Is it really necessary to try and convince everyone else of atheism? If people believe in religion, then they believe (in most cases) that there is something better after death. Why ruin (in your opinion) their ignorance, and in turn, bliss and make life much more depressing for them? It is comforting to people to believe that this life isn't it, why try to take that away from them?
And why bother trying to debate politics? Science? History? Just let everyone believe whatever they want to! - No. If we don't establish a dialogue, we won't learn anything from either side. We'd still be cavemen if we followed your line of thought. Needless to say, religious people doesn't
have to listen to atheists. If they want to live without knowing of atheism, evolution etc, they can just ignore atheists.
XSafire said:
If your an atheist who minds your own business and doesn't argue against religion, you have earned my respect.
If you're a religious person who wants stop all debate so you can feel safe, sit back, relax and release some endorphins, you've lost my respect.
XSafire said:
Also, what do you have to lose in believing in a higher power (example: God)? This is supposed to be a serious question, and answers like "because religion is stupid" or "science proves otherwise" are not welcome.
If you think believing is enough to get into Heaven, then you're retarded. You also have a shitload of rules to follow, one being that you can't even THINK of sex - which is impossible unless you're asexual. And you don't honestly believe God (because we all know that he is the higher power you're speaking of) is so stupid that he would accept people in Heaven who just
claims to believe, but doesn't actually follow the religion thoroughly?
Big surprise: what you believe is
not a choice. You don't choose to be an atheist, you're
convinced that atheism is right. Same concept applies to religion, politics, etc. What you're suggesting is that people shut off their mind, ignore what they've learned and enter a state of denial. You can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to someone or something that is omnipotent and omniscient.
Koot said:
If you were an atheist, with no belief in god or jesus, then from your post your life would be depressing. You state how there's nothing to live for as everything is going to be taken away. From this I can only assume that without god or any other deity then life would be depressing. Hence atheists who have no belief in any deity would have a depressing life.
I didn't completely ignore your post as I responded to what you said about life having no worth. I said myself that there are points to live for and that is what I believe in. I don't need any deity for me to justify the worth of living.
You don't need to believe in God or Jesus to live a happy life. I don't believe there is an afterlife, but that doesn't make me unhappy - quite the contrary, it makes me happy to know that I can be content with my life
right now, instead of waiting for inevitable death followed by eternal bliss. It makes me happy to know that nobody is going to spend eternity in Hell being tortured 24/7. Not even someone like Osama bin Laden or Adolf Hitler deserves infinite punishment for a finite crime.