DSeid, I understand you point about ‘reality’ and I agree with it. However, we have a basis of reality-of existence-that we can formulate from.
I’m not arguing that faith is a bad thing, nor am I arguing that atheism is better then theism.
Heh, I had a similar feeling actually.
On a side tangent, in retrospect I have to say that the ‘machines’ in the Matrix were ignorant. I mean, why bother with putting up an artificial reality at all? Why not lobotamize (sp?) them all?
In answer to the OP:
It’s hard to say whether theists or athiests have a better quality of life because there are so many other factors that contribute to “Quality of Life.”
But I can take myself as an example, where all those other factors are pretty equal…
I have a greater peace of mind now that I’ve lost my faith. I was raised to believe that I was a sinner and that reinforced on a weekly basis every Sunday: “I am not worthy to recieve you, but only say the world and I shall be healed.” …of my horrible sickness… of being human. The church gave me a mindset of unworthiness and guilt.
The toughest thing about losing my faith was the notion that there may be no afterlife (at least the way the church teaches it), but the thing is, since nearly everything I did was some degree of sinning — Let’s face it, J.C. sets the bar pretty damn high, and the only person I can think of that even got close was Ghandi — I wasn’t hitting heaven anyway.
Now, instead of consulting an ancient book edited and translated several times over by people I know nothing about, I weigh for myself whether I’m a good person or not. And damn it, it turns out I’m not such a horrible person after all.
Verdict: Loss of religion has made me a happier person.
Originally posted by Lord Ashtar
What? You find it perfectly normal that kids are taught to throw homo-sexuals head first off high buildings [and stone them to death]. Hunky-dory for your daughter to know that, should she get pregnant before marriage, she can’t get an abortion because the fundamentalists just killed the doctor?
Am I not allowed having a hard time with that?
It’s disingenuous of you to make assumptions about the majority based on the fringe minority.
It’s disingenuous of you to think I do.
Okay, then perhaps you need to restate what it is you’re trying to tell me, because I’m obviously not understanding your point.
We were talking about taking a pill to make us theïsts.
I declined in case I might become a crazy-motherfucking-fundamentalist.
Will that do?
The only “crazy motherfucking fundamentalist” of which I’m aware is Jerry Falwell (although that may have been a rumor started by Larry Flint, I’m not sure).
I think the Pill of Omniscience is a vast temptation to make myself more important than the Lord, in whom I have faith.
The Pill of Omnipotence, on the other hand is pretty much blasphemous by definition.
No, I don’t want faith by coercion, chemical, magical, or logical.
No pill for me. If I have to take one, I will take both. As near as I can figure it, it will simply edit me out of the universe, of which there can only be one, otherwise the word universe is meaningless. Not a great choice, but far better than the false dichotomy of Build a World pills.
But on the more direct question of the OP, I don’t think atheism is an inherently harmful state of mind. I don’t think it even really stands in the way of eventual acceptance of salvation. It just describes what you think about stuff right now. It does make it possible to use logic to do evil, but self righteousness lets you do the same with faith, so that isn’t a definitive difference.
But I love my Lord. Whether I am right or wrong, I love Him. And I know that He loves me, too. Him being God and all, that’s fairly neat, but the fact of emotions being what they are, it’s the love, not the star status that makes Him important to me. Now, there are some profound intellectual aspects of self determined atheism that impart a particular aspect of importance to self, and the ethics of behavior, and I see a very pleasing nobility to the soul that can always choose good, over evil, without God. Such a soul is worthy of being loved. For me, the Lord is the ultimate fulfillment of Lao Tsu’s understanding of the nature of love: “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
I see that as an advantage.
Tris