Do you ever think it might be easier to be an athiest?

Question

Sometimes I think that it would really be easier to go on the assumption that I go to nothingness at death. Responsibility only to man not God.

Answer 1

It isn't easier, because you have to deal with reality and not fantasy. When a loved one dies, you don't have the luxury of imagining that person floating up to heaven or lying in the grave for you to visit and talk with, or hovering around as a spirit, watching you. There are no superstitions, so you have to move through the stages of the grief process. It isn't easier, but it is psychologically healthier not to get stuck at denial. It makes death a little difficult to deal with in that there is that finality about it, not so much your own, but that of others.

Responsibility is not only to other human beings, it is also to yourself. You have no god to thank when things go right, nor to blame when things go wrong, responsibility rests squarely on you and you don't get to pawn it off on anyone else. You have to think about how your actions affect everyone around you, and when you screw up you answer to yourself and those you wrong, face to face. No confessions to any preachers.

Finally, there is the educational aspect of it. I know a lot of fellow atheists, all with extensive reading lists, the studying and learning never ends. If you don't have a god to plug into every gap in your understanding, you have to go and find the answers in the real world, and that can be quite an undertaking.

It isn't easier, it takes courage, and it's challenging, but it's also very rewarding.

Answer 2

Easier in some ways and more diffficult in others.

It is easier in the sense that things about the world tend to make more sense. The pat answer of "God did it" might seem easier at first glance, but it really shallow and unfulfilling in the long run. Getting rid of the easy answers does open up the harder ones to scrutiny, but it becomes more acceptable to admit that there are things we don't know. For example, I don't know what, if anything, came before the Big Bang. This doesn't trouble me. Without evidence, I shouldn't claim to know something.

Morality is made more difficult because you actually have to think about it instead of just accepting it spoon-fed from a pastor. Again, the answer of "God said so" might seem sufficient at first glance, but it really doesn't address the underlying "why" of morality. Sure, it is accepted by most of the world, and even Christians, that murder is generally wrong. However, religion really doesn't address why it is wrong, other than the default, "Because God said so". That makes religious people morally lazy. Atheists don't have that default, so we can't fall back on that crutch.

Responsibility to God is easy. Since there are no gods around holding people responsible for anything, they are free to interpret what they think God likes or dislikes. For example, the Bible has been used to both support slavery and oppose it, depending on how you cherry pick it. However, responsibility to man is much more difficult. Unless you're a hermit, you have to deal with people every day.

That's the true purpose of morality anyway. Morality allows people to deal with other people. A hermit doesn't really need a morality. There's nobody he's going to affect but himself.

Answer 3

I'm not supposed to be giving serious answers today, but I'm drawn to your question. You' re wondering about what is the easiest thing to believe. I think that many people only believe in their religions so that they won't fear death. That is denial. I would think that denial of a difficult truth is the easiest thing to do, but the denial leads to a complicated series of stories which one must believe, so the easiness leads to difficulty. To have an atheist belief-system, a person is not required to believe any religious "truth", but one is required to face the fact that he or she will die and not live forever. That may be easier or harder. It's a compromise situation.
Do we want belief to be easy? Is simplicity what we are actually looking for when we decide what to believe? Or is it a comforting belief that we seek, no matter how difficult to maintain? There is obviously no single answer to these matters which would suit the needs of every different person.
These are the questions that you, yourself will answer for yourself when you decide what you will believe. I can show you the issues, but I can't make your decision for you.
Neither can anyone else, even though some might try.
And there is one more thing to consider: how simple (or complicated) is life? Or truth? Or your emotions?
What is easiest is not always what is best. What WORKS is what is best.
If you should choose to disbelieve in an afterlife (which is the impression I get from the tone of your question) then an important decision is this one: when YOU cease to exist, does the world also cease to exist? If YOU die, does all of life die with you? Does LOVE die?
These aren't easy questions, but they're REAL questions with real importance regarding the way you live your life.
I don't believe in the idea that my soul will live forever, but I hope that when I die, the people that I leave behind in the world will continue living without me. So I have a hope that something of my love will survive the death of my physical body. My consciousness will be gone, but my hopes for my loved ones will hopefully thrive.
That is a difficult thing to describe, but it's actually very down to earth. I know I'll die, but I hope my loved ones survive and that life continues to get passed from one generation to the next.
If that's what you mean by "responsibility only to man", then I think you mean it as a good thing and as something very close to what others have meant when they've referred to responsibility to God. I think that often "God" is a way to symbolize many of the things that are just too difficult to describe otherwise, but that would be the wise approach to thinking about God. In the foolish approach, there are still many foolish ideas that a person can have about God.
I hope that you will use your mind and your heart to carefully consider your beliefs, rather than just choosing what is easiest.

Answer 4

How would that be easier?

It's definitely easier to just go along with the crowd and keep your religious beliefs (Christianity, Islam, whatever is the standard religion in your area). Standing up to the crowd is always more difficult.

On top of that, if you don't believe in a God you have to be responsible for your own behavior. Religious belief tends to act as an excuse for bad behavior (as must be obvious if you just look around here on R&S a little) - atheists don't make those kinds of excuses. We believe that we're responsible for acting morally, as well as for knowing what's really going on.

Answer 5

It's harder. No celebrating pagan holidays that have been Christianized, no Boy or Girl scouts, no instant social life via a church, and the annoyance of guys like Jerry Falwell saying atheists will never be elected to public office, and will never be elected president. Plus a generalized persecution from the religious, pious people of faith who believe they are superior to atheists.
It's much easier for an atheist to die. Atheists become one with nature, while religious people are subjected to a test, and, if they fail, they get eternal damnation. And it's a pass, fail test, no points for almost good.:)

Answer 6

Actually, Gaila, responsibility to man, and yourself, is a larger burden. (I've been both a God-believer and an atheist.)

It takes a conscious decision to be good, just for the sake of being good, rather than in the service of a scary god. You have more of a responsibility to make this life count, when there's nothing next.

=0)

Answer 7

particular, I certainly have. right this is despite the fact so you might realize: final year the Pew communicate board on faith and Public existence accomplished a survey on non secular understanding. between Jews, Mormons, Catholics Protestants etc. the employer which verified the final non secular understanding become as quickly as - you guessed it - atheists. certainly i ought to motivate each individual to verify the Bible. I evaluate this is significant for understanding many literary references. additionally, interpreting the Bible will effect in extra atheists. Many atheists are only people who've heard the multiple claims that a particular magic booklet - whether or no longer this is the Koran, Bhagavad Gita or the Bible - is so profound that it ought to have been divinely authored. examine those books and mentioned the claims to be ridiculous.

Answer 8

I am an atheist and I think that it's indeed rather easy to be one if you have a general positive perspective of life. If you are prone to depressions, fear of the future, or if you need a final answer on every of your questions (the answer might be true or false, provided that it's final), you might have it easier if you follow a religion. Atheism means doubt and insecurity, you have to cope with it.

Answer 9

When I read your question I thought about a line from the last Harry Potter movie in which Dumbledor says to Harry, "people will now have to make a decision between what is right and what is easy." The same goes here.

Answer 10

I'm an atheist, and i believe that the responsibility to mankind and to the All is not to be taken lightly. also, i believe in reincarnation, so there is quite a bit after death (think mini-hell for everyone, because wouldn't the worst thing be to have to face and take responsibility for every wrong you had ever committed during your spiritual life, and to face where you had utterly & abyssmally failed in learning and growing?)

no, per lifetime, i think following dogma during one's lifetime is easier than forging one's own path. but after death, no one has it easy.