Atheist Life vs Religious Life

Atheist Life vs Religious Life

Some argue that religious life is the best way to live. They claim life without a god is sad and depressing. Statements like "I could not imagine my life without God", and "My life would be meaningless without God", are common defenses for a religious life. The following is a list of advantages atheists enjoy over a religious life. I invite the religious viewers to submit a response video with the advantages of a religious life.

1. Atheists can make moral decisions based on the specific context. Having absolutes like "Though Shall not Lie" stops people from thinking for themselves and making the right decision based on the situation at hand. In what situation would be okay to lie? Most religious people would say, never. Atheists would disagree. For example: If you were living in Germany hiding Jews in your attic during the holocaust, and Hitler's Nazis knocked on your door and asked if you were hiding Jews, would it be okay to lie to save the lives of the Jews in your attic? I believe trying to save their lives would the moral and proper choice. Atheists have the power to do what's right for all humanity, rather than the forced perspective of doing what is right for a god.

2. Atheists can experience healthy outrage at the outrageous without fear of questioning God's plan. We can be outraged when a friend dies of a horrible disease, or is killed in a car accident. It is okay to be upset at disasters and horrible events. It is not a part of any plan. It is just a horrible event. Atheists try to learn from them and not just chalk it up to God's Plan. We use science to understand catastrophic events like hurricanes, and tsunamis. This gives us the ability to save lives. If we think a magical plan is going to happen no matter what, then why try to stop the events or make things better. Atheists do not wonder if a god is punishing us. Yes, there is cause and effect, and our actions effect how we live, you should save for retirement, and if your diet is bad you'll end up fat, or sick, or both. But if an airplane part falls on your house, it is an accident. If you find a 5 dollar bill on the sidewalk, it is an accident. No magical intervention, no magical wrath, these are just accidents. Life has an element of chance. This may not seem comforting, but here is another way to look at it: Your loved one dies in a completely random car accident where nobody could possibly be blamed. Is it more comforting to know the accident happened because of bad luck or is better to think the accident could have been prevented by an omnipotent being that could have stepped in and saved them from an untimely death, but your god decided to just let them die? You don't have to be frustrated thinking "Was it because I didn't pray enough?" "Was God mad at me or them?" "Maybe I should have prayed more." Atheist take comfort in knowing there is no plan.

3. Atheist can be friends with everyone without having the thought in the back of their mind that this person's lifestyle may be evil. You have the power to accept people for what they are. Enabling you to enjoy their quirks rather than chastise them for being unique. Atheists can have relationships with people who have alternative lifestyles without feeling like they have to save them from some deity that is going to condemn them for being themselves. After all, if there was a creator, then he has made everyone the way they are. Atheists don't fear that a large part of the earth's population is going to hell for being true to themselves.

4. Atheists do not live with the fear of hell. This is one of the hardest things for religious people to shake and one of the best rewards. Religious people love the thought of heaven, but fear hell as a consequence. In order to lose the fear of hell, you have to let go of the false hope of heaven. Atheists have done both.

5. Atheists raise freethinking children; let them pick a religion, or none. What would you have picked? This is hard for parents. If a child wanted to be another religion, or even atheist, it would be devastating to most religious parents. Why not teach them about all religions and tell them why you believe the one you do, and then let them choose? Atheists do not force atheism on their children. We simple let them see the evidence for and against religion and let them make up there own mind. They may change there mind several times. This is okay. Atheists love their children no matter what belief they are drawn too. That is the beauty of free thinking. You can raise your children according to your values without feeling as though you have to defend Bible stories that even a child can see are fiction.

Religion is a Mental Illness

Religion is a Mental Illness: by D Surman


Religion is one of the most serious mental illnesses of today. It is the inability to face the reality of life and the finality of death. It affects as high as 85% of the American Society. Approximately 75% of the American victims of this mental illness are Christians. The more pathetic and desperate a person’s life, the more likely they are to believe in a god. Typically, people with otherwise empty lives, are the strongest believers. It gives them the false hope that there is a higher meaning to their sad lives. The strongest of believers would admittedly be suicidal without religion and/or a god in their lives providing a mental safety valve.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy disorder has been linked to extreme religious experiences. Patients who have TLE may have sudden and dramatic spiritual changes. There are many instances of these patients converting from agnostic or atheist beliefs to strongly active religious faiths. TLE causes abnormal electrical activity in their temporal regions and has been directly linked to these radical changes in religious belief and personality changes. Curiously, religious chanting and meditation reduce the activity of frontal lobe activity, which heightens Temporal Lobe activity. Further research in this area has uncovered that electrical stimulation of areas in the Temporal Lobe also produce these spiritual experiences. The electrical stimulation caused the control group to report feelings of "well being" euphoria and a feeling of a "presence".

It is a statistical fact that the higher your education, income, and intelligence, the more likely you are not to believe in a god. For every college student that converts to a religious belief system, 17 college students convert to secular or atheist beliefs. "Secular Humanists" have an average intelligence of 25 I.Q. points above their Christian counterparts...

A religion by definition is a superstition. A religion is the belief in a supernatural being or beings. A superstition is the belief in magic or phenomena beyond or outside of nature. A religious belief then is a superstitious belief.

Religions seem to usually require a God, Prophets and Profits. God is usually very powerful. Not too powerful because that messes up convenient concepts like free will. Too much God power makes bad things hard to explain. The optimum amount of power can be vague and variable but usually permits granting of certain perks, like an afterlife. This provides a useful motivational tool. God supposedly talks through Prophets. Prophets are like schizophrenics but since most lived before psychiatrists invented schizophrenia they were believed to be really talking to God. Nowadays they would be sent for treatment.

