we just have to make the best of life as it is.
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There are so many items in your post to which I would like to respond, but for brevity's sake, I'll limit it to just a few.
First and foremost, as I asked in another of your strings, you say you have chronic depression. Have you seen a physician for diagnosis and possible treatment? There are a ton of causes for chronic depression and most can be treated medically. Being hypothyroid, for instance, can cause horrible depression. And it has nothing to do with how your "brain is wired" as you say. I can't encourage you enough to seek medical attention if you have not already done so. And if one medical professional throws up their hands with no answers, go to another one.
The brain is plastic. That means that it can and does change. From an an anthropological perspective, humans evolved to seek patters and reasons for things. However, with these large forebrains we have now, we have the ability to use reason and figure out that patterns don't require external cause.
No one, absolutely no one, has a life of pure pleasure. Zero. Zip. Nada. Religious people don't. Atheist people don't. There is no immunity from feelings of depression. Which also means that no one corners the market on happiness either.
What the heck is a "negative emotion"? Emotions are what they are: responses to situations. Anger, sadness, amusement, happiness, irritation, anxiety, fear, ad infinitum. None of them is positive or negative. They are what they are, and actually, part of what makes us human, and in so many ways, useful. When, however, one overtakes your life, then it needs to be examined and dealt with. Religion just isn't as effective at this as other means; and never when there is a physiological cause. People can't *will* themselves out of physiologically caused problems. Trying to use religion to do so is called faith healing. And faith healing is bunk.
You say we "should be living in a universe that 'views' us as special by giving us such a life of perfection and perfect joy with immortality."
Firstly, this sounds like entitlement to me. Secondly, you have anthropomorphized the universe.
Life is what it is. In the grand scheme of things, it could have gone differently and not one of us would ever be here or be self-aware. So when it all comes down to it, the meaning of life is living.
It is entitlement. I, as well as all innocent people who have to suffer, are all entitled to a life of perfection and perfect joy with immortality.
My, my, my, Mozart. This is the sixth atheist forum on which you have posted this identical stuff. As far as I can tell, it started months ago. And none of it has changed.
Why are you doing this?
Is it your expectation that by going from forum to forum, saying the same thing over and over, you might somehow convince the lot of us that your so-called logic is sound and we will finally agree with you? Tell you that you are the one who has finally figured it all out?
You say you are athiest. After reading what you have written here and elsewhere, I will say, without a doubt, you are not athiest. You have created your own theism, and are using these boards to preach it. Ultimately, however, I'm convinced the only real person to whom you are preaching is yourself...because you need it. You need it because reality is just too damned abhorant to you.
For the third time, as one human who cares about other humans, I am encouraging you to get medical help! I am afraid for you and I give a shit about the quality of your life...your real life.
Well, at least it had paragraphs.