Er, no – atheism is, according to both my dictionary and my general understanding, “belief that there is no God”. A lack of belief in god(s) without a concomitant belief that there is no God usually falls under “agnosticism” (although an “agnostic” is more accurately defined as a “person who believes that the existence of God is not provable”, a category into which I place myself).
As for the OP, it’s not as simple as “yes, I’d like there to be a God” or “no, I don’t”. Yes, I would like there to be more to our existence than this brief span of life, and I would like to move on to a higher plane of existence after death. Yes, I would like people to have both the chance and the obligation to atone for our transgressions at some point in a constructive and lovingly-intended sort of way. Yes, I would like there to be some higher purpose for life, the universe, and everything, and I would like it to be one which I understand and agree with (self-centered but honest, that’s me). If these things require a “God” as we commonly understand Him/Her/It to be, than yes please, I’ll have one God, hold the mayo. However, I am well aware that what I may want has no bearing on reality, and I refuse to base a belief in God on my wishful thinking.
In any case, however, I’d like less people in my life (and my government) telling me why I should comply with what they say God wants. And that’s something I can work towards.
Your conditions of “no debate” are not really fair. With your descriptions of the purpose / personality of “God,” what you are really asking is “Do you wish there was a God that fits the current Christian description of God?”
If that is your question, my answer is “NO.”
Do I sometimes wish I could believe that there is a kind, benevolent God out there who is looking out for us? Yes. However, evidence points to the contrary and I’m not one to ignore evidence. Also, I enjoy being a person who does not believe things without question. You may as well ask me if I wish there really was a Santa Claus. Sure, it would be nice if there were some jolly gave kids free stuff once a year (and who didn’t happen to be a pervert) but I’m not going to waste my time wishing for the impossible.
If you care to allow debate to expand your question then I have no idea what my answer may be. Although it will probably still be “NO.”
I do envy religious people, in a way. It must be nice to have that certainty, “rules” laid out for you, a benevolent (or not!) god looking over you, like that baby-face sun on “Teletubbies.” I have religious friends who think they will live on in some heavenly afterlife, and meet their loved ones again, and that Mom and Dad are beaming down on them.
Yeah, it would be nice to believe in that stuff—but there is simply no way I could ever believ in it myself.
Q: Do I (as an atheist) wish there was a god? A: It depends – would he be held accountable for all the screwups he caused, or those caused in his name?
If not, then why bother, it’s no different than what we have now.
Well I’ll be damned (hehe), Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary agrees with you. I’ve only rarely heard it defined that way before. Seems like most people at the Internet Infidels use the same definition I do, which is where I got my definition BTW.
I am an atheist, and I do indeed wish I lived in a universe created and cared for by a benevolent god who didn’t allow bad things like evil and unhappiness to happen.
I wouldn’t feel right knowing there was some big guy in the sky watching me while I surfed the internet wearing only my underwear and a towel…so I’m gonna say no. Sorry…I’d just rather be alone at those times.
The obvious purpose of God is to help us fight our fear of the ultimate void, dead.
There is no need for God and no evidence for God. But I’d be “damned” happy to live as long as I wanted (not eternally, I might get bored), that’s for sure!
No, I don’t wish there was a God. I have no desire for an afterlife. If I believed in heaven and hell, I’d be shaking in my boots at the thought that I, or a loved one or a stranger, might go to the bad place. I also think belief in an afterlife cheapens the experience of “real” life.
It is impossible for everyone to feel justice is served as long as people are naturally free to hold their own beliefs. For example, Timothy McVeigh is sure that he did the right thing, so punishing him in unjust to his warped mind. Hitler thought he was doing a good thing, too. In fact, most often when a person commits an “evil” act, that person is convinced his act is justified. From what I read of the old testament, God himself (were he to exist) has a warped sense of justice- in my opinion. But if he’s the big cahuna, it’s tough crap to everyone else. He makes the rules and no matter how perverted they are, that’s “justice”.
I do wish I could believe in ghosts, though. That would be really, really cool.
I’m an atheist, and I do wish there were a god, as it is traditionally defined in the watered down christian shiny happy western definition, although not necessarily the christian god.
My reasoning is fairly simple. Back when I had faith, lo those many years ago, the world seemed to make a bit more sense. Part of that was from believing that it was okay if I didn’t know the answers about how life works (which is lazy and weak). The better part was that even if I didn’t know, god did and I could find out.
Also, the thing that I, and a lot of other atheists I know, miss about having awakened from faith into awareness is the concept of absolution. The idea that, if you tell god about your screw-ups and wrongdoings (by either its standards or yours) and you ask it to wipe the record clean, is incredibly appealing. Without god to absolve us, the best we can do is forgiveness, from ourselves and any injured party, and “forgiveness” is pretty damn weak substitute for “absolution”. As a result, there is always the accumulated detritus of past wrongs, because while others and ourselves can forgive, we can’t forget. Therefore, we can’t be absolved.
