100 ‘Damned’ Good Reasons to Be An Atheist, Part 10
Many religious people will tell you that it’s better to believe than it is to not believe, and bring out a whole suitcase of ‘logical’ arguments for why that is the case, but they’d be lying. Here’s why it’s better to be a Heathen like me.
91. We Drink to be Merry — There is no Atheist version of sacramental wine. In fact, what is the actual deal with using an intoxicating beverage as a ritual symbol of atonement…? One of the things that leads to alcoholism, in the social sense, is the feeling of inadequacy, of not measuring up socially and needing to forget your troubles. Seems counter-productive to me that it’s used as a tool to keep you mired in your sense of inadequacy…
92. No Closet Cannibalism — A cracker is a cracker and wine is wine. We have no ritual that comes close to the Communion delusion that when we swallow these things, they literally transform into some physical piece of a savior figure.
93. Violence is a No-No — Are there Atheists who get in a scuffle now and then…? Sure. However, it can be reasonably stated that Atheists are generally unwilling to kill in the name of forcing the world to align with their viewpoint.
94. No trickery — We don’t use deceptive practices to meet our aims, unlike many christian authors who write books that are supposedly primarily about any subject under the sun — art, sports, exercise — when they are, in fact, sermons in book form. We give our information unvarnished by bullshit. It’s yours for the taking if you want it. If not…no biggie. Furthermore, we don’t have lobbyist think tanks which draft deceptive legislation meant to force religious beliefs on the masses.
95. A Myth is a Myth is a Myth — It’s pretty hard to accept as plausible someone waking on water, people turning into slabs of salt and sticks transforming into snakes because it opens the door to all kinds of absurdities, like the possibility of unicorns, vampires, goblins, fairies and werewolves.
96. We don’t normalize behavior that would be considered insane by nonreligious standards — If you came across a homeless person who claimed they could commune with the ghost of a 17th Century shaman from the Planet Kyboshia, you’d probably take a few steps back and try to run away. Unfortunately, religious people get away with essentially the same behavior by the simple virtue that they’re religious. I don’t really see the distinction.
97. A better way to understand the universe — It has been said that the beginning of wisdom is admitting that you don’t know. Atheists, for the most part, are perfectly willing to admit they don’t have all the answers. Any why would they…? For every question science answers with reasonable certainty, more questions get raised. It would, therefore be impossible for Atheists to have all the answers because there will always be new things to explore. Contrast this with the vast majority of theists, who often act with stubborn credulity that what they ‘know’, as informed by their beliefs, is right and true and correct, despite there not being a shred of evidence to demonstrate the veracity of their truth claims. It’s as if not actually knowing is the foundation of belief… Not sure I care for that model of understanding.
98. Less stress — It can be said that Atheists have the better life because they aren’t suffering the constant anxiety that comes with wondering if every little misstep is a hell-worthy trespass.
99. No assumptions about the hereafter — Atheists can be reasonably certain about what happens after death owing to the scientific evidence we have from observing countless generations of people dying. When the electrical impulses in our brains cease, that begins a process of decomposition. The biochemical bonds that hold our cells together begin to break down and our bodies deteriorate until there’s practically nothing left. We are essentially eternal in that what we are made of gets reabsorbed into the biosphere and reused for other purposes. So, it can be said that we do accept the idea of an after life, just not a conscious one where we get to sit on puffy white clouds and trade quips with Robin Williams for eternity.
100. Intellectual Consistency — Atheists have no god, therefore they have no opportunity to carve out special exemptions (absent evidence) for their preferred myth. What’s more, it’s worth considering that everyone is an Atheist with respect to some deity, especially given the thousands that have been invented by humankind over the eons. Atheists just happen to go whole hog on the matter by rejecting the existence of all gods.
In the Beginning…
DISCLAIMER: For those who are curious, I do not allow feedback on posts of this nature due to the fact that religionists have nothing original to say on the matter. They continually trot out the same tired, unqualified arguments for why they are right and I am wrong and I refuse to waste another second of my life re-litigating these issue with people of limited imagination.
