People! Are you spiritually healthy?

[oneirophrenia]

Why not find out, using RaptureReady.com's handy-dandy Spiritual Health Quiz Thing

Naturally, I was led immediately to the "There is no God" page, which contains the following text:

In most cases, the rejection of the Creator does not result from
logical conclusions. The average atheist, if he or she is honest, will
cite an emotional motivation for lack of faith in God.

The late Isaac Asimov once wrote: “Emotionally I am an atheist. I don’t
have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly
suspect that he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.” Now that
Mr. Asimov is dead, I suspect he wishes he would have invested time
into proving the existence of God.

Most people who do not think God exists betray their stance by arguing
with Him. If God is not real, there is no need to be hostile toward Him
or toward anyone who believes in Him.

I have no emotional motivation in disbelieving in God--quite frankly, I wish there was one, to make life easier. But that just isn't so--therefore, I make do with what there is.

However, the final paragraph brings up a very interesting quandary: If God is not real--and he isn't--is there any reason whatsoever for an atheist to be actively hostile toward believers? The answer to that is obviously no: I am certainly not hostile toward believers because they express a faith in a God that I, individually, don't believe in. Their faith is irrelevant to me, and I'm not about to criticize anyone for simply believing in God--my friends who are one sort of Christian or another know this. What brings out the hostility in me, and as you well know I am chock full of hostility, is how some people express their faith. By trying to justify it day in and day out. By utilizing it as an ankle-chain to hold humanity back from advancing properly. By forcing it on those who want no part of it. There is nothing inherently bad about believing in a god--though I myself find it to be a little silly--but there is a LOT inherently bad with using that belief as a means of hampering others' various pursuits of what is meaningful for them.

Comments

[eolh.livejournal.com]

Haha, I ran across this one today -- you too can be saved by Kirk Cameron. :)

[beeporama.livejournal.com]

There are Xians who are in-your-face-assholes, and fellow athiests who are in-your-face-assholes. If we could all just try to be civil to each other, it would make our shared time on this planet so much easier.

[beeporama.livejournal.com]

This is one of the few occasions where I'm actually ambivalent-- although an athiest myself, I think religion is a fine thing and does a lot of good for people.

But generally speaking you are correct. I don't think you can have radical change until certain seeds of discontent have been planted and taken hold. Legal gay marriage in the U.S. seems inevitable, and we'll remember the brave heroes who brought the radical change, but it really takes a generation of young people who grew up thinking homosexuality is normal.

I'll never be a Che, so I'm content to help quietly spread memes that give the heroes a chance.