Isn't it better to be atheists?

[Phantasman]

Hmm, I think you've failed to sell it to me:

Better to be atheist because it's 'on the rise'?
Better to be atheist than explore what religions have to offer?
Changing religion vilifies people's spirituality?

Religion is the key word. I followed one for 20 years. I follow none today. Yet I would interact with all, religious or not. I only share my own wisdom that I have gained over 68 years. I don't lead anyone, I don't follow anyone. The job of the elder, is to not teach, but to help others find their way in spiritual gnosis. (knowledge). The Ark, parting of seas, wooden cross, etc. are nothing to me. They are physical. But religions (orthodoxy) are stuck in the world, without regard to spiritual truth. They eat wafers saying it's Jesus flesh. It's trying to understand the spiritual (Aeon/realm) through physical. Religions have become the opposite of what Christ taught. They benefit worldly. Land, buildings, pretty clothing, gold, etc. Spirituality has nothing to do with any of it.

Christ said to remove yourself from the physical to pray (to your spiritual Father) yet religions say "come to our temple to pray to God and be blessed". And the priests and leaders get a great return on their investments.

I'd rather BE an atheist than to follow the spiritually blind.

You are either led by the Spirit who reveals when you seek the truth, or you follow others who say "my way is the right way". And there are plenty to choose from, as they disagree with each other.

 

[Quintessence]

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

Others have already pointed out that the contrary of atheism is theism, not religion, so I won't remark much more about that. I'm not quite clear on a couple of the thoughts you have in this paragraph here, so I'd like to ask for some clarification.

You mention that a downside of exploring religions randomly is because religions won't give someone the answers they seek. What do you believe the purpose of exploring or practicing religions is? In what way would this process be random rather than intentional?

You also bring up this idea of vilifying spirituality. What is spirituality? How is it vilified by exploring multiple religions?

 

[wandering peacefully]

I think that the concept of religion has evolved a lot between the 20th and the 21st century, also thanks to Ecumenism and to Interfaith Discussion (and to RF..lol)
But one wonders: why is atheism on the rise, especially in Europe? I think it's because people have realized that religions are nothing but a "cultural product".
I am also convinced that the term religion comes from Latin res legere...that is, to cultivate a sort of ritualism. The real religion is the personal one, the one you create by yourself by understanding the world. And I think that being atheists help you understand your path,

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

One thing I have always been curious about is when people say religion is the only way to truth and we are better off with it. Over 91 percent of humanitt identify with a higher power of some sort.

But then I look around at our world and have to ask if 3,0000 years of religious thinking has gotten us to where we are now, isn't it time to try something else?

9 percent of us could not possibly be responsible for the mess we are all in now.

 

[George-ananda]

I think that the concept of religion has evolved a lot between the 20th and the 21st century, also thanks to Ecumenism and to Interfaith Discussion (and to RF..lol)
But one wonders: why is atheism on the rise, especially in Europe? I think it's because people have realized that religions are nothing but a "cultural product".
I am also convinced that the term religion comes from Latin res legere...that is, to cultivate a sort of ritualism. The real religion is the personal one, the one you create by yourself by understanding the world. And I think that being atheists help you understand your path,

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

I think what we are seeing is the tricky definition of the word 'religion' not being clear.

Are you defining religion as a formal system of beliefs with denominations, etc.? Or are you defining it more as 'spiritual beliefs'?

I see the 'spiritual but not religious' thinking on the rise as with the tremendous increase in education and exposure in the last few decades, people are more capable of thinking for themselves.

My 'spiritual' study has given me the answers I seek. For me it would certainly not be better to be atheist.

 

[Frater Sisyphus]

Aside from what people think, there are simply no gods otherwise. None.

Atheism is a perfectly natural disposition and definitely better in terms of keeping grounded in reality.

It doesn't stop atheists from having massive reality tunnels though

 

[Frater Sisyphus]

Being an atheist is no better than being a theist, both are potentially dangerous (when one has a hard belief in either side) stakes to have in a lottery outside of our awareness.

 

[Scott C.]

I think that the concept of religion has evolved a lot between the 20th and the 21st century, also thanks to Ecumenism and to Interfaith Discussion (and to RF..lol)
But one wonders: why is atheism on the rise, especially in Europe? I think it's because people have realized that religions are nothing but a "cultural product".
I am also convinced that the term religion comes from Latin res legere...that is, to cultivate a sort of ritualism. The real religion is the personal one, the one you create by yourself by understanding the world. And I think that being atheists help you understand your path,

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

If there were no God, it would be best to be an atheist.

 

[Twilight Hue]

It doesn't stop atheists from having massive reality tunnels though

I dunno.

Thoughts, fantasies, and wishful thinking are nice, but such things do no good if you can't substantiate things in a deterministic way.

 

[PureX]

I think that the concept of religion has evolved a lot between the 20th and the 21st century, also thanks to Ecumenism and to Interfaith Discussion (and to RF..lol)
But one wonders: why is atheism on the rise, especially in Europe? I think it's because people have realized that religions are nothing but a "cultural product".
I am also convinced that the term religion comes from Latin res legere...that is, to cultivate a sort of ritualism. The real religion is the personal one, the one you create by yourself by understanding the world. And I think that being atheists help you understand your path,

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

I think a lot of people have no real idea what religion is, or what it's for, because their lives are so full of useless and pointless titillation and material junk that they can't see the real value of anything, anymore.

 

[syo]

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek.

I disagree. Religion gives answers, atheism has no answers.

 

[Twilight Hue]

How do you know there are no other gods?

