“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too.” - Douglas Adams
I’m an atheist. I’d like to tell you why. Most of the arguments for being an atheist point to how it is more scientific or probable. I’m sure you’ve heard those before, so I’m not going to touch them. Instead, I’d like to focus on the reasons atheism can lead to a greater quality of life.
That said, I’m not here to convert anyone, just expose people to different ideas. I’m not on a crusade against religion. I’ve read many different books on various world religions. Even if I disagree with some of the founding points, the exposure to those ideas improved my philosophy towards life.
Common Arguments Against Atheism
I’d like to start by giving my rebuttal to many of the common arguments against atheism. I’m not even going to touch the circular logic of going to Hell or blasphemy. But here are some of the supposedly sensible objections to denying the existence of a god:
Morality
Morality doesn’t need to come from the threat of divine punishment. Religion can do much good, but it can be twisted to do evil as well. I believe ethics come from society. It comes from the basic principles of respecting the rights of others, service and altruism. You don’t need a god to explain morality anymore than you need Zeus to explain lightning bolts.
Afterlife
Another common objection is that in not believing in a god, you believe death creates infinite nothingness. I don’t have space to fully explain different theories on the life and death, but this doesn’t need to be so. Atheism only suggests that death is a current unknown.
Scott Adams suggested another possibility in his book God’s Debris. Your consciousness is based on a pattern stored on neurons in your brain. If this is the case, dying would simply pause the pattern and it would resume sometime in the future. With no delay being seen from the observer this would essentially mean you couldn’t experience death.
I’m not arguing that this theory is the way reality works, just that atheism isn’t surrendering to a nihilistic view of life. Instead, it is opening yourself to many different possibilities.
Meaning
This is an argument I’ve never quite understood. It basically goes that if you don’t believe in God, isn’t life meaningless? I think this is a rather weak argument since it assumes that meaning can’t be self-determined. It also assumes that without an invisible spirit watching you, life doesn’t have a purpose.
I pick a meaning for my life and I believe it is just as satisfying without conjuring a notion of a god. I believe a god can actually become a distraction from meaning since it causes you to focus on a divine overlord instead of what really matters – the other people and beings you share the world with.
Atheism for a Greater Quality of Life
Aside from being an atheist, I’m also a vegetarian. Beyond putting myself in two self-selected minorities, many of the arguments I’ve seen against vegetarianism are similar to those against atheism. A common cited reason people I know don’t want to eat meat is because they enjoy it too much. They don’t want to sacrifice.
This is hard to explain until you’ve tried both sides, but I don’t see avoiding meat as a sacrifice. Instead I see it as an opportunity to live a healthier life, reducing my chances of many chronic diseases and giving me more energy to do what I love. I also see it as removing the environmental and ethical discomfort in supporting an industry with questionable practices.
Similarly, I think a lot of believers don’t rationally believe in a god. But they don’t want to sacrifice the comforting notion that a being greater than themselves is watching down on them and helping them out.
But in focusing on that one benefit, you miss on the potential benefits of not believing in a deity:
- Freedom – The mental freedom to explore your world, learn and challenge your own assumptions. Instead of rejecting evidence that doesn’t fit your notion of a god, you can embrace everything with curiosity.
- Self-Reliance – Temporarily focusing on a god may keep you happy, but what about the long-term? Instead of expecting divine intervention to let everything work out, I focus on my own abilities and reasoning to improve my experience of life.
- Beauty – I believe beauty lies in the unknown. It lies in the things you can’t explain. That is what atheism really means. Instead of resorting to weak explanations of a deity creating the world, you see all the beautiful aspects of nature you currently don’t understand. Why tarnish evidence that the universe is larger and more magnificent than we ever realized by placing an invisible man in front of it?
Pantheism and Rational Spirituality
So far my arguments have been against the traditional notion of a god. That is an invisible, all-powerful being that not only created the universe but also, through conscious force, interrupts the rules of nature, that he himself created, to perform miracles for the benefit of one planet amidst billions of billions of stars.
