If you are an atheist, what, if anything, do you consider to be the most comforting and/or liberating aspect of your non-belief, and why?
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Atheists: What Do You Consider the Most Comforting Aspect of Your Non-Belief?
- Thread starter Debater Slayer
- Start date
Without any gods, I'm free to have hope and purpose.
If the world was the product of the plan of some all-powerful god, then any effort on my part to make things better would be futile, since I would lose any fight with such a god. Heck... I'd probably lose a fight with a non-omnipotent, moderately powerful god who had a vested interest in keeping something I wanted changed.
Same with some of the excuse-making we get as responses to the problem of evil. If Leibniz was right and this really is the best of all possible worlds, why should I even bother to get out of bed? Nothing I do is going to make things better.
Without gods, positive change can be difficult, but at least it's not impossible.
"Comforting"? I never thought of that.
It's more like....."Glad that I'm not that way."
It's more like....."Glad that I'm not that way."
Atheism has never been a choice to me, but I suppose even so it gives me the confort of knowing that things were not designed to be as they are, and therefore it is possible to hope for improving them.
Lack of cognitive dissonance is the best way I can think of to explain. If a fact or idea comes to me, I don't have to filter it through any dogma before listening to the little bell of truth in my mind.
I may not be instantly sure. But I don't have to care what some long dead people may have thought about it. I make up my own mind for myself.
Tom
I may not be instantly sure. But I don't have to care what some long dead people may have thought about it. I make up my own mind for myself.
Tom
For some reason I didn't notice this thread when it was first raised, so I decided to necro it. Kinda apt, since my mind leapt to dealing with death when thinking on this topic.
Whilst religion commonly seems to be seen as a means of providing comfort around death, what comes next, etc, the lack of explanation atheism provides (or doesn't...lol) just feels so much easier to deal with.
I quoted Tom here, because I think 'lack of cognitive dissonance' is pretty much exactly the right explanation.
I'd love to claim this, but my wife (whilst hardly 'fanciful') would likely beg to differ.
I'd imagine that it would be creepy to be constantly surveilled by an all seeing judgmental being.
I like being independent, having privacy, & disconnecting from others when I choose.
I like being independent, having privacy, & disconnecting from others when I choose.
migueldarican
New Member
Knowing that I don't need an extra, invisible authority figure to be moral and good.
Knowing that I do not follow the Bible - especially after just now finishing the book of Genesis, that is very comforting.
Knowing that I may only have one shot at this has made me want to be a better person.
Knowing that I do not follow the Bible - especially after just now finishing the book of Genesis, that is very comforting.
Knowing that I may only have one shot at this has made me want to be a better person.
Kuzcotopia
If you can read this, you are as lucky as I am.
This.
Plus it gives me courage.
I had the courage to ignore the comfort that comes with traditional/mythological beliefs.
It gives me hope that I will have the courage to stand against real injustices as they come up in life, and not feel cowed by social pressures and long-standing traditions.
Go for it!
I don't know you, so you must be new.
Greetings!
Feel free to start a thread in the introductions forums. Tell us a little about yourself.
Tom
There is nothing particularly comfortable about my non-beliefs. Comfort doesn't enter into the equation for me.
NewGuyOnTheBlock
Cult Survivor/Fundamentalist Pentecostal Apostate
Finding the title of this thread, it struck me as quite odd as atheism was not something I pursued and how it makes me feel really has nothing to do with it. It was a natural progression of many events of my life that slowly, in a time span of almost 20 years, brought me from a devout, fanatical theist to the atheist. I can empathize; there have been many times in my life when I wished that I could believe (though its been quite some time since I've encountered that); After all, what is more comforting than the idea that li'l ol' me exists in the palm of an omnipotent being's hand? That sense of security and safety just can't be replaced. But the bottom line is, it wasn't real; so other than deluding myself, I'm no worse off now than I was then. But anyway, I just found it odd; what conclusions I draw or accept about what I perceive to be reality has nothing to do with "which choice makes me feel better".
As far as liberating, yes, it is very liberating in the sense that I no longer have irrational fears of, say, going to hell for masturbation; isolating myself from love because I'm gay; fearing Dungeons & Dragons, Rock 'n Roll music and demons under every sofa and around every corner; waiting for the Anti-Christ; etc. etc. etc.
As far as liberating, yes, it is very liberating in the sense that I no longer have irrational fears of, say, going to hell for masturbation; isolating myself from love because I'm gay; fearing Dungeons & Dragons, Rock 'n Roll music and demons under every sofa and around every corner; waiting for the Anti-Christ; etc. etc. etc.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
I find it liberating in the sense of having less mental baggage, fewer beliefs and assumptions, the ability therefore to approach experience in a more open-minded way.
I don't find it comforting, but then I value truth over comfort anyway.
Marisa
Well-Known Member
There is nothing comforting or discomforting about not believing in gods. But it does free me from a few things, like the need to believe that I am inherently flawed but must seek forgiveness for this. No state of perfection exists in nature, and since I'm part of nature . . . . It's not something that I should be ashamed of or shamed for.