Many religious people ask how Atheists can be happy without God?

Question

. For me and for many Atheists I know, the realization of our Atheism has been extremely freeing and has opened us to our own happiness.
Atheism helps us to see reality as it actually is, without the mental filters of superstition preventing us from directly experiencing it.
Atheism opens us to experience our selves, without the debasing idea that we are innately sinful.
Atheism allows us to experience true interpersonal love, without any imaginary supernatural intervention.
Atheism gives us the freedom to think for ourselves, to construct our own meanings. We each can choose what we think has value.
Atheism shows us that we can gain meaning by seeking to make our world a better place, for ourselves and our posterity.
Atheism teaches us to take responsibility for our behaviors in the here and now, not in an imaginary afterlife.
Atheism lets us see that we have to make choices about our future. No big daddy god is going to protect us from bad decisions.
Atheism teaches us to treasure this moment, this life, and this world — because we realize that it’s all we have.
Atheism also can work well for free societies. Free nations with high levels of Atheism — such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Japan — are among the healthiest, wealthiest, most educated, and most free societies on Earth.

Answer 1

Thanks for posting that, food for thought!

"No big daddy god is going to protect us from bad decisions." is a great thought. More people should take responsibility instead of falling over the same problems all the time. But - I grew up with a Christian religion & I'm not sure how that was a nanny-type protection? More of a bogey-man threat, and certainly no help in real life. More like a bitter old granny saying "You're on your own if you don't obey Me. I'm so perfect that any problems are of your own making".

Quentin Crisp once wrote something on the lines of
"My father threatened me with the world & my mother sheltered me from it. Better if they had said; when you go out in the world, you'll meet a lot of others like you & I can only hope you get along with each other".

I would differ with Japan as an example - and Australia and Sweden can & do subscribe to racism to my knowledge - it's not the humanist dream you aspire to - yet.

Hmm, I notice that those free societies also have high levels of really good chocolate!

Answer 2

If Atheism works for you that's great! But for me, the only thing that has told me I have a purpose and that i'm not a mistake. is Christianity. No matter what I go through, I always rely on God.

So if Atheism is the thing for you, that's all that matters. Good Luck!

Answer 3

i'm unlikely to declare u r no longer chuffed. if u r chuffed then thats super. to me i ask your self how i might have the skill to stay existence thinking that it rather is all there is. this place earth, would be exceedingly darn depressing. we've people who pass lacking on no account to be got here across, organic mess ups that kill a crapload of folk, wars after wars after wars, crimes, and many disapointments. i think that justice would be served, whether in existence or loss of life. so i in basic terms ask your self how somebody would be an athiest stay via those issues and nevertheless be chuffed. i'm happy u r chuffed. in keeping with snugglebunny, no person's existence runs that completely. whether u r a believer or no longer.

Answer 4

Well, I'm glad you feel like that.

Are you trying to sell atheism to me? Well I know you're not, just trying to prove your point.

Some Christians go through life with horse blinders on, experiencing not what God wants us to experience, but what others say they should.

I say that because of God and Christianity, I've been able to travel to three different continents.
Because of God and Christianity, I feel peace in my life, and a purpose.

I don't know how atheism works for others, but for me God works and Christianity works.

Answer 5

If "Atheism gives us the freedom to think for ourselves, to construct our own meanings. We each can choose what we think has value. " Then if an atheist was to shoot your family, rape your sister and daughter plus killing your parents, and say, hey, I was just using my atheistic freedom to think for myself, to construct my own meanings, and since we atheist can choose what we think has value, then my fellow brother thats my value.

There will be no laws. If you open your eyes and see, that laws in every country were created from a source, and that source originated from one form of religion or another.

So can atheist be really happy without god?
No god, no rules; no rules, no law; when there is no law everybody can do anything to anybody because he/she is just following their own personal created values.

Answer 6

Dearest writer,
I wanted to be the first one to answer your question, which was really an essay for me to believe what you believe in.
Every person, since the fall of Adam, is born with a God-hole in their heart. You can try to fill it with whatever you want, but it doesn't cut it when you close your eyes at night. That empty cup is filled with the worldly power of evil, or Christ's love.
Please read First John and ask God to speak to your spirit. Your life can be as a new creation...with peace and joy and realizing that God and Christ say that "I shall never leave you."
But God has given us a choice to love Him or to turn away from Him and listen to the other voice, the world power of Satan.
He can fill your cup too, but it won't be the results that you want.
My cup was empty for 22 years until I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Saviour, and He filled it and changed my desires and took away that hole in my heart, that emptiness and lonliness. He can do that for you too, because He loves you, as I do with a pastoral love.
God Bless you.

Answer 7

atheism simply means the belief that there is no God or the denial of the existence of a God. atheist simply based their hapiness on other things since they cannot base their hapiness on something that does not exist.

Answer 8

Crystal clear sudden liberating freedom is exactly what I experienced. Thank you for putting a wonderful experience in actual words.

Answer 9

And you say people try to shove Christianity down YOUR throat.

Answer 10

Very well written. That is a wonderful desription of how we live and love and grow without the need of a god.