Religion/Spirituality What Are the Benefits of Atheism?

[Mr. Somebody]

Freedom to live like a demon without the responsibility of morality weighing on your mind.

 

[OG_StankBrefs]

Err thang.

 

[daze23]

this thread is one of the most bizarre backasswards approaches to atheism I've seen

you should pick your belief system (or lack there of) by how you measure it's validity, not how you measure it's "benefits"

 

[Bud Bundy]

One benefit of theism is a strong code of moral conduct. I mentioned malcolm X earlier in the thread and how he changed from a thug to something much more decent. And isn't that the purpose of religion? To teach moral values, right from wrong? Religion teaches that. Atheism does not.

Morals and God are not the same thing. An atheist can have a strict moral code as any theist. There Moral code would just come from something else. For example Ghangis Khun believed in a God but his moral code allowed for raping and killing. Communism does not believe in a god but your suppose to work towards benefiting everyone. Most religions reward you for there belief after you die so I don't see the benefits your talking about.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

Morals and God are not the same thing. An atheist can have a strict moral code as any theist. There Moral code would just come from something else. For example Ghangis Khun believed in a God but his moral code allowed for raping and killing. Communism does not believe in a god but your suppose to work towards benefiting everyone. Most religions reward you for there belief after you die so I don't see the benefits your talking about.

When did I say "morals and God are the same thing"?

When did I say an atheist can't have morals?

"Communism does not believe in God"?

I said religion teaches morals. Atheism does not.

And you can't see the benefits despite my very clear example of one, Malcolm X?

The next thing you post better be absolutely astounding or you're gonna be on "muscle memory ignore" because what you just typed is completely asinine, homie.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

this thread is one of the most bizarre backasswards approaches to atheism I've seen

you should pick your belief system (or lack there of) by how you measure it's validity, not how you measure it's "benefits"

If it's not benefiting me why go out of my way to embrace it?

You're basically saying atheism doesn't benefit you at all, so why do you adhere to it?

Even peeing in public has benefits if you really need to go, yet you can't give me one benefit to basically your philosophy on life?

 

[Bud Bundy]

When did I say "morals and God are the same thing"?

When did I say an atheist can't have morals?

"Communism does not believe in God"?

I said religion teaches morals. Atheism does not.

And you can't see the benefits despite my very clear example of one, Malcolm X?

The next thing you post better be absolutely astounding or you're gonna be on "muscle memory ignore" because what you just typed is completely asinine, homie.

I am saying that Morals come anywhere and are made up of many factors not just one's belief in god. The same moral benefits Malcolm X got from the nation he could have also got if he joined the Army and followed there morals. If you are an Atheist you would just get your Morals from something else an idea or a philosophy of some kind. Getting a strict moral code from religion is not a benefit because what would stop an atheist from following a strict moral code from something that is non religions?

I still don't see where your coming from I tried to explain my side but if you choose to ignore instead of trying to reach an understanding fine.

 

[FrederickDouglas]

I don't see why we're comparing the benefits of religion and atheism as if they're career choices.

Atheism is purely reactant. There would be no atheism without religion. Religion arose as a means to explain life and why we should act decently. However religion has proved inadequate due to its mythological explanations for the way things are and the depravity and/or ignorance of its proponents.

Atheism arose to counteract the reverence afforded to destructive ideas and power-hungry manipulators. People being burned at the stake for not accepting Jesus or stoned for disobeying Allah. Atheism feels that religion impedes progress because instead of trying to better mankind on our own, we're trying to live our lives in accord with dogma set out by scholars thousand of years ago in order to ensure our place in the afterlife.

Not to say religion hasn't done good, but the fundamental idea therein is that lying to people is somehow better than telling them the truth.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

I am saying that Morals come anywhere and are made up of many factors not just one's belief in god. The same moral benefits Malcolm X got from the nation he could have also got if he joined the Army and followed there morals. If you are an Atheist you would just get your Morals from something else an idea or a philosophy of some kind. Getting a strict moral code from religion is not a benefit because what would stop an atheist from following a strict moral code from something that is non religions?

I still don't see where your coming from I tried to explain my side but if you choose to ignore instead of trying to reach an understanding fine.