To answer another thread, the one about how we got our handles, that’s how I came by mine. I used to have that whole “grace” thing going on, but awakening from my faith felt like a definite fall.
I’m not opposed to some sort of philosphy that tells you how to live a happy life, and get along with people, and deal with the fact that we aren’t perfect, and strive to become more perfect. If a god could hand that down from on high, and it worked, well, the proof’s in the puddin’ . . . but in the end I think it’s better for us to strive for that on our own than to seek it in vain from a supernatural source.
I don’t fear the oblivion of death. I don’t think it’s horrible. I don’t think it’s sad. I miss people when they die. I also miss people when they move to Cleveland. So I don’t particularly want an afterlife. If I was a god and I wanted everyone to live forever, I’d just make them immortal rather than pulling some sort of magic trick yoinking them out of their bodies. But that’s me.
I don’t have a strong sense of vengence. I’d rather have Hitler find the path to becoming a better person, or heavy medication, or whatever he needed, rather than chortle over him burning in hell for all eternity. Good thing nobody elected me God, eh?
I’m not an athiest but personally I am uncertain as to an existance of god… since moving to the city I have widened my horizons considerably but there is one thing that I read recently that seems to make the most sense. (It was a fantasy novel… well series… but it made such good sense)
Basically ‘god’ was just the first thinking being and so he set down rules and stuff for the people who came later and most of them followed just because he seemed so much older and wiser etc. But the world is made up of this stuff called ‘dust’ (also has various other names) that is attracted to sentient thinking beings… once above a certain age children become adults and stuff… but that has nothing to do with my point just giving you an idea of the books.
Basically this ‘dust’ makes up the world and everything is a part of it it’s all around floating everywhere. In the book when people died they ended up not in heaven but a sort of hell… being ghosts in a land taunted by Harpies and such forever… well if you escape the land of the dead you dissipate to become part of the dust again and a part of the world.
I like to think of our world as being almost like this… we are all a part of the world… when we die we go back to that mass consciousness bringing everything that we were to it. Life is meant to learn and grow and discover to add to that mass consciousness again when we finally return to it.
Um yah I don’t know what I’m trying to say… just adding my thoughts to the existance of god…
I couldn’t agree more. I would like to believe, but I don’t. And although I sometimes think about the afterlife, I’m much too concerned with the here and now to fret too much.
What annoys me is that it is assumed that just because I’m not religious, I don’t have any values or morals. I do. They’re based on what I feel is right, not what the Bible, Koran or what have you tells me is right. Of course, I live in Sweden, a highly secular country, so this doesn’t happen that often.
I don’t call myself an atheist. ‘Officially’ I’m a vague sort of Christian… I don’t exactly believe in all the usual Christian stuff, but I was brought up as one so my own beliefs are basically founded in Christianity. But I’m not at all sure about them. For the past year or two (or even more) I’ve been in a rather uneasy state which I once referred to as “wanting to believe in God but almost ‘knowing better’”. But it just never feels right if I contemplate not believing in God.
So I guess I’m halfway to atheism (or agnosticism really), and yes I hope that God really exists. Unlike many of the other people who posted I don’t wish for a God that would prevent everything bad in the world from happening though.
The question reminds me of one of the funniest scenes in “Catch 22.” Yossarian and his girlfriend (or was it just a whore? I haven’t read it in years) both claim to be atheists. But at one point, Yossarian starts ranting and raving about what a louse God is, and how totally he’s screwed up the world. At that, his girl started weeping, and begged him to stop talking that way.
Yossarian was puzzled. “What do you care what I say about God? I thought you said you didn’t believe in Him???”
“I don’t,” she said. “But the God I don’t believe in is good and kind and loving.”
**
It also brings up an old Irish joke. A guy is walking through the streets of Belfast at night. Suddenly, he feels a gun in his back, and a voice asks him, “What religion are you- Catholic or Protestant?” Thinking fast, the man said, “Why… I’m an atheist.” The gunman sneered impatiently, “Yeah, yeah, yeah… but are you a CATHOLIC atheist or a PROTESTANT atheist.”
**
In short, it’s often interesting to find out WHAT God it is an atheist doesn’t believe in! Sure, sometimes atheism is a purely rational decision. Sometimes, there’s a moment of “clarity.” Sometimes there’s NO epiphany… a guy who’s never thought much about the existence of God just finally concludes that He probably doesn’t exist. And SOMETIMES, a person becomes an atheist as a way of rebelling against a particular image of God he’s been brought up with.
So, there can be an interesting range of opinions. From
“I’d LIKE to believe in Jesus and a loving benevolent God, but that’s just a pleasant fairy tale.”
to
“God is a malevolent prick. I’m glad He doesn’t exist, and if He did, I’d curse him.”
to
“I never really gave it much thought, just like I never spent much time wondering whether the Yeti is a good guy or a bad guy.”
