You can be the better/stronger person without atheism

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Mozart Link's picture
You can be the better/stronger person without atheism

If you are going to say something such as that people who have delusional religious beliefs in a God and a heaven are worse off in life while those who are atheists are better off in life, this would be false.

I (and many others) know plenty of religious people who lived happy fulfilling lives and were very motivated to do many great things in life through their religious beliefs. Sure, some people are better off with atheism and some religious people do horrible things through their beliefs, but some atheists are also better off with religious belief and can also do horrible things in life as a result of their atheism. Maybe they perhaps feel hopeless or angry that there is no God and a heaven, so they take this anger and such out on others and are less motivated to do great things in their life as a result of their atheism since these people are unable to get what they want after they die in the end (which would be an afterlife of eternal joy with no suffering and despair).

I am a hedonist and my hedonist belief is something that will never change and is something I refuse to change. Pleasure is the greatest aspect of you as a human being and makes you better than everyone else who either do not have it or have very little of it (based on my hedonistic belief) since pleasure is the only greatest thing in life and nothing else in life or about you as a person ever compares which is the reason why you would be better than everyone else who has less pleasure than you. The most important thing to me in life would be my pleasure that is received from doing all activities that I used to enjoy such as playing videogames and composing. It's not the things themselves that are important. It is the pleasure that is received from these things which is important. With my pleasure, these things are important to me since these things are able to give me the pleasure that I value so much. But without my pleasure, they are nothing to me and nothing else has any value or any worth to me now. I have depression and emotional numbness which is why everything in my life is worthless to me now. Me being happy through religious belief would make me better than everyone and would make my life better than everyone else who is less happy with their lives and/or atheism (based on my hedonistic belief). I would also be the better person with a better life in comparison to myself who I am now being an atheist who is depressed and emotionally numb.

Also, some people might say that living in your own fantasy world with the belief in a God and a heaven and not caring what others say is childish and that I should just grow up. But apparently, atheism serves no benefit for me and neither does the criticism of others. So it would be pointless for me to "grow up." I am FAR better off with a religious belief and not caring what others have to say because that gives me the life I want to live and not how others want me to live. It gives me power over other people and their personal opinions and makes me superior if I had a nice happy life right now. Religious belief would be the only benefit for me since I would have the delusional belief in getting what I want after I died (which would be an afterlife of eternal joy with no suffering and despair). But since I am an atheist and am unable to get this nice happy life that I want both in this world as well as the afterlife, my life is now worthless! Some people would go bored or insane from living a perfect life of eternal happiness (heaven). But not me. Unlike these people who value hardships and suffering and need some of these things in their lives to give their lives meaning, I don't need such things and they give my life no meaning. Only a perfect happy life has the ultimate meaning for me and you can also achieve great things in life and help others just as good as (and even better) than people who do through their atheism and/or through their lives of much suffering and despair.

Now if you are also going to say something such as that it is a fact that being an atheist and having suffering and despair in your life makes you a better person as well as a more compassionate person as opposed to living a nice happy delusional life of little suffering and despair, this would be false. A person who is an atheist and/or suffers and goes through despair might become hateful towards others and take their atheism and suffering and despair out on others (even towards those who suffer the same things as this person who are atheists as well). Also, if you are a psychopath, then atheism and suffering and despair is likely not to increase your compassion or make you a better person. It would be likely to make you less compassionate and make you even more of a psychopath. However, becoming hateful towards others and becoming less compassionate here is a choice. Therefore, it is also a choice as to whether you can be a much better person and have much more compassion through living a nice happy delusional life as opposed to a life of atheism and suffering and despair. Any awful thing you do as a result of your religious belief is purely a choice on your part because you can choose to do otherwise despite the fact that the bad deeds you were to do through your religious belief are very important or are even the most important things to you in life. If you are also going to say something such as that if it weren't for your atheism or suffering and despair, that you would of never even made the choice in becoming the better person with much more compassion, this would also be false. You can make this choice through living a nice happy delusional life of little suffering and despair under the right circumstances. I don't care what benefits you have achieved through your atheism and/or life of suffering and despair--these same benefits can be achieved just as good (and even better through living a nice happy life of little suffering and despair with religious belief).

Being an atheist and knowing what it's like to suffer is not necessary in becoming a more compassionate person compared to how compassionate you would be through living a nicer and happier delusional life. For example, different people have different capacities to experience compassion. A person who knows what it's like to suffer might very well have a lot of compassion. But a person who does not know what it's like to suffer could have even more compassion just because this person's mind has a natural greater capacity to experience compassion. Or it could be because this person just simply changed his/her attitude. Therefore, it is not necessary to be an atheist and/or suffer and you can have more empathy, compassion, be more caring, and help even more people through living a nicer and happier delusional life.