Because if there were, conversations/debate about whether God(s) existing or not wouldn't even be around. ;0)

 

[LuisDantas]

I think that the concept of religion has evolved a lot between the 20th and the 21st century, also thanks to Ecumenism and to Interfaith Discussion (and to RF..lol)
But one wonders: why is atheism on the rise, especially in Europe? I think it's because people have realized that religions are nothing but a "cultural product".

I disagree. Being a cultural product is hardly a reason for anything to lose popularity.

Atheism just plain makes sense. So too should religion, which has no a priori need to be theistic. And, far as I can tell, it is actually hurt by the insistence on making it theistic by principle.

I am also convinced that the term religion comes from Latin res legere...that is, to cultivate a sort of ritualism. The real religion is the personal one, the one you create by yourself by understanding the world. And I think that being atheists help you understand your path,

That is true for those of us inclined to be atheists. Not for all of us.

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

I think you are taking theism in religion and "fidelity" to creeds a bit more seriously than is warranted, personally.

 

[sealchan]

I think that the concept of religion has evolved a lot between the 20th and the 21st century, also thanks to Ecumenism and to Interfaith Discussion (and to RF..lol)
But one wonders: why is atheism on the rise, especially in Europe? I think it's because people have realized that religions are nothing but a "cultural product".
I am also convinced that the term religion comes from Latin res legere...that is, to cultivate a sort of ritualism. The real religion is the personal one, the one you create by yourself by understanding the world. And I think that being atheists help you understand your path,

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

The problem, in my view, is not that faith isn't a valuable asset in the arsenal of human adaptivity and psychological health, but that Christianity so often fails to have grown up to the moral and intellectual maturity of educated people today.

We all need story and ritual to help us find the meaning in our life. These are tools for connecting our subjective experience of the world with its objective character. Churches, so often, have read the story literally and not, as another poster here has said, as a means toward creating a space in which "true" knowledge can be born and grown. I would say that that true knowledge is of the individual's value and place in a world out of which he/she has arisen and back into which he/she will be returned.

Jesus fought hard to wake up his fellow Jews with teachings and stories which re-awoke their moral turpitude. He didn't really depart from the beliefs of the Jews of his time, only the bureaucratic systematization of those beliefs. I takes but a moment to open your heart and feel again the reason why we have rules and practices and to be open to changing those with the time.

So as the modern child grows up in a world more diverse and more open than the narrow-minded literalists who cling to rules and their consequences would like to consider, it is no wonder that people look in askance at those who should know better.

Today we can contemplate the mystery of our existence better by experiencing science fiction stories than be reading the long ago written stories of the Bible...they take the latest that science has to offer, carve out a space where the potential of humanity has yet to explore, and lead us through some of those possibilities that we need to know about so that we can look into the future and back at the past with a sense that we can come through and make the world and ourselves better than we were before.

As a Christian I find this to be an utter shame but I look to some of our science fiction franchises for glimpses into the mystery of life and our place in it not just for my personal experience of spiritual truth but as examples that today's inspired authors should use to "continue the story" of the relationship between God and His people.

 

[Epic Beard Man]

Because if there were, conversations/debate about whether God(s) existing or not wouldn't even be around. ;0)

Not necessarily true.....

 

[Twilight Hue]

Not necessarily true.....

How so?

 

[joe1776]

I disagree. Religion gives answers, atheism has no answers.

Atheists, though, have consciences which will answer the important questions just as religion's faithful do. And, when conscience-led moral advances like the equal treatment of women change their attitudes, atheists can change. They don't have to wait for their scripture-reading clergy to catch up to make moral progress.

 

[LuisDantas]

Atheists, though, have consciences which will answer the important questions just as religion's faithful do. And, when conscience-led moral advances like the equal treatment of women change their attitudes, atheists can change. They don't have to wait for their religion to catch up to make moral progress.

Indeed. Theism-based morality is very often its own main hindrance.

 

[Epic Beard Man]

How so?

Because people can see the same thing at the same moment and still disagree.

For example and I love this:

"And even if We had sent down to them the angels [with the message] and the dead spoke to them [of it] and We gathered together every [created] thing in front of them, they would not believe unless Allah should will. But most of them, [of that], are ignorant."

Surah 6:111

II like using that, because it denotes that even if God showed the existence of incorporeal entities people would still disbelieve. There will always be a "scientific reason" why we see incorporeal entities. Mass delusion, lack of sleep, substance usage etc. People will not believe unless God forced you to believe.

 

[Kenny]

So I think it's better to be atheists...rather than exploring religions randomly...because they won't give you the answers you seek. Also...I think that changing religion every five seconds vilifies people's spirituality.

Certainly, I am happy that you are happy.

I would have to admit that when atheism was at 1%, it isn't hard for it to go on the rise but I wonder if what you are saying is true.?

If you say "they won't give you the answers you seek" and yet we still have atheists turning to theism - it seems to be a counter point,

Changing religion doesn't seem to match either.

 

[sealchan]

Because people can see the same thing at the same moment and still disagree.

For example and I love this:

"And even if We had sent down to them the angels [with the message] and the dead spoke to them [of it] and We gathered together every [created] thing in front of them, they would not believe unless Allah should will. But most of them, [of that], are ignorant."

Surah 6:111

II like using that, because it denotes that even if God showed the existence of incorporeal entities people would still disbelieve. There will always be a "scientific reason" why we see incorporeal entities. Mass delusion, lack of sleep, substance usage etc. People will not believe unless God forced you to believe.

Or the Rashomon Effect...my favorite example...