If We All Became Atheists?

[TagliatelliMonster]

I disagree. Atheism is an opinion, a philosophical position.

Not really.
It's mere lack of belief in theistic gods.

Nobody is born with such.

Everybody is. You don't have beliefs in things you have never even heard about.

Nobody is born holding a belief that Santa does not exist, by the same token.

False analogy.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

What would be the pros and cons?

So the Ahmadi's concept of peace is to convert everyone to Islam and unite the Islamic world.
I was wondering if this would work for atheism?
Certainly not any forced conversion. Just a movement to evolve beyond religion.
Understanding atheism doesn't deny God. Atheism only recognizes man's ignorance about God.
What atheism does deny is all messengers of God. I suppose a few people might be reluctant to let go of their favored messengers.

IMO, there'd be nothing lost which couldn't be accomplished by other means.

Well, for starters there'd be no cult of mutilating the genitals of baby boys (or girls, for that matter). We'd never have another Inquisition, and nobody would feel the need to torch synagogues -- there wouldn't be any.

However, I think you are wrong about atheism. Atheism may not outright deny gods (though some atheists certainly do), but considers the possibility either so unlikely, or that we can never know anything at all about gods so he might as well not exist, that we can therefore get along without worrying about them at all. This would focus all of us on something we should have known all along (something that any reasonable god would have made sure we knew) -- that we must rely upon ourselves and each other for sake of our world and our species, rather than wasting time hoping somebody or something will show up to save us from our own misuse of the only home we have.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Dis-belief is a very painful thing. Pray that they are wrong.

I've been a dis-believer for 76 years -- hasn't hurt a bit.

 

[gotti]

Everyone is born atheist. Some are taught to believe.

No one is born theistic or atheistic.

Conceptualizing any deity(s) in the first place is a product of human sociological and philosophical evolution. For better or worse - it's just a crapshoot attempt at comprehending what is incomprehensible.

I disagree. Atheism is an opinion, a philosophical position. Nobody is born with such. Nobody is born holding a belief that Santa does not exist, by the same token.

This.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

If all would become atheists, I believe humans would eventually regress to animal level. This doesn't mean atheists are all animal level, only that it would lead to that, because atheism doesn't raise spirit to achieve greater things than what can be seen. Some would obviously think it is good, I would not like that.

That doesn't follow at all. Hillary didn't climb Everest because he was looking for God, nor were Byrd and Amundsen seeking spirituality when they reached the north and south poles. Jenner and Salk weren't looking for religion -- they were looking for ways to prevent people from becoming sick and/or dying of smallpox and polio. Einstein and Hawking weren't seeking God either -- they were trying to understand our universe without reference to fables about creation.

 

[Secret Chief]

If all would become atheists, I believe humans would eventually regress to animal level. This doesn't mean atheists are all animal level, only that it would lead to that, because atheism doesn't raise spirit to achieve greater things than what can be seen. Some would obviously think it is good, I would not like that.

Humans are animals.

 

[Secret Chief]

Not really.
It's mere lack of belief in theistic gods.

A lack of belief is an opinion. Babies have no opinions on anything; gods, Santa, Donald Trump....It's all just subjective opinion after cognitive evaluation. A newborn baby generally doesn't engage in such. An atheist is an athiest because they have considered the issue and come to a conclusion.

 

[Secret Chief]

Nonsense -- no child is born thinking of anything like a Santa Claus, and doesn't even consider such a notion until told there is one -- and the same with gods.

Atheism is a philosophical position only in the category of philosophy of religion -- and if there were no religion, there would be no philosophy of it.

Are we not in agreement? Babies have no thoughts on most things - including gods and Santas. Likewise they have not considered any issues of any philosophy. There is a "philosophy of religion" because humans (adults) endeavour to make sense of life, the universe and everything. One can't meaningfully muse upon the non-existence of such philosophising.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Are we not in agreement? Babies have no thoughts on most things - including gods and Santas. Likewise they have not considered any issues of any philosophy. There is a "philosophy of religion" because humans (adults) endeavour to make sense of life, the universe and everything. One can't meaningfully muse upon the non-existence of such philosophising.

Perhaps your way of phrasing led me astray. Babies are not born with "beliefs" (negative or positive) about anything at all. So when you said "Nobody is born holding a belief that Santa does not exist," you were telling only part of the story. Nobody is born with any notion of Santa, or his existence or non-existence at all. All of these things are taught. And in the case of Santa, his existence is generally taught, and then later untaught.