Also, if you are going to say something such as that selfish people are weak, cowardly, and inferior human beings that need to grow up, this would be false. Narcissists can be quite badasses too. Think of Hitler. He was someone who had power and control in his life and that is what made him superior regardless of the fact that he killed many people. Yes, it is horrible that he killed many people. But the fact is that he is still superior anyway for living the life of power and control that he wanted to live. Therefore, since I wish to live a nice delusional happy fantasy world of little suffering and despair, that would make me superior right now if I were living such a live. Living such a nice happy fantasy life of sunshine and rainbows would make me the most powerful badass this world has ever known!

Finally, this life is all about striving for yourself and not caring about reality or what others have to say about you and instead living in a delusional fantasy world that rejects reality (the reality of atheism as well as the reality of suffering and despair in this world by avoiding atheism as well as suffering and despair as much as possible to live a nice happy delusional life of little suffering and despair instead). This is what makes you superior and better than everyone else who are atheists and/or live lives of much suffering and despair. This would be providing that religious belief has the greater benefit for you and not atheism. So we all find our own strengths in life and go about our own ways of life. Religious belief is a strength that some people have (despite the fact that it is delusional) because it gives their lives more worth by enabling them to become more motivated to get more things done in life knowing that they will get what they want in the end (which would be an eternal life of joy with no suffering). Atheists can also be encouraged to get more things done in life through their atheism knowing that this is the one and only life they have. So their atheism is a strength to them.

So it would be wrong for an atheist to tell a religious person that their beliefs only make them weak, cowardly, and inferior human beings and that they should just face reality and stop living in a fantasy land. But it would also be wrong for this religious person to tell an atheist that their atheism makes their lives basically worthless and makes them inferior human beings for not looking up to a higher power and an afterlife of eternal joy. Instead, we find our own strengths in life and go about our own ways of life. A religious person has found his/her true strength in life which is his/her religious belief (despite the fact that it is delusional) while an atheist has found his/her true strength in life which is his/her atheism (providing that it is very beneficial to him/her and does not make him/her angry and/or depressed). But since my mindset is incompatible with atheism and is a mindset that will never change due to my immense value of living an eternal life of joy, my atheism is very detrimental to me. Especially since this one and only life I will ever have is now being wasted and is now worthless since I have no pleasure. I would absolutely NEED the belief in a God and a heaven in order to give my life worth despite my depression/emotional numbness.

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SonOh1's picture
Short and to the point dude.

Short and to the point dude.

If you want someone to read it, much less reply, don't create an intimidating essay. My AP European Literature teacher isn't cruel enough to force us to read something like this. (at least not yet)

Jeff Vella Leone's picture
Mozart

Mozart

When we are talking about people, there is no general rule, we can only look at history and learn from it.

History has shown us that progress comes with less dogma, more curiosity and freedom of speech.
Also, it showed us that wars speed up this process since the world leaders decide to put more money and interest in research for survival and their own benefits.
During times of war, "Crazy" people are allowed to research their most crazy inventions and thus progress is made.(eg Einstein , Tesla, Schwarzschild, etc)
Religions usually shun crazy people as crazy or anti-religious since they say things relating to energy and creation.

Religion hindered progress throughout history and that is a fact.

If you want progress you must be liberal and let others contribute their information, any type of restriction to this hinders progress.
Religions tend to put restrictions on many things and that is why we need to get rid of them all as soon as possible.

Learn the good things from them and throw them in the bin.
It is a bad approach at society itself, since it deals with delusions and brainwashing innocent children in most cases.

Mythlover's picture
Mozart, you have some good

Mozart, you have some good points there. However, I do not think that you NEED the belief in God to make life worthwhile, though I know how you feel as I have also often thought my life would be happier if I had that belief, that guiding star if you will. However, don't waste your life simply because you have a hard time finding meaning. You enjoy composing, and playing video games. Search for things in your life that make it worth living. I think what I, personally have lacked in my life are goals that mean something to me, and a routine that makes me happy. I have pondered the question about why life even matters if it ends a lot. Then I thought- why does life matter MORE if it lasts forever? Wouldn't it matter less because there is more of it? Gold is valuable because it is rare, life is no different. Anyone can tell you to live for the moment, but that means nothing. You literally have to do things that put you in a mindset that CAN live in the moment. Meditation helps with this. Surrounding yourself with stimulating people helps with this, as does spontaneity and goal setting (it adds meaning to random acts and takes away the stress of "should I be doing something else?") Don't know if I'm hitting on anything here, but those are just my thoughts. I know they may have no effect.

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