The alternative to that doesn’t need to be a cold, hyper-rational, if-I-don’t-see-it-it-doesn’t-exist mindset. Pantheism (or as Richard Dawkins refers to it as “sexed up atheism”) is another choice.
Pantheism literally means “God is all.” It is the belief that the universe itself is god. That nature, humanity, science and truth are the reflection of god. In the most basic sense, this isn’t any different from atheism or science. But while atheism emphasizes what the atheist doesn’t believe in, pantheism presents the alternative.
I’m a follower of rational spirituality. Although it may sound like an oxymoron, rational spirituality means that truth, and your understanding of the world, enhance your appreciation of it. Instead of supplementing an unemotional scientific perspective with superstition, you find the emotional beauty in science and reason.
Read a book on evolutionary biology or quantum physics and it you soon realize how mind-blowingly amazing the universe actually is. The wonders of the New Testament, in my opinion, pale in comparison to how evolution works, the possibilities of string theory or quantum entanglement.
Appealing to a Higher Motive
God can serve a purpose in causing us to aspire towards something greater. But I don’t believe a theistic god is the only (or even the best) possibility here either.
Even beyond just appreciating nature and the world for beauty, you need an ideal to strive towards. A motivation that gives your life purpose and your broader actions meaning. An answer to the question, “What does it all mean?”
Finding your higher ideal is an incredibly personal task. It is a task that can’t be delegated or avoided by reading a holy book. I can’t tell you what your higher ideal should be. All I can show you is what mine is.
My higher motive is based on three separate principles:
- Truth - Complete understanding is the first part of my higher ideal. This means that there is intrinsic purpose in seeking the truth. And that faith or any suspension of the rational mind I possess is an inherent evil towards this goal. I don’t believe a lie at the most basic level can ever be superior to what reality actually is.
- Service – The second aspect of my higher ideal is service and morality. This means that there is intrinsic purpose in serving the greatest good and respecting the rights of others. Any act that harms the greatest good or infringes on the personal rights of another conscious being is inherently evil.
- Challenge - The final aspect of my higher ideal is that the pursuit of both truth and service is supposed to be challenging. Pain and struggle are not goals in themselves, but moving through challenges has intrinsic meaning if it moves you to greater truth and service. This means that no matter what happens to myself, there is a meaning in it if I choose to find it.
The two elements of rational spirituality and appealing to a higher motive do a far more elegant job of fulfilling me than adopting a specific religion and worshiping a god. Better yet, my beliefs are self-correcting. By placing the highest emphasis on truth, I am always willing to change my beliefs if evidence shows them to have errors.
Should You Become an Atheist?
I didn’t write this article to convert you. I fully expect not to have converted anyone who was already set in their beliefs. But just as I read religious and spiritual books to enhance my philosophy, hopefully this could do the same for you.
Further Reading for Atheism, Rational Spirituality and Higher Motives
Atheism:
- The God Delusion
- Letter to a Christian Nation
- God is Not Great
- The End of Faith
- The Blind Watchmaker
Science:
Spirituality and Philosophy:
- Buddhism Plain and Simple
- Tao Te Ching
- The Bhagavad Gita
- God’s Debris
- The Courage the Live Consciously (article)
I'm a speed-reading, vegetarian, holistic learning, productivity hacking university student.
Hey Scott,
You seem to be following a Hindustani lifestyle, from what I’ve read. Though you don’t follow the “practices” that Hinduism entails, Hinduism is more of a lifestyle rather than a Webster Dictionary religion, which means they are not vital to self-actualization. Read this article and tell me what you think: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1863/faq.
-Sudhakar
Hey,
On a somewhat of a tangent, I recommend reading the Upanishads as well.
Belief in God is a distraction only when we relegate God to something we think about rarely. We feel distracted from our ‘normal’ lives by our belief because we are forced to pause our lives once in a while to pay our dues to God by performing various acts of worship.
