What are atheists' objections, if any, to pagan religions and its followers? (Anyone can reply)

[Alien826]

To me, the highest good is living in accordance with logic, so the followers of the Pink Cloud religion would automatically be violating that to some degree.

This isn't necessarily incompatible with the scenario. They may be otherwise logical aside from that single belief, possibly even more logical than I am.

In that case, I would try to point out that "invisible" and "pink" is a logical contradiction out of respect for their intellect and their obvious desire to be logical. It's what I would want someone to do for me if I was espousing a belief in something literally impossible. Subjecting myself to correction was my motivation for joining RF to begin with. If they have the same ideal of goodness, particularly if they are better at being good than I am, then they would welcome the disagreement in good faith.

Whether I can persuade them or not, I imagine I could learn many things from such a community. I don't think that would extend to the point that I would want to join a religion whose core tenets I disagree with, though that depends on what the requirements for joining the religion are and what I might stand to gain from it that I couldn't gain from merely conversing with its followers.

OK, thanks. The question behind this was, assuming no harm is done, do you value factual correctness higher than happiness? There's no correct answer of course other than correctly reporting one's own feelings. Your answer is plain. You would rather be correct, even if that caused you unhappiness. I'm a little disappointed that you wouldn't just leave them in peace though, as the implication was intended to be that challenging the logic of their belief might cause some of them to abandon it, and thus be less happy.

I promised my own answer, which is "leave them in peace" if I couldn't bring myself to accept their beliefs enough to join them. I've always lived as you do. The search for truth has been paramount. But in my declining years, another thought has crept in. Given a choice, wