“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 recent university graduate, writer, programmer, traveler and avid reader of interesting things. For the last six years I've been experimenting to find out how to get more from life.
Thank you, Scott, for an open-door policy. I am in awe of your tremendous feats and accomplishments. I enjoyed reading every word within this blog. As an eighth grade science teacher, your critical approach to belief is both inspiring and invigorating. I am also an athiest and believe in freedom. I have waisted years in church, only to come out empty minded and with empty pockets (tithe). I hold no hostility to no one, but only toward the idea that something else can make me a “better being.” I truly am the master of my own ship. Until we as humans can believe in ourselves, our culture, and our society, we have only our uncertainties to guide our stagnate habbits of mind–a deadly cycle without true realism.
Thanks, again.
I’ve been reading your blog for a while but just stumbled on this post. I think your higher motive is absolutely fantastic and I haven’t read anything that sums up my feelings as accurately on the topic as you just have.
Dear Mr. Young
This is a great blog. I haven’t got all the way through it yet, but I’m looking forward continue reading it tomorrow. Thank you.
Seeing how every culture has some sense of religion one can speculate a natural sense of humans to look for something bigger than themselves.
One cannot necessarily argue for or against God with logic and reason for one subject is of the mind while the other is of the spirit. It’s like trying to solve a math problem with yoga. When hearing the teaching of Jesus, his message is all about focusing on loving other people. While people can twist a religious message to do evil with it, it is in fact just that, twisting the message.
While being an atheist is fine just remember we all have our ‘God’, anything we worship with all our time and thoughts.
Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe who create it? No. It isn’t.
Isn’t it enough to believe that you are (Scotth Young) exist without your father and mother..?
I appreciate your open and, what I sense to be inviting forum for thoughtful dialogue. Addressing the perceived conflict and hostility between science and religion, Henry Eyring in his book “Faith of A Scientist” observed that truth is self-consistent. If truths appear contradictory, we don’t yet have all the truth or the context in which to understand them. From this, I am comfortable that perceived conflicts between science (that attempts to explain the physically observable) and faith (that addresses the spiritually observable) exist because we don’t fully understand science or faith. When and if we ever get to that point, the two will be consistent and complimentary – we’ll have all the pieces of the puzzle. As a man of faith (I’m Mormon) and a man of science (I’m an electrical engineer) I see very few real contradictions between my faith and my science. The older I get (I’m 54), those contradictions somehow seem to be less contradictory, too.
Bagus,
Not all things were born from mothers and fathers.
-Scott
We’re walking on the beach and we find a shiny Telsa car,
would you be believe me if I tell you that there’s no creator behing such a piece of engineering ?
I don’t think any sane person would tell this is just the result of mother nature and evolution.
If you don’t swallow the pill that a Telsa car can’t be the result of mother nature, how can you believe that the human which is the most complex piece of engineering don’t have a creator.
René Descartes (the father of cartesian thinking!), after looking on how complex is the entire universe the human body, admits how this could all tick together without a creator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_on_the_Method
Since you seems a sharp an curious person, I invite you to ponder how a book called the Quran explained the embryology process 14th century ago while science know how embryology work only a few decades ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC2_IMz9qcY
But don’t take my word for granted and I invite you to continue your quest for the thruth. : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwXSY6yxAV4
peace be upon you scott!
I swear that you are the smartest atheist I’ve ever seen in my life !
however, I don’t agree that you need to be an atheist so you can have mental freedom! not all religions are the same , I believe that the ONLY religion in this world that tells people to reflect upon this universe and use their intellects to discover it is ISLAM as God gives great rewards for the scientists and the people who seek knowledge and the Quran(Muslims’ noble book) says that they are in higher levels than ordinary worshipers ! I think that’s why Muslims during the Islamic Golden Age implemented Islam law ,rosem founded&developed many sciences in all aspects of life, and formed the Islamic Spain libraries ,it’s like Islam unbridle their minds after they were living in darkness worshiping idols and killing their own daughters before Islam !
the grandfather of the computer I’m using now to write this comment is Alkhwarizimi he is the one who founded and developed Algebra(it’s an Arabian word) and Algorithms(derived from his name) and he was a MUSLIM!
“For all present-day mathematicians and scientists are children of Islam.”