But if we develop an awareness of God every moment of our life and in every action, our belief is no longer a distraction. It becomes a way of life and God becomes a source of inspiration and enrichment in our lives.
It may seem more logical to believe there is no God. But once you find God you will be astonished as to how illogical disbelief is.
My intention is not to argue and to convince you that my point of view is correct. That is for you to discover for yourself.
I will merely urge you to have an open mind and do yourself the favor of taking the time to discover God.
I will leave you with a verse from the Quran where Allah (God) says
“We have not created in vain the heavens and the earth and
what lies between them. That is the fancy of the disbelievers.
But woe to the disbelievers in the fire of Hell. (Quran 38:27)”
Actually, I believe in God and I believe that this is my greatest motivation in life. But i also believe that it is important to respect what others believe in.
I just have some questions that I want you to ask yourself:
1- If I told you that I was standing on one side of a river and I wanted to pass to the other side but I couldn’t find a boat. Then, suddenly some long wooden bars in the water began to rise up in the middle of the river, these bars began to come close to each other, until they were all adjacent. Then, some ropes began to float on the water surface, too. These ropes came close to the wooden bars, and they began to wrap around the wooden bars, once, twice, more and more and finally these ropes made a knot and the wooden bars became very tightly coupled. Then, these bars began to move, and become closer to where I stand on the river side until they just stopped infron of me. and when I stood on them, they began to move me to the other side of the river until I finally arived safe there.
Would you believe me? Would you believe that all this happened without any human intervention? Just by nature?
I don’t think so. (although it is your right to do so)
If you find it difficult to believe this story, then how can you believe that the sky, the earth, all planets, gravity, seas, plants, animals, people were all created without God’s intervention?
How can you believe that a human had eyes to see with, ears to hear, mind to think, mouth to talk, let a side all nervous, digestive systems and many other things that a human has and that all these were only created by nature or by chance or whatever? How can you believe that all those wonderful things that science and research discover everyday are created without God?
I find my mind totally unable to disbelieve in god.
2- You said you have a meaning for your life without God. Don’t you think that every meaning in life can be destroyed by some bad circumstances that may happen? for example, a great scientist who is serving humanity may have a brain disease that destroys his meaning in life. A great athlete would be infected by a total paralysis that would totally hinder his movement and may never rise from bed again. Although these may seem extremes, but actually they happen. At this moment a person who does not believe in God loses every meaning in life, becomes a desperate person who thinks that his life is in vain. A believer in God knows that this is God’s will, a test from God, that although this is very difficult and hurting, but it deserves to be faced because heaven does worth and because he was created to believe in God and to love God and to do his best in life (as far as he can). This is the meaning of his life.
You might also find this useful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8b3wNXEyPA&feature=related
Nice chance to dust off the old communication skills
To be as frank as I can arguments that life has some inherent meaning have always sounded pathetically desperate to me. At the end of the day reem is right, some cataclysmic event can easily destroy that meaning. Life is just a painfully short thermal fluctuation in the background of an indifferent universe. It’s this uncaring nature of the universe that shows just how meaningless life is. This is something that’s obvious to all of us: You get into your car and you die on your commute to work, diseases of habits kill millions in the most advanced of nations and in some parts of the world child are born, live long enough to learn to cry out as they are swallowed up by diseases, huger and poverty. This solar system we live in is fill to the brim with rogue objects that could end all Earth on the planet in a matter of years. It’s almost sick to suggest that theres some meaning to life when we all descend from a group of possibly less than 5,000 individuals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
But at the same time, that also destroys the possibility of a God. The suggestion that a being exist with the power to mold a universe like the one we have, bring us into being and then sit back and watch us suffer is sick. If you tell me I’m too simple to understand his plan, I’ll tell you I’m complicated enough to suffer through it. I’ve got a marine buddy who I used to drink with and chat about philosophical whatnots. He was a deeply religious man and harbored an even deeper hatred for his religion. To him this world was so black that the only explanation for it was the devil. And of course that required a god to make him and give him Earth as his plaything. Saying that I exist to be some super-being’s plaything is the most nihilistic thing I’ve ever heard. I’d rather be chemical soup then a puppet on a string.
