Atheists, Agnostics or Theists .... So Who's Happiest?

by 00DAD 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  NewChapter

  Perhaps Zid, I'm just basing this on me. When I was a believer, this was not a difficult concept for me. I could completely grasp that my brother's atheism was a lack of belief that was nothing like a religion. Maybe that was just me. Perhaps most really can't conceive of it, since the world for them is defined by their OWN beliefs, and therefore all must be processed through that filter. Considering how many things a believer in the judeo/christian god does not believe in (Thor, unicorns, elves) one would think they could grasp the concept more fully. I never define someone by their disbelief in Thor, claiming that disbelief is a religion unto itself.

  It's all ridiculous---and quite ethnocentric---but that's how we are.

  NC
• 

  frankiespeakin

  Glad,

  Yes that is true as well I didn't think of it that way,, equally paradoxical well such is the limits of language, I suppose.
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  ziddina

  [In response to Gladiator's comment...]

  Yes, but "believers", especially fundamentalist believers, come from such a "tunnel-vision" mindset, that they cannot perceive the absolute absence of a belief system....

  [edited] Even tho they themselves don't believe in fairies/unicorns/moon made of green cheese/whatever have you... I suspect that they couldn't even consider their "lack-of-belief" in such fanciful fairy tales as roughly equivalent to "non-belief" in a religious or mythological concept...

  The merest hint of the concept that belief in THEIR "god" could be classified in with those silly stories, never occurs to them... [end edit]

  Nor can they understand the realization that many atheists have come to - that the presence of a "god", especially a "god" which is only 3,500 years old and was worshipped by nomadic desert-dwelling Bronze-Age Middle-Eastern males - cannot be real.

  Atheists have, for the most part, came to such a realization based on years or even decades of reading and research into various sciences and philosophies concerning the natural world, human psychology, and secular history of religion....

  [edited] Which again, fundamentalists generally do not appear capable of understanding. Their belief system "locks out" any and all scientific information that might undermine their "reality" of their "god"...
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  ziddina

  "Perhaps most really can't conceive of it, since the world for them is defined by their OWN beliefs, and therefore all must be processed through that filter. ..." New Chapter

  Yes, that's the situation that I suspect exists in their minds...

  And as I stated above to the Gladiator, that inability to perceive the atheist's non-belief as a "belief", seems to occur predominantly among fundamentalists...
• 

  truth_b_known

  obsolete: good fortune :prosperity a: a state of well-being and contentment :joy b: a pleasurable or satisfying experience

  Above are definitions of the word "happy" according with Webster's Dictionary. How can anyone who is in constant fear of a diety cutting their life short in a cataclismic event or placing them for eternity in a place of torment live in "a state of well-being and contentment". If you have to be constantly asked: "Are you doing enough for God?" or refusing to partake in life because it might offend a diety can you be content? How pleasurable or satisfying is it to be shunned or to have to shun family and friends because a diety demands it? When I was about 14 I came home from school one day and, as I was walking to my bedroom, I had a very sharp pain suddenly appear in my chest. It happened so quickly and it was so powerful my legs buckled to the point I almost fell. I thought I was dying from a heartache. At that very moment I was also overcome with a feeling of content. I thought to myself if I was to die at that very moment I was okay with that. However, I did not think this for one second because thoguht I was going to be resurrected. I was a full-on Kool-Aid drinking Witness at the time, but it just didn't come to mind. At this point in time I am an atheist. I am content with the fact that I am alive, I have experienced life, and will one day die. I am ok with death.
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  NewChapter

  Zid, I can't copy and paste at the moment, but regarding those years of research. My brother always made me giggle. He decided at 8. He asked my father about god (also an atheist) my father said, 'can you see god?" "No" "Then he isn't there."

  Anyway---he DID follow that initial idea up with research years later. I never had that conversation with my father---I wish I had. It would have saved me a great deal of grief and unhappiness. Then I would have been an atheist researching the possiblity of a god---which for me is a much better starting point since my thinking would not have been clouded with fear and superstition. Ah well---took me 40 years, but i've caught up to him.

  NC
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  ziddina

  "...I never had that conversation with my father---I wish I had. It would have saved me a great deal of grief and unhappiness. Then I would have been an atheist researching the possiblity of a god---which for me is a much better starting point since my thinking would not have been clouded with fear and superstition. Ah well---took me 40 years, but i've caught up to him. ..." New Chapter

  Nice to see you here!!!

  By the way, you've a PM...
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  Retrovirus

  Ziddina,

  I really must learn not to post at work!

  I've had two rounds of depression in my life and you are correct, it was not the least use for anyone to tell me to decide to be happy. Or to "snap out of it", or all the other versions.

  But there is a big difference between deciding to be happy (which I can intermittently do now) and telling someone to do so (which as a work first-aider who often gets the ones with anxiety, depression etc, I would never do).

  In most cases, it indicated a very shallow thought process and total lack of empathy for others.. Sorry it sounded like that

  Retro
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  tec

  I could completely grasp that my brother's atheism was a lack of belief that was nothing like a religion. Maybe that was just me.

  No, I can grasp that easily as well. My brother is also an atheist.

  Peace,

  tammy
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  00DAD

  Wow everyone, what a lot of great input, thanks!

  I don't have time to address everyone's comments at the moment but I will add this now: NON-belief is NOT the same thing as DIS-belief. To say they are is disingenuine.

  Atheists (generally speaking) have a definite opinion about the existence (or non-existence if you prefer) of God, and/or deities.

  00DAD