After experiencing doing one thread here, I came away from that experience with a curiosity about Atheism, because it seems to be a lot of Atheist here. I have never posted on a dominant Atheist site , or should I say a site with a large Atheist presence. I am curious as to how much different would this world be if Atheism was the total rule, or at least the dominant way of thinking?
What real difference would we see?
What good would Atheism do that Theism has not done?
As compared to Theism, what difference would Atheism make in Family life, community life, political life, and world nations relations?
Would it change or effect our educational system?
If Atheist believe their way of thought is right and best, then what changes would it make in this world and why? What makes it a legit way of being?
What have Atheist already contributed to the world? In example Theist have played an important part in giving society ;
The YMCA
Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Promise Keepers
Family Research Council
Rutherford Institue
Habitat for Humanity
World Vision
UNICEF
Salvation Army
American Red Cross
And so on… What programs have Atheism already given society or the world?
Is it fair to ask for this comparrison? I mean if I am told my belief system is off and in fantasy island, what am I being offered in return? What can convince me that Atheism will help and support this world, and improve on my consciousness?
Are you talking about atheists in general, or a particular atheist? By the way, we usually don’t capitalize the word-it’s not like we’re an organized group.
Of course it would all depend on the individual atheists who were in charge (I’m assuming atheism/none becomes the dominant belief system in every country), but I’ll go ahead and answer as if it were me and “my kind” of atheists:
The end of religious sectarian violence. There might still be ethnic and other kinds of political violence, but no more religious sectarian violence.
Atheism would not teach silly beliefs that have no good evidence in support of them, for one thing. Other than that, it’s mostly addition by subtraction.
Far less opposition to gay marriage and abortion (though some opposition would still remain), the aforementioned lack of religious violence, more equality for women in the household and in general, no more religion in politics, all come to mind.
It would make it better- no more opposition to evolution, less opposition to global climate change, no more (or much fewer) schools that teach crap pseudo-science, education time that was previously spent on religion would now be spent on other subjects.
This question is sort of confusing and looks like an amalgamation of the previous questions and “why are you atheist?”. For the second part, I’m an atheist because I’ve seen no good reason to believe in any supernatural beings. I don’t believe, therefore I’m an atheist. I recognize I could be wrong, but I’ve seen no reason so far to believe in any particular deity.
Many of those organizations (Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Promise Keepers, and the FRC come to mind) are bad, bad organizations that have made the world worse, in my opinion. The ones that do positive things, I believe, all have non-religious analogs- there are many non-religious organizations and charities that provide food, help the homeless, heal the sick, etc.
The best reason to be an atheist, in my opinion, is because you see no good reason to believe in any deity. If you think you have a good reason, then you’re not going to be an atheist, even if you thought the world would be a better place. Just like how I couldn’t suddenly become a Christian just because I thought the world would be better if everyone were Christians- I’d actually have to believe in God and Jesus and stuff. It’s not a switch I can turn on, or even a choice I make- I can’t suddenly choose to believe in an invisible sky fairy.
To think about it another way- if someone says there’s an elephant walking down the street outside my office window in Washington DC, I’ll think “bullshit”, and I’ll go take a look. If I see an elephant, then suddenly I believe in the elephant outside my window. I didn’t choose to believe in the elephant, I saw it- that’s pretty good evidence to believe. Same goes for supernatural beings.
If everyone was an atheist, then we wouldn’t even have a word for atheism. After all, we don’t have a word for people who don’t believe in unicorns. How is the world a different place because “a-unicornists” rule it?
If no believed in the supernatural the world would run pretty much the same way it does now. Except people wouldn’t be able to explain their personal moments of irrationality by saying “Well … that’s what God wants.”
I don’t think its really a meaningful question. Athiesm isn’t just a mirror image of theism. Atheists don’t, generally, do things because of their atheism, so organizations organized with as atheist organizations tend to be narrowly focused on promoting secularism. Plenty of atheists organize and do good work, but they don’t generally do so under the specific banner of atheism the way Christians do.
So as to the OP’s question, “what if atheist ruled the world”, I’d say it would depend on the atheist.
Who is this “Atheist” person you keep referring to? One of those rock stars with just one name, like Madonna?
Also, while the Salvation Army & most of the other organizations on your list are forces for good, the Family Research Council and Promise Keepers are both on the side of Mephistopheles.
Its not a Christian organization, but I think its an example of a more nuetral organization that helps humanity, which perhaps needs to be on a list of neither Theist or Atheist. I did not say any on the list were Christian, I meant the list to be an example of Theist inspired organizations, and I should not have put UNICEF on it.
Are you still sticking with your theory from the previous thread that other religions are demonic and thus, when you say “religious”, you actually mean “Christian”?
edited to add: Just for clarification, could you please give us your definition of “atheist”?
The problem with these questions is that atheism itself isn’t an ideology with content. What sort of atheists are we talking about? If it’s Enlightenment humanists, the world would improve. If it’s Stalinists, it’d get worse.
Similarly, if theists ruled the world, it’d make a tremendous difference if they were liberal Christians, or Aztecs.
Does science count? It’s not atheistic per se, but it’s rationalist.