Ignoring? Dude, you can't be serious. I said "religion teaches morals, atheism doesn't" and you turned that into "morals and God are the same thing" and "communism does not believe in God."

If you're not ignoring you're damn sure imagining.

Now, you say the military teaches morals. I'm not saying that I agree with that 100% or at least not the "morals" they teach but even so, what does that have to do with anything?

Again, religion teaches morals, something beneficial. Atheism does not teach morals, so that can't be counted as a benefit of atheism. My original question was what are the benefits of atheism? So again I'll ask, what are the benefits of atheism?

 

[daze23]

If it's not benefiting me why go out of my way to embrace it?

embracing something because it benefits you is pretty much the definition of "bias"

again, I embrace things based on how I judge their validity. if "the truth" turns out to not be to my personal benefit, I don't deny it

 

[Brandsdale]

Morality is solely based on religion, so with no religion I guess all you're doing is obeying the law, but even then if you're an atheist technically you don't need to follow the law since law is based on religion.

This thread may cause a bit of a headache friend

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

Top 10 Benefits of Atheism - Rationality At It's Best



-no indoctrination, embracing rationality

-no wasting time at church; allowing yourself to spend time and resources on the things and people important to you- as well as the community.

-no feeling about going to hell for some stupid caveat written in a book thousands of years ago

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

I don't see why we're comparing the benefits of religion and atheism as if they're career choices.

Atheism is purely reactant. There would be no atheism without religion. Religion arose as a means to explain life and why we should act decently. However religion has proved inadequate due to its mythological explanations for the way things are and the depravity and/or ignorance of its proponents.

Atheism arose to counteract the reverence afforded to destructive ideas and power-hungry manipulators. People being burned at the stake for not accepting Jesus or stoned for disobeying Allah. Atheism feels that religion impedes progress because instead of trying to better mankind on our own, we're trying to live our lives in accord with dogma set out by scholars thousand of years ago in order to ensure our place in the afterlife.

Not to say religion hasn't done good, but the fundamental idea therein is that lying to people is somehow better than telling them the truth.

I think this is far more important than career choices, but that's me.

I would also have to disagree that "religion arose as a means to explain life". Maybe you find religion "inadequate" because you're expecting it to do something it's not intended to do. If my car can't get me to Japan it's not the car's fault. I would have to check my unrealistic expectations.

IDK, a lot of people seem to be confused about religion because you and I are thinking of 2 totally different things. How does religion "impede progress"? Why do you think religion prevents us from bettering mankind? Furthermore, what has atheism done to better mankind? I have already given the example of how religion improved the life of Malcolm X. Is there a similar example within atheism? Can you give an example of atheism making someone a better person? In particular, in terms of helping humanity?

The power-hungry manipulators part, I can agree with that in some cases, but I would call that "power hungry manipulation" and differentiate it from actual religion. A lot of things can be used as tools in manipulation.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

Top 10 Benefits of Atheism - Rationality At It's Best



-no indoctrination, embracing rationality

-no wasting time at church; allowing yourself to spend time and resources on the things and people important to you- as well as the community.

-no feeling about going to hell for some stupid caveat written in a book thousands of years ago

What you just posted is the equivalent pf me saying "Be a Christian because you will not go to hell."

"Wasting time at church?" That's an opinion. I don't think church folk feel they're wasting their time.

And the last thing "no feeling " is the only "legit" benefit we have come up with and that's basically a lack of a conscience.

I peeped the link and all I can honestly do is laugh. Surely that was meant for chuckles.

 

[Johnny Kilroy]

embracing something because it benefits you is pretty much the definition of "bias"

again, I embrace things based on how I judge their validity. if "the truth" turns out to not be to my personal benefit, i don't deny it

Yeah but religion is faith based anyway so you can't really determine "truth" as easily as you can type it. Theism/atheism can never be about "truth" because neither side can adequately prove their case. Instead, it's based on beliefs. What one person believes to be true, another may not believe to be true. So who's right? The correct answer is it doesn't really matter.

In this particular case, I think both sides have some validity to their argument. So now what?

My question isn't to determine what the truth is. It's more me trying to figure out if this ideology is worth my time.