But you know what? I like being chemical soup. Just because I’m a thermal fluctuation doesn’t mean I don’t feel. Just because my feelings are just electrochemical processes doesn’t invalidate them. They mean something to me. I know that comes off as a nonsensical, psudo-recursive thing to say, but it’s true. I’m here. Tomorrow I may not be. You’re here. Tomorrow you may not be. And that’s it. We live, we die, but for the time being we’re here. I know a few things, some math and little science, I know my way around a computer. I know a little history and I’ve read a couple of books. But, the thing I know the best is that I don’t like to suffer. And I know that others are like me. I live here in this nice, advanced, western nation. Two generations ago my grandfather knew only of spirits and magic. He herded cattle. His son became a man of science and his grandson (yours truly) aspires to be an engineer. And this was all because someone in an advanced western nation was kind to them. Things done by people who came before me with the power to act who acted. That and the good fortune to be the ones they visited. We’re all like that: we benefit by the actions of those who came before us who had the power the act and the good fortune to have that power. And you know, in the future there will be people who will benefit from the hard work and luck of the folks right here in the present. And for me, that’s good enough. Making sure that they’ll have a future is all the religion I need. That and the opportunity to go to some third world mess of a country and be that nice westerner who gives them the chance at a better life so they can give someone a better future. Because I know they’re like me and they suffer and I can end it.
Sorry,I went off on a rant there. But all I was trying to say is that I don’t need a god or the need to convince myself that there’s some meaning in my life for me to go on or be moral. I could die tomorrow without accomplishing anything, I could die the day I get my degree or I could die after years of hard work and accomplishment. You’re going to tell me that my life would have been more valuable one way or the other?
Oh, and reem Stephen Hawking never quit even when he though he only had a year to live. He never accepted God nor did he ever stop working.
Sheefeni Hauwanga,
I just want to comment on your last sentence: “Stephen Hawking never quit even when he though he only had a year to live. He never accepted God nor did he ever stop working”
I will comment on this with the following verses from the holy Quran:
“Say: Shall We inform you who will be the greatest losers by their works? (103) Those whose effort goeth astray in the life of the world, and yet they reckon that they do good work. (104) Those are they who disbelieve in the revelations of their Lord and in the meeting with Him. Therefor their works are vain, and on the Day of Resurrection We assign no weight to them. (105) That is their reward: hell, because they disbelieved, and made a jest of Our revelations and Our messengers.”
Scott,
Your article is so very well-said and thoughtful. I too am glad to be one of the few who are free from the confines of a religion or a God. I am indeed a spiritual person, my belief is that all we have is here and now, and we need to cherish and appreciate it. Our most cogent proof for this, “humanism” is the feeling of satisfaction and joy we get from sharing time with another or helping a person in need. Forget about an afterlife – do something with your time now. As far as we know, that’s all there is.
It amazes me how so many people are willing to spend their entire life gambling on the bet that there is an afterlife – when not a single soul in the history of time has any proof. No one has ever come back and verified it. We’ve never seen God. If he exists, you would think we would have seen him at least once in history. Just once maybe he would have revealed himself to us.
But, as my father says – religion does have a purpose on this planet. It keeps the sheep (pun intended) in check. Their fear of an invisible being who can see everything they do, read every thought in their head and dangles the promise of an afterlife over their heads, keeps the majority of them from hurting others, doing evil, stealing my money, murdering my loved ones, etc. Fear is a great (and cheaply abundant) motivator, or should I say, policeman.
The questions I like to ask is:
Do you believe in something superior?
Do you always challenge your assumptions to get it closer to the truth?
Do you do your best to live accordingly?