A common symptom of religion is delusion, often including notions of resurrection. But face it, you are not coming back. Well, no one has yet, with any convincing evidence, and an awful lot of people have died.

Religious people are dangerous. They cannot think for themselves, but instead cling to every word the bible says. Religious fanatics can somehow throw out all scientific evidence and replace it with the word of one book that has no credibility. They want to spread their illness to the rest of the world and contaminate the remaining 10% to 15% of the sane population. Atheists usually know and understand what is written in the bible better than those who claim to follow its word. Religious fanatics want to convert your children and will stop at nothing. They want the right to force you to follow their ideas and beliefs and restrain any conflicting beliefs or activities.

Recognizing religion as a class of mental illness would be a start in curing this disease. We should develop support groups, maybe along the lines of Alcoholics Anonymous “My name’s Mike and I’m a recovering Christian ...”

"Under God" in the Pledge and "In God We Trust"

Imagine yourself as a Christian who is forced to recite a pledge written by a Muslim. No! You do not even need to say anything; all you need to do is stand up and listen to something that is against your faith. This pledge would vary greatly because of one large difference, the pledge would be recited, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, under Allah, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." This pledge states that the full government and school system supports and believes the idea of Allah. It is ludicrous for the school to make you devote yourself to your country and with a deity that you consider false.
Nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of any gods or deities whatsoever. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment states that there will be no ties between State and religion. We have a democracy in our country, not a theocracy, so that concludes that in such a large, national tradition in our country the statement, "That we have any specific theist statement in our Pledge,” should be a lie. Do not let the specific views of one group of people be forced upon the children our town’s school system. It is simply not enough to just tell the students not to say the pledge; refusing to say the pledge can lead to leaving yourself open to being harassed, insulted, assaulted, and made fun of. Edwin “It would be my position that the various elements of the flag pledge--stand, hand on heart, recite, etc--are so inextricably related that performance of one would constitute a tacit adaptation of the balance. I see it as an all or nothing matter,” Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director for American Atheists, says. The only true answer to this problem is to take “Under God" out of our pledge.
The definition of prayer is, “A reverent petition made to a God or another deity," The American Heritage Dictionary. In other words a prayer is a respectful request made to a God. In the Pledge of Alliance it says "One nation, under God." By saying "Under God" the pledge is requesting that a God will bless us in our future, to give us liberty and justice. No matter what belief you have, you should not be made to ask any deity for blessings, i.e. group prayer. Group prayer has been forbidden from schools since, June 17, 1963. “June 17, 1967 the Supreme Court of the United States kicked reverential Bible reading and prayer recitation out of the nation's public schools,” this headline is upholding to the first amendment, while overlooking other unconstitutional problems in our school. We must kick all of the prayers out of school to promote religious freedom.
The words "under God" were added to the Pledge in 1954 when then U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill. When Eisenhower signed the bill he stated, “From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our Nation and our people to the Almighty” The man who issued the bill states that it is a dedication of our nation as a whole to his God, which is ties church and state together which does not abide to the first amendment. After he signed the bill Eisenhower also stated, "In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war." By saying, “we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future,” he says that the whole country is tied to a god. He says this even though the Bill of Rights provides freedom to practice for religion and FROM religion.
The Court’s decision in the case of Lemon verses Kurtzman established the “Lemon Test”:
1. The government's action must have a legitimate secular purpose;
2. The government's action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;
3. The government's action must not result in an "excessive government entanglement" with religion.
If any of these 3 prongs is violated, the government's action is deemed unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court found that the “Under God” part Pledge failed the first two criteria, stating that the added “Under God” bit of the Pledge was clearly religious for a religious purpose and that the Pledge therefore endorses and fosters religious values. The decision immediately ignited a controversy. Congressmen lined up on the steps of the Capitol to recite the Pledge in the name of God. Both the House and the Senate enacted a bill reaffirming “under God” in the Pledge. President George WH Bush signed the law November 13.

The first mention of any deity in the United States Government was put on the two cent coin in 1864. In 1955 Congress enacted a law to put “In God We Trust” on our currency.
Michael Newdow is an attorney and emergency medicine physician that fought against the 9th appellate courts several times, both expelling “Under God” from the pledge and “In God We Trust” from our currency."I want to be treated equally," said Michael Newdow, "They want to have their religious views espoused by the government." Newdow is best recognized as the father who sued his daughter's school district for having “Under God” in the pledge. The court of ruled in Newdow's favor, but when the case went to the Supreme court, the new ruling stated that he lacked standing to sue because Newdow didn’t have full custody of his child.
Years later a court in San Francisco ruled in Newdow’s favor. The school district argued that the pledge is a "patriotic exercise" a tradition.
Judge Dorothy W. Nelson, of the 9th circuit court, asked the school district attorney whether removing the words "under God" would hurt the “patriotic exercise”.
"Not necessarily," the attorney retorted.
Newdow’s fight was filled with passion and hope for equality. Newdow cited Bible quotes and he kept a neutral attitude towards religion, Newdow Insisted that he just wanted equal rights for himself and his children.
Later that year Newdow sued Congress, because of having “In God We Trust” on our currency. Newdow argued that it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The court turned Newdow down and said that just saying and seeing the words did not infringe Newdow’s right as an atheist.
Questioning from the judges seemed to indicate their willingness to get the matters to the U.S. Supreme Court for consideration;
"How is pledging allegiance to a nation under God not a religious act?" Nelson asked.
"It affects Mr. Newdow every moment of his life," Judge Stephen Reinhardt said. "The government has no compelling interest to put a slogan on a dollar bill."