And that’s why we need to work to make it a better world. Before there were sickos that would maim and maul you, there were wolves and tigers. Making humans our only effective predator is an improvement, though we still have a ways to go.
A long time friend of the family runs a bar in Caledonia NY called The Iroquois that serves the classic beer batter slab of mild white ocean fish [cod or haddock usually] with choice of potato-form and soup or salad every friday evening from 5 pm to 9 pm or they run out of fillets. The town historically was roughly half Italian and Catholic in population and as such always served some form of fish on fridays. I have an irrational liking of the traditional fish fry. I was thrilled when mrAru worked over near Wethersfield CT as there was/is a place that always has fish fry [every day not just fridays]
Is there any possibility that you could change something in your behavior to prevent that? I know a variety of people that have similar problem with other beliefs and attitudes besides theism.
Living in a society where atheists, at least non-religious, are the majority, I see absolutely no downside to being an atheist. The only thing I regret is that the biggest religious hypocrites who are sure they’ll get to heaven will not be aware of their final annihilation.
This part seems to be closest to my own view. For the rest, living a life that is based on reality rather than fantasy seems to be its own reward; I have been doing it for so long that it is second nature. I don’t think of myself as better or more intelligent than someone who quietly follows a faith, I’m far from perfect myself after all. I do strongly object to those who use religion as a stick with which to beat up other people.
ditto, it doesn’t impact my life in a negative way at all.
If anything it is one less thing to worry about.
Actually there is. You’re gonna be reincarnated into the future you helped create. (That’s an oversimplification but it’s closer than “you either go to heaven or to hell when you die”)
And IMO nature, and all that is knowable through rational means, is amazingly wonderful and worthy of study than one of many competing manmade fictions. A study of - and wonder at - the world around us is religion enough.
Do you mean something other than “you will eventually rot and your atoms will be reconstituted into something else?”
And if you’re in the Midwest, you can get your Friday fish fry on at a bar, too!
Theists, as I see it, are just oppressive tribalists attempting to foist their insubstantial and nonsensical belief systems onto their perceived inferiors, either out of ignorance or (much more likely) their racism, and so deserve an unending blast of rebuke from me, which (fortunately for them and me) I am far too busy with more important matters to deliver as unstintingly as they deserve. So when it leaks out on rare occasions, I feel fine about unloading my views of what I think of them and their silly fairytales, but other atheists insist on instructing me to SHHHH about that stuff.
I’m not @AHunter3 , but I took it to mean that your present actions influence, if just a tiny bit in most cases, the world’s future.
I’m of the same mindset. There’s no karma in a spiritual sense, but if you’re always an asshole to everyone, it will fire back on you in the end. It’s much easier to get through life with kindness and empathy.
That would be one of the comforts that could come from having a belief in the supernatural.
All I can take away from this is to wonder why you go to restaurants that have crappy salads and soups, mediocre sides, and an imperfect steak and won’t let you order the entree by itself. I’d never eat anywhere where eating part of the meal was a chore.
Also, I’m another person whose quality of life varies randomly. In some ways, right now is one of the best parts, despite some health problems.
In reply to the OP which the board won’t indicate.
This is my only real problem with it as well, not just in wider society but in my personal life. Everyone assumes that you have some kind of religion, and they generally mean well, but if you don’t want to go through life fending off well-meaning evangelizers, it’s necessary to keep your head down. The times that have been most challenging for me were after deaths in the family. People want to be comforting, but none times out of ten, their idea of comfort involves religion. I also know that our family’s decision to have a completely non-religious memorial gathering for my mom was baffling and upsetting to a lot of her acquaintances, but we drew the line at pretending she was a believer in order to make the women who went to the gym with her feel better.
I’d have to also say the lack of community. Of course there are plenty of other groups and organizations that could fill that role. But there’s no default automatic place to go, especially for an introvert.
On the other hand I’m glad I shucked off all the bullshit. And nowadays people are more open about being atheists. Decades ago I’d mumble and say something like “I don’t attend church” or “I’m not religious.” Now I feel comfortable just saying outright that I’m an atheist.
If only…
I’m not an atheist, but I’m friends with a couple who moved to this area from a small city in Michigan about a decade ago (I was friends with them before they moved). They are both strongly atheistic, not just agnostic, and one of the issues that they struggled with for a few years upon moving here was meeting people with whom to socialize.
One of the fringe benefits of joining (or at least attending) a church is that it’s a good way to meet people, have social activities to attend, etc. – but, obviously, my friends had zero interest in going to a church when they weren’t believers, just for the social aspect (especially since they would not have the common ground of faith with the people there).
They eventually found other avenues for meeting people (she joined a book group, he joined a gaming club, etc.), but for the first few years that they lived here, they pretty heavily leaned on the few friends which they already had in the area (myself included) for any sort of socializing.
Yeah. Think beyond the notion that the only answer to “who are you” is an answer expressed in 1st person singular. You don’t have to abandon being an atheist to question what we think of as identity. Once you accept that a vast portion of the thoughts and beliefs in our heads are things we absorbed like a sponge from social interaction — like religious beliefs, for example 
— you start to realize that much of what we think of as “me, my thoughts” are actually part of a social web, and that there are long-range slow-wave thought patterns that the culture as a whole processes over the course of generations.
I still don’t get what you mean by “reincarnated.”
I do agree with folk who say the best approach is to lead what you consider to be “a good life.” That is its own reward, and does not need any supernatural belief.
Another HUGE issue I have with religion is that so many folk who profess to be religious, and who seem to equate being religious with being “a good person”, actually impress me as acting really shitty quite often. Both in terms of just acting in their immediate personal best interest, and in trying to inflict their beliefs on others.