If you answered YES to all the questions the rest doesn’t matter.
luizgpl @ hotmail . com
Greetings,
I really like these articles of yours, and I don’t believe in god, like scott said it limits your thinking to a one sided view alone, and I noticed most religion that has a god seem to be the source of arguements and discord, how foolish… ahahahah
Hey,
Just wanted to add my two cents. I too do not believe in an organised religion although I was raised catholic. I look at history and see religion perverted by those in power wanting to control the masses. I see churches begging for money, not necessarily to help others, but to build expensive buildings and to promote their social standing. However, I do believe in ‘God’ in the broadest sense of the world. The body is so amazing and complex and nature is so breath taking and powerful that it is impossible not to be filled with awe. To me that awe is a recognition of the divinity/magic/whatever you want to call it. I don’t mean that there has to be a supreme creator, but rather there is something more that I can not understand. I also noticed that religion seems to draw people apart and create divisions and I find that so appalling. Looking at how much we have in common with each other, with animals, and with nature how can anything that does not emphasis inclusiveness and connectedness be correct?
On another note, I am also a vegetarian. I would have never thought I could be a vegetarian (not that fond of veggies) especially for so long and not even miss meat. Most days it never crosses my mind that I dont eat meat. I find it irritating that people always think I did it because of animal rights (female vet student helps that image). I do have problems with the industry, but if that were my only concern I would find alternative local farmers or raise the meat myself. For me its about health, about the environment, about food shortages, and the fact that with so many alternatives why should I? I have never heard a successful argument for eating meat, never heard of a significant benefit only found in meat. And now I should probably get back to studying for my final tomorrow on the meat & dairy industry…
Nezzie,
Completely agree. Ethics were the last item on my list when switching to a vegetarian diet. However, after being vegetarian for four years, I feel the ethical argument more.
As for God, I define God fairly narrowly. If awe and wonder at the universe are included, then I suppose I’m a believer too.
-Scott
you really blew my mind here,
I have been searching to explain my thoughts about how a god could be present in this world, universe and by reading this article certain things became clear. I didn’t know there was something like Pantheism and yet when I read your explanation it represents my ideas.
Thank you for sharing these ideas!
(sorry if my english isnt so good but i hope you understand what i’m trying to say here)
‘I plan on writing a full article showing my view of rationality and the goal of a meta-philosophy (or a philosophy for how you handle your major beliefs). So I’m afraid I can’t offer much of a counter argument to that until I can write it in an article.’
I’m still waiting for this article
I believe I have an article entitled “The Virtue of Living Life Rationally” or something akin to that. Check the archives.
-Scott
“As for God, I define God fairly narrowly. If awe and wonder at the universe are included, then I suppose I’m a believer too.”
Scott,
You are so much more of a believer than you think you are! I really feel like a lot of people’s issues with God stem from the fact that they think God is a man sitting in a throne somewhere waiting to strike down.
God is energy. Perfect energy. Flowing like a river at all times.
If I can make one suggestion to you, if you haven’t already, read
“A Course in Miracles.” It was actually written by an Atheist and has brought more clarification to me then just about anything I ever learned under the roof of a church.
here’s a link http://www.acim.org/
And based on the majority of topics on your blog, it’s people like you who reinforce my believes about God! The love you share via your efforts to help people get more from life is a beautiful thing and a great example of God’s love.
Keep up the good work my friend!
Darren
You’re life will change once you stop searching for the god you want and you start searching for the God that is.
This is an interesting book Scott: Good Without God ~ What a Billion Nonreligious People DO Believe by Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard.
I would like to thank you for posting this, it’s very insightful. I’m 18 and i’m trying to figure out if I do or do not believe in God. I go to a catholic high school so I hear many thoughts and arguments for God’s existence but not many sound thoughts of why he might not so i greatly appreciate you expressing your opinions. Thanks
@reem
Your false analogy, appeals to ignorance, false dichotomy, appeal to fear, and various straw men make for a very unconvincing and unappealing argument.