Keith Devlin on the debt of influence that science, culture and technology owe to Islam
thanks to Islamic Spain manuscripts Europe rose, we&history can’t deny this fact
.I became a muslim when I read the Quran as I didn’t find any contradiction with science ,in fact, I found scientific accurate signs in it !I studied this book and found it an amazing book of “art of life” it just teaches you how to live as a human and how to do good and seek knowledge so you get rewards in the hereafter . I also read the bible before the quran and I was shocked by the amount of scientific errors in it and how it contradicts itself ..
I’m 18, I passed high school with a high score and thanks God I had a scholarship ,my goal is to be a molecular biologist and contribute in developing a cure for cancer,I will start studying in Feb 2013 and my goal right now is to achieve what Scott achieved and finish my 4 year courses in the shortest possible time
! so wish me luck
I just wanted to share my journey to Islam with you and tell you that being religious does not necessarily mean that you are a closed minded person! because the works of religious people influenced the European Renaissance and the scientific revolution
I know Today, mention of the word Islam can, to some, conjure up images of terrorists flying planes full of people into buildings, all in the name, they say, of God.
In an equally sad vein, the word Baghdad brings to mind Saddam Hussein. Both images are as unrepresentative as they are understandable, a sad reflection on the ease with which a handful of fanatics can hijack not just a plane but an entire cultural heritage and its associated religion.
It is really sad! However, history can’t lie I read what European historians wrote about this great empire and those great people who founded a treasure for the west called Al Andalus ( the Islamic Spain) ask yourself who founded Oxford and by whom he was influenced?
Too bad Alkhwarizmi,Ibn Al hytham , Ibn sina ,…etc don’t exist anymore and Muslims easily let go of their glory and civilization so we in the west inherited it …
One could also say that nothing exists but God. This is another version of pantheism, perhaps, but it would explain why the world we experience is seen by Hinduism as an illusion.
Hello Scott,
Thank you for your interesting article on atheism.
Ultimately science, religion, atheism and spirituality will all meet at the same point: Truth. (False is false, and what is true has never changed). This meeting point is possible if “God” is defined as “the sum of all the incorruptible laws that run the universe”.
If you’ve not yet read any books by Alan Watts, I can recommend: “The Book: On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”.
With best wishes,
Josh
GOD LOVES you always! Follow the TRUTH.
I liked your post, it really gives a different view to the media popularised militant atheist. I agree that is possible to be a moral and good person with and without religion, just as it is possible to be corrupt and vile with or without it.
You gave us some recommended reading at the end, I would like to offer you another area of research in your spiritual/philosophical journey when you next delve into it. I think with today’s media portrayal of Islam, it gets a pretty bad rep. I would hope that you would read around Islam from Islamic sources to expand the base of spiritual reading you have already covered. If I were to only recommend one thing from Islam to read it would be the Quran, I would recommend http://quran.com/. And there is no need to read it in order (but I would recommend reading chapters 1 and the first 30 or so ‘verses’ of chapter 2 first). The chapters are pretty independent in that respect. If you want to look further, I would also recommend a biography of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him). He has been said to be the most influential man in history by Micheal H. Hart, in his 1978 book ” The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History.” Personally some of my favourite chapters are “Yusuf” (Joseph) and “al-Kahf” (The cave). I hope it gives you something extra to improve your philosophy (lol that sounds so condescending right, but I mean it genuinely).
Scott,
Love your books. QUICK comment.
Philosophically I find a weak position to be Atheist. This is because, if I have the definition of “atheist” correct, it means to deny the existence of God (whatever that means to you). So, are you infallible? Could there be a possibility of something outside pure chaos causing the evolution, expansion of universe of the laws of nature? I am not sure, are you? 100%? If so, stay atheist, if you are not 100% then I think being an agnostic might be a better position.
Thanks again for the blog!
Guillermo
ps: excuse my English as I am not native.
Being new to this blog I can only look forward to more enlightened engagement. Thank you.
I dislike how even after you have presented a completely logical explanation for why atheism makes perfect sense, people find the need to try to tell you that you are wrong, with no proof or justification whatsoever. I wish I could understand how people can push their views on others when they have zero actual proof themselves. I used to love having debates with believers, but lately I have realized that all it does is make me frustrated that no amount of logic or reasoning gets through to them. And after such a well presented argument that you have made, half of these comments are further proof.
Jeff
Hello Scott, came upon your site and found it interesting, especially the emotional notion of this article. I didn’t walk away satisfied from reading it though. The primary reason is because you live at instance of time where you benefit a great lot from religious teachings. The principles you mention– truth, service and challenge are all religious precepts. in fact the only difference that I have been able to find between this and Judaic notions is absence of all knowing, loving and powerful creator. As I read this, It made me think of a sort of a copyright dilemma. Imagine reading a great and inspirational novel where every line has been a key for getting joy in your life. Imagine using it to lead a wonderful life. Imagine that somehow you have ended up being the only person that owns a copy of this book in existence. Then in your old age imagine a little kid coming to you and asking you for the secret of your success and instead of making him a copy, you selectively tell him 1/10th of the book that you thought was essential. You also ensure that you never mention the name of the original author as a recommendation to pursue his own learning. This is what this article made me think . Our world is built on on the original religious principles and guidelines. Yes, religion has been used to twist the truth, forward agenda of personal power and worse. It has also been guilty of becoming a replacement theology where the true beauty gets reduced and lost in multiple translations. However, it is not religion itself that was at fault it is the perpetrators. I have a problem not with ideology but with implementation. I agree with you that humans are believing machines but I so want to disagree with you that one can be rational and believe in god. I don’t know, I am still learning. for example the notion to suspend disbelief. It was and remains necessary in science, in order to make forward progress. The point is to not skip logic all together but be patient as you proceed down your path. Anyways, great article. I don’t usually feel compelled to comment.
Victoria,
That a book contains some truths does not imply it is truthful.
I will give religion credit for some things, perhaps for some contributions to moral philosophy. But that doesn’t mean I owe it anything (or should accept any of its other assertions).
-Scott
Scott,
Agree with the first statement. However, religion is not just one book, a book is a mere artifact,a byproduct, of which there many. And selective storytelling is not lying, it is simply not is disclosing the whole story. Right? I dont think you understood my point. Like it or not, you have already accepted most of religious assertions as evident by this piece of writing. I assert that almost all moral codes today are derived from religious teachings. Simple historical study will offer sound argument for my assertion. I also assert that atheism is another form of replacement theology. I grew up in a completely atheist culture so I speak from experience. I will also hypothesize that belief in god or religion will make one happier, if one choose one’s beliefs accurately. For this I have no proof, too often causation and correlation are easily confused.
This is an intriguing discussion. I myself am a believer in a God, though what he/she is remains unseen for me. I choose to accept most of Christian theology for my belief system. I say most because some of my ideas are vastly different than most Christians.
It is a shame that people have tried to convince you to take up religion based on the things you mentioned in the article. Afterlife and a life of meaning? Those things are silly to discuss. I don’t believe in hell. What kind of deity would create such a place? And how can someone preach God is love and from the same book teach that he somehow created a scientific breakthrough where a human could be burned and tortured for trillions of years? That makes no sense.
And to try to attain a life of meaning goes blatantly against the ministry of Christ Himself. Do people really think he was trying to live a life of meaning? Trying to find meaning is a prideful and pointless task. Your deeds that come from your heart are all that is what you will be known by. Can you not have a good heart without believing in a deity? Of course you can! I believe Christ was trying to show a better way, much like Buddha and others did. Those guys focused on living a life of balance, self-reliance, and service to others (sounds like a blogger or two I know). They didn’t do it for any reward. They did it because they wanted to show others how to have a more fulfilling, more gratifying life. Do I think there’s an afterlife? Sure. In a universe where the math allows for things to have been created from nothing, it also allows for there to be an alien life form we call God that created us and has our memories on a backup drive. Maybe he just builds a new body and inserts the memory into that. I don’t know. But the math allows for all of it, and dangerously, none of it.
I don’t say any of this to try to convert anyone or change anyone’s mind. Christians lost sight of the true message a long time ago, as did many religions. They look at the verse in the Bible that says “I am the way, the truth, and the light” and only focus on the “I”, completely ignoring the meaning of that sentence which was, “let me show you the way, the truth, and the light.” Some people think they have to convert everyone based on that verse alone. I don’t think that’s the case.
I enjoy reading your blog and appreciate the things you share here. So, thanks. Keep up the great work.
I am God.
I see your point of view veeeery interesting. I’ve always admired people who can imagine something and fight for it. That’s something amazing. But there IS a problem here.
The thing is, reading some writers (specially Nietzsche) about language itself and the logical facts I learnt with Math(specially advanced topics in Logics and Set theory) and Computer Science made me realize that all words are just pure imagination, pure abstraction – like an axiom. They mean nothing, they’re a good trick to live better. It’s hard to explain it with a language, paradoxically…
So, all of that has taken me to a nihilistic point of view/no-point-of-view-at-all in which I don’t even believe in truth itself.
I can’t live in uncertainty because I neither believe in lies nor in truths. Therefore, if you ask me if I’m an atheist I would say ‘yes’ just for simplicity, but what I really think is, “Why should I say that any god is a ‘lie’ when I don’t even believe in the definition of a lie, when I believe words are like logical axioms? Do I really have to believe in axioms when they are just…nothing?”. In fact, for me, science and religion are very similar – the difference between them is just that ‘temporary believing’ in science makes my life WAY MORE rich(hey, look at how funny are videogames, they’re made by scientists!) that ‘temporary believing’ in religion. From a practical point of view, I sometimes view the world similarly as you do, Scott: I live in uncertainties. But I can’t talk about morality and greatest good as you do: my limits are simply where the power of the other people is.
It’s hard to explain all of this stuff in a tongue that isn’t mine, so excuse my telegraphic writing and please enjoy the meaning of the words rather than the style. I’ve been few days in the blog searching the archives and I learnt so many things(the Feynman technique did help me A LOT), so congratulations for the blog! I’ll be around for a while!
By the way… post resurrection happens. We have to live with it haha.
Hi Scott.
I was reading your blog for quite some times. But I never stumble into this post. Until today.
Well, your life philosophy is understandable. But I just want to reminds you that if one of your higher motive is to seek the truth, then I believe eventually sooner or later, you will stumble upon this entity called “God”. By that time, I will challenge you, if you found the truth by yourself, that there IS God, stop clinging onto your freedom life philosophy, and accept that there is God who control everything.
Because, if you want to seek the truth, frankly you won’t be satisfied with the quote you quote at the beginning of your post:
“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.”
How if I asked the opposite: why don’t you get curious and try to really find and examine whether there ARE fairies at the bottom of it too? Why there are something in this world that you categorize as fact, and the other things as fairy tale? Of course, I understand, research about them won’t increase you in productivity. But, well, if you truly want to find about the “truth”, then you shall have an urge to find about the truth about all of those as well, or your mind won’t be at rest.
To only look at a beautiful picture, and not believing that there are any painter which paints it, I believe it’s an incomplete step. To look at a lovely beach under the sunlight painting sure is refreshing. But if we learn that the painter is a small children which paints it within a jail in the middle of a war, I’m sure we will never see that beach painting the same way anymore.
Or, we can see two similar refrigerator. But when we open the door, we see manual books that state what’s the difference between this refrigerator, and the other refrigerators. The same thing applied to you and me.
To see that you and me just both human with different capabilities is, well, okay, fair enough. But to be able to fully operated within the capability and specification each of us designed specifically for, you have to ask not just on the “higher motives”, but from the “higher being”. Maybe today you feel you’re very productive by leaning on yourself, making out the most of your time. That’s great. But someday, I hope, you found out that working along with “higher being” can multiply your humanly work which is already great, into awesomeness.
There are good reasons for believing that God exists.
Theism has more explanatory power than atheism. It explains better more facts about our universe, things like:
1.the mere existence of something rather than nothing (which can be accounted for by a personal creator)
2.the design in the universe, in particular the presence of information and the fine-tuning of various cosmological constants and parameters, as well as the initial conditions for the universe.
3.the existence of moral and aesthetic value.
4. the existence of human consciousness and rationality.
5. the possession by humans of reliable faculties aimed at truth.
Other things could be named. None of these are surprising or even unexpected under theism. (And Christian theism in particular has good historical evidence backing it up.) But these items are more surprising and unexpected given atheism. Atheists will have responses to all of these of course. But there is nothing that atheism claims is true that cannot be just as equally (or ever better) explained by theism.