Myth #3: Atheism is dangerous to society.
Today's first myth concerns the danger not believing in a god can pose to cooperative societies in general.
I think that right off the bat, atheism is only dangerous in that it's a "dangerous idea", especially to religion. The idea that you don't need a supernatural, spiritual being to tell you what to do or how to think or feel makes the theists very nervous. It's as though they think planes will fall out of the sky or water will stop flowing downhill (Y2K all over again!) just because we don't let fairy tales dictate our sex-life.
I think that the true danger lies not within atheism, but within theism. The believers claim to have all the answers to cosmology, biology, psychology, physics, archeology, and the like. They think they know more about these fields than the people who actually work in them for a living. How do they come into such knowledge? By simply believing it...by thinking they do.
Wow. It's that simple!
When you stop filling the gap with "God" and start looking into it, you get results. The stubbornness of theistic mind squelches any attempt to think "outside the book" and look around for one's self. We already have the answers, so we don't need to waist time looking. The apathy of religion is the true danger.
But religion isn't just about languor of the mind. Its other dangers lie in its ability to spread like a plague into every facet of society. Truly, how could it not? If you're belief is that God speaks to you and tells you what to do – and tells you what it wants others to do – are you not obligated to do that work? I can't fault those who refuse to lay down their faith at the door before entering the public domain. But at the same time, if one is unable to do that, one shouldn't be in that position in the first place. Its dangerous not only to us nonbelievers, but to the faithful as well – from each other.
Atheists do not seek to rid the world of religion. I don't want you to have your faith ripped out of your lives simply because your faith is ridiculous and unfounded. One of our greatest freedoms is that we are free to think as we wish. Atheists, on the whole, do not seek to rid society of religion. We only wish that you'd keep your religion to yourself; don't force it on other people. Don't get laws passed in favor of your beliefs or in opposition to those you don't agree with. True freedom is the distance between church and state.
-STA
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Comments: 7
I would (and have) counter that to place full responsibility on the individual places more of a personal moral responsibility on the individual to do what is ethical and morally good than when someone relies on a god to determine the course of their actions. When I have nothing to "pray to", I must take full responsibility for the outcomes of my actions. When I have nothing to "blame" for bad outcomes, other than myself or others' actions, then I have to take full responsibility to fixing the problem, if it is indeed "fixable". I get extremely frustrated when religious believers' answers to the problems of the world is supplication and prayer to their gods, rather than personal action.
no one should ever feel oppressed for not believing in a god . . . who's to say there actually is one? it really is all a matter of hearsay and has gone through many generations of word-of-mouth that some of the actual religious facts have probably gotten skewed anyways! i do not necessarily adhere to one particular religion (though i attend a christian church weekly and have adopted it as my primary religion) because i believe in the teachings . . . not just who taught them. in essence, each major religion (buddhism, christianity, islam, judaism, etc.) teach primarily the same concepts . . . just be a good person in general: no lying, stealing, cheating, killing, etc. and you are a good individual!
thanks for sharing!
Kelldogg, I'd have to disagree with your assessment that all religions are peace and love. Religions are mainly about adhering to what the Great Spirit tells you, and working to please it. This isn't peace and love. Neither is this. Nor is this.
just for a little while.
until the human population's back under a billion, say.
DISCLAIMER: i am not afraid of death. if the world was to "descend" into a state of anarchical mayhem, i would stand by this conviction... for these things are more Honest than any form of Abstinence.
or any other Good Work (i can think of) that in all actuality serves the Doer. -example of this last: "I'm gonna help this child outta this well. I've got places to go and people to see, but I'm gonna lower this garden hose into this well anyhow.
"I have kids m'self, y'see... and a belief that What Goes Around Comes Around."
this is thinly-veiled self-service--stacking the deck to make sure 1)YOUR child gets the garden hose later and 2)getting another ruby or emerald in your Heavenly Crown.
of interest:
Heaven.
why is it so Blinged Out?
isn't this antithetical? -why doff the Here And Now diamond for the Maybe Later one(s)?
what's the difference, in the end?
and why assume Heaven's, like, home-free?
didn't Lucifer start off there?!