Why are Atheist....Atheist?

Question

I came across this, any thoughts?


"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption ... For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneous liberation from a certain political and economic system, and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom."
(REPORT, June 1966. "Confession of Professed Atheist," A. Huxley

Answer 1

The world has more meaning now that I'm an atheist. Of course, now, I realize that life's meaning is only what I give to it. The meaning of life is a personal thing, not some cosmic constant.

Atheism does offer a type of liberation, but it is a liberation from various superstitions that have been foisted on us for generations. I have no objection to morality. I am, myself, a very moral person. I just object to blindly following lists of rules that some zealot wrote millenia ago, instead of actually thinking about why something might be right or wrong.

Of course, each atheist only has in common the lack of belief in any gods. Past that, we differ on other things, such as the reason for our atheism.

Answer 2

In 1966 a conservative editor printed a paragraph from Aldous Huxley on "the philosophy of meaninglessness" and "sexual mores," and added a title above the paragraph that read, "Confessions of a Professed Atheist." But what the editor failed to reveal to his readers was that Aldous was not an "atheist" when he wrote that paragraph, but was arguing against "atheism." The paragraph itself was taken from Aldous Huxley's book, Ends and Means, written in 1937 (chapter 14, the chapter on "Beliefs"), and he was speaking about the rise of the "philosophy of meaninglessness" and materialism among the "masses" after the First World War, the generation of the 1920s. That generation had just seen solders from overtly Christian nations of Europe using the latest deadly inventions like the machine gun and poison gas to kill each other's Christian soldiers, then all sides stopped fighting on Christmas Eve, then went back to massacring each other the next day.

Answer 3

"My parents took a decision and the cooccurring happenings supported my birth and i am here in this world" this should be the most simple explanation if i avoid any personal assumptions. Life if literally be taken as per the above given quotations is meaningless which we at times even if is theoretically true reject it for some personal reasons. I and many of those agree with the above theoretical meaninglessness of this life but would prefer considering the life to be a meaningful structure bringing in God and other connected elements. It seemingly brings in joy for many and for some like those you have quoted above things are opposite. Having been a part of those sayings sometime back, i believe the strength of physicality and materialism as depicted in the above quote either doesn't exist or is weak enough that it topples before one's life line. This weakness appeals one's self and i am sure most even compromise on things at a point of time, if not all then a part of it. Probably, this is because, man somewhere in the corner of his heart dominantly harbors a feeling that he is the only meaningful element in this meaningless universe. How much he expresses about it directly is one issue but there seemingly is an effect in his attitude that pushes him to bring about the very cause said above.

Answer 4

I am not sure about what Aldous Huxley is saying about meaning. I enjoyed reading his book "The Doors of Perception". He was an early abuser of Mescaline, and wrote the book in 1954 telling about his *Enlightenment*.

I read another book he wrote that was about how to repair your eyesight by something called the Bates Method. It was pretty quack sounding.
Other books of his make me think he was always seeking some kind of higher power or deeper spiritual meaning.

I don't find the world meaningless at all, nor am I trying to make it meaningless. I simply don't find any reason to believe that any Gods exist in reality. I feel that you have to accept that the world is just what it is at some point or you could drive yourself insane looking for deeper meanings.
Remember to do your reality checks diligently and frequently.

OK, I have done my checking and what you have presented is another dishonest quote from a dishonest source.
Here is a link to an article about it.
http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/nogod/ah_quote.htm

Note that your quote source isn't even accurate and only will return the doctored version of the quote.

Answer 5

Taking Aldous Huxley out of context will ALWAYS be misleading. He was deeply rooted in the philosophical and cultural trends of a particular time and place. In this case, 'meaninglessness' and 'morality' are specifically in reaction to the predominant 1950's era Christian practices and definitions of these terms. The 'philosophy of meaningless' he refers to was a way of stepping outside the suffocating conformity of the time.

Read Huxley by all means. But read all of Huxley.

Answer 6

None of Huxley's lines ring a bell at all.

I was born an atheist, and had no pressure to be otherwise. I was encouraged into a deep appreciation of science.

To me, theism is much more than unconvincing - it's utterly, plainly, laughably absurd. Other atheists I've spoken to feel the same. There's simply no contest - as between the Santa Hypothesis v. Your parents did it.

CD

Answer 7

I simply find the bible ludicrous, and even though there are a few bits of wisdom here and there in it, it's obviously written by a primitive society. As far as sexual freedom goes, I know Christians have just as much sexual freedom as anybody else. They just don't admit it. I'm sick of all the self righteous church goers thinking they hold the corner on morality.

Answer 8

Personally I believe in science. Religion contrdicts the observations and experiences I have found in life. I dont believe a man lived in a whale, I dont believe the first woman was made from a mans rib and I dont believe that someone makes a judgement about us when we die. Thats why Im an athiest.

Science doesnt know everything, but that doesnt mean science knows nothing. Science knows enough for me to speak to someone on the other side of the planet in real time, what does religion know, but superstition and division?

Answer 9

A.Huxley is not an atheist "guru" not an atheist "prophet". In atheism we don't follow another guys standards...we have our own reasons why we became an atheist, we have our own moral perspective. Huxley doesn't speak to all atheists around the world.

Answer 10

Two reasons for me:

(1) I simply couldn't force myself to believe what I'd been raised to believe anymore.

(2) Self-righteous Christians who were more interested in judging people than in acting Christ-like.

Huxley doesn't speak for all nonbelievers. Christians continually fail to understand that nonbeleivers are not monolithically minded.

For me, it was religion that was meaningless. Life makes a lot more sense to me now that I don't live in fear of a bogeyman looking over my shoulder.

I'm pro-life. I'm faithful to my wife. I've never thrown a punch. I've never used drugs. I give to charity. And I do it all without religion.

Imagine that.