I knew someone who twisted that phrase to mean “We are made of STAR STUFF!!* That means we are very, very special!” and I would respond with “Do you know what else is made of star stuff? Slug slime, elephant shit and what is left of Hitler’s body.”
The OP specifies atheism, which per any dictionary, is the lack of belief in a god or gods, not just Jesus Christ. If the OP asked about the lack of belief in Jesus Christ, you would have a point, albeit a very minor, trivial one. I await the response which you surely will feel the need to send.
I do think that life is harder and sadder in some ways for atheists.
I think it is unquestionably harder to cope with the loss of someone you love if you do not believe in an afterlife. Yes, people who are religious absolutely do grieve for their loved ones, of course, but I think it does provide some comfort and a reason to keep going if you truly think that someday you will see that person again. If you think that wonderful person is gone forever, it is harder - not impossible, but harder.
I know someone who has experienced several truly devastating losses in her life, far more than anyone should have to deal with, and I think the only reason she has been able to survive such grief is because she has enough religious faith to believe her lost loved ones are in heaven and watching over her. I don’t even know if she would consider herself all THAT religious, but she is religious enough to believe in heaven, and I think that’s important in her case.
Just think about the Rainbow Bridge poem that is popular with people who have lost pets. Do I ACTUALLY BELIEVE that there is a rainbow bridge and that I will get to have a joyous reunion with my pets who have died? No, but wouldn’t it WONDERFUL if it was true? I wish it was true, and I think just about everyone else who has ever loved an animal does too.
I especially wish that heaven was real for the sake of babies and children who died before they had a chance to live a full life. Regardless of whether you think it is possible or likely that Heaven is real, I think it is undeniable that life would seem kinder and more fair if we had a way of knowing that innocent children who died too soon here are in a happier place.
Another thing I have come to believe as I have gotten older is that just about everyone is happier if they feel a sense of purpose or meaning in their life. Religion is not THE ONLY way to have meaning in your life, but it is a way that many people do derive meaning.
Now of course there are some people who are worse off because of religion - especially if they belong to a very harsh or cult-y religion. However, I think there are also a lot of people who are happier because they feel like no matter what else happens to them, God will never abandon them and will always love them.
I see several people in here referring to some of the negatives that can come from religion, but I think it’s really not honest if you can’t admit that there ARE some positives that come with being religious. There is a reason why religion has endured over so many centuries and has been adopted by billions of people. Even though Christianity is on the decline right now, that doesn’t mean atheism is taking its place. From the projections I’ve seen, it looks like Islam will simply become the dominant religion in Christianity’s absence.
If I were of a mind to delude myself into believing in a religion just to make myself feel good, why would I pick Christianity?
IMO, about the only thing depressing about being an atheist comes from the fact that so many people are not atheists.
I can’t fly. Is that depressing? Not…really? I don’t expect to fly.
I don’t have telekinesis. Is that depressing? Yes. But not all that depressing, because I’m used to it, mostly.
I can’t breathe fire. Is that depressing? No, because I don’t need to breath fire, and don’t expect to.
I don’t have a soul and won’t live forever. Is that depressing? No, it’s a relief. Living forever would be tiring and boring.
I don’t believe in Santa Claus. Is that depressing? No. I still get gifts and know their givers care for me.
I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny. Is that depressing? No. I still get candy and unlike the bunny, its giver cares for me.
I don’t believe in Frodo. Is that depressing? No. I wouldn’t mind if he existed, but his fictional deeds are fictional and he hasn’t really done anything for me.
I don’t believe in Sauron. Is that depressing? No. I’d be way more worried (or dead) if he did exist.
I don’t believe in God. Is that depressing? No. Both the bible and the Problem of Evil strongly suggest he’s more dangerous than Sauron.
Nope. Common mistake. the a- in atheist isn’t a negation of theism. ἄθεος had a much more complex meaning than that to start with. One could very much believe in the gods and yet still be ἄθεος.
Yes, that’s what I said.
That’s ridiculous. Like I said, I don’t not have a belief either.
No, I am flat-out telling you I am not an atheist.
There’s a few philosophers who would disagree about that “reasonable”. The ones who argue it’s decidedly unreasonable to claim *any *stance on the truth value of an incoherent concept.