 

[Nakosis]

Everyone is born atheist. Some are taught to believe.

Well it'd be easy I suppose if we could just halt religious indoctrination.
China/Russia tried state atheism, didn't work well because people like to hold on to and teach their children their religious beliefs.
You could promote atheism but it would just be another sound bite in the bandwidth of ideology.

How could you go about atheism to make it appealing to the masses?

 

[Twilight Hue]

I disagree. Atheism is an opinion, a philosophical position. Nobody is born with such. Nobody is born holding a belief that Santa does not exist, by the same token.

True from the philosophical context by which it is actually a response to theism, but it is a fact that when a person is born , Gods dont even cross one's mind because the mind is new , meaning that theism is actually an introduced concept later on and having no Gods at the start of life is very natural and default making a person simply an atheist.

 

[RestlessSoul]

A lack of belief is an opinion. Babies have no opinions on anything; gods, Santa, Donald Trump....It's all just subjective opinion after cognitive evaluation. A newborn baby generally doesn't engage in such. An atheist is an athiest because they have considered the issue and come to a conclusion.

Newborn babies are closer to God than adults can ever hope to be, imo. My granddaughter, being a little Angel, certainly is. It’s only as we become older that we become cynical, and blind to the miraculous

 

[bobhikes]

What would be the pros and cons?

So the Ahmadi's concept of peace is to convert everyone to Islam and unite the Islamic world.
I was wondering if this would work for atheism?
Certainly not any forced conversion. Just a movement to evolve beyond religion.
Understanding atheism doesn't deny God. Atheism only recognizes man's ignorance about God.
What atheism does deny is all messengers of God. I suppose a few people might be reluctant to let go of their favored messengers.

IMO, there'd be nothing lost which couldn't be accomplished by other means.

Atheism is concerned only with the belief in God so other than lack of belief in God nothing would change.

 

[Secret Chief]

Perhaps your way of phrasing led me astray. Babies are not born with "beliefs" (negative or positive) about anything at all. So when you said "Nobody is born holding a belief that Santa does not exist," you were telling only part of the story. Nobody is born with any notion of Santa, or his existence or non-existence at all. All of these things are taught. And in the case of Santa, his existence is generally taught, and then later untaught.

There, I knew we agreed! Words eh? Little buggers.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

No one is born theistic or atheistic.

Conceptualizing any deity(s) in the first place is a product of human sociological and philosophical evolution.

If atheism were about rejection of gods, wouldn't we need an atheist to conceptualize all gods, not just "any" deities?

For better or worse - it's just a crapshoot attempt at comprehending what is incomprehensible.

How is that a "crap shoot"? People don't comprehend the incomprehensible.

 

[Secret Chief]

True from the philosophical context by which it is actually a response to theism, but it is a fact that when a person is born , Gods dont even cross one's mind because the mind is new , meaning that theism is actually an introduced concept later on and having no Gods at the start of life is very natural and default making a person simply an atheist.

I would agree that theism is a concept introduced later on. Likewise, atheism.

 

[gotti]

If atheism were about rejection of gods, wouldn't we need an atheist to conceptualize all gods, not just "any" deities?

No.

How is that a "crap shoot"? People don't comprehend the incomprehensible.

That's why I said "attempt".

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

No.

Why not?

You and I are both as unaware as a baby of most of the gods humanity has believed in. If lack of awareness would stop babies from being atheists, why wouldn't it stop us?

 

[RestlessSoul]

Well it'd be easy I suppose if we could just halt religious indoctrination.
China/Russia tried state atheism, didn't work well because people like to hold on to and teach their children their religious beliefs.
You could promote atheism but it would just be another sound bite in the bandwidth of ideology.

How could you go about atheism to make it appealing to the masses?

If atheism were appealing to the masses, you wouldn’t have to promote it. And if atheism is reasonable, rational and beneficial, and man has no need for God or religion, than God and religion will finally meet the fate Nietzsche declared had already come to pass. Though as things currently stand, Nietzsche is definitely dead while faith in God is not, so don’t hold your breath.

 

[RestlessSoul]

We can look at countries that have become majority atheist in the recent past, like Norway, Britain or the Czech Republic, and we can look at countries that have stayed religious or even became more religious, like Indonesia, Somali or Afghanistan.

One quality which makes Scandinavian and European societies so appealing is imo, the plurality of belief. If they were uniformly atheist, wouldn’t they be as drearily oppressive as any theocracy? As was the case, for example, in the former Soviet Union?