Funny, you won’t take me at my word that I’m not an atheist…
I don’t take a stance on belief. That’s *not *the same thing as not believing or lacking belief.
Keep repeating it, it’s still not going to be true.
You’re probably one of those people who thinks there can’t be real agnostics as well, aren’t you?
It’s not a special term I came up with. It’s common parlance for those philosophers who deal with this kind of thing.
And I’ll continue to deny it and furthermore, think your posting such as quite rude for continuing to deny me agency.
Are you missing an “in-” in front of “adequately”?
Because I’ve never had god adequately defined for me, other than the trite “God is Love” and “God is The Universe” kind of dreck. Or the concrete “god is this statue we worship” kind of thing, so no, I guess you’re right, I’m merely an atheist about those.
But that’s disingenuous, because that’s not the concept of deity people who are theists, and people who are atheists, are talking about in threads like this one. It’s always the incoherent one. And I’m not atheist about that one.
Most of my friends are atheists, there’s no stigma to it in my circles. It just doesn’t accurately describe my stance.
Well, that was quite a post, but I’m pretty sure that to most modern atheists the term “atheism” is “somebody who doesn’t believe in any gods.” So nowadays “atheist” = “not a theist”.
I consider babies to be atheists, I consider rocks to be atheists, and I consider MrDibble to be a poster whose beliefs aren’t my problem.
I don’t find atheism to be depressing, per se. I find existentialism to be an incredibly depressing world view, but not all atheists are existentialists.
Ecumenical (I have no problem with theism or theists as long as they’re not using their beliefs to hurt people) fideist (my beliefs are simply my personal unchosen beliefs, not a deliberate choice or proof of my superior rationality) atheist here. No, I don’t find my beliefs depressing.
I suppose there are some atheist worldviews that I would find depressing, but I’m fine with my own.
So, “defaultians”?
That includes Trump, clearly. He’s defaulted on lots of loans.
You mean something not supernatural? Something for which it should be possible at some point to find observable evidence, or at least some plausible (i.e. not contradicted by anything that we already know) theory?
I’ve found the longer I sit with the idea that there is no inherent meaning in life, no divine purpose or plan for anyone or anything, the more it grows on me and actually gives me hope. I can make a difference in someone’s life–me, not just some invisible entity using me as a vessel. I can choose every day, within certain practical limits, who I want to be and what I want to do. I can have my own ideas of what’s good and right and desirable and work toward those things instead of trying to guess at the intentions of someone who won’t even talk to me. I think it was also Carl Sagan who said something like if you were to rewind the tape of the universe, the odds of a long chain of coincidences leading to your existence would be infinitesimal. I like to think I won the cosmic lottery by being here, and while the money won’t last forever, I can do a lot of fun stuff with it before it’s gone.
The only aspects of atheism that I find depressing are:
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That it’s still something we have to talk about in educated 21st-century countries.
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That a decent portion of the people with whom I interact are honestly deluded by ludicrous religious teachings.
Atheism itself is no more depressing than aunicornism. Sure, unicorns would be kinda cool, but a world without unicorns isn’t depressing – it’s just the world as we know it.
I think that is exactly it: me. Why do I need something bigger than me to make me a better person? The universe is kind of biggish, and I can easily succumb to the Total Reality Vortex that shows me how insignificant I myself am in the face of it, so I make my puny existence valuable to myself and others within my reach. Because, what else is there?
Christian here, and my answer is this: It depends.
If you’re someone who just does not believe in any kind of God or higher power, but you don’t care if other people do, that’s totally different from the people who insult believers and are awfully obsessed about something they don’t even believe exists.
Atheists are just as different and wide-ranging in their beliefs as are Christians, Jews, Hindus, pagans, etc.
I agree.
I don’t care if other people do. Unfortunately lots of the people who do believe this think that the higher power not only tells them how to run their lives, but tells me how to run my life.
If all religious people were Unitarians we’d have a much better world.
Well you don’t understand atheism very well then. The Problem of Evil is only a problem for a small subset of gods. I think Christians disbelief in other deities by fiat, so have never had to go through any chain of argument why they should disbelieve in them. Which is not surprising, since once you do that you might subject your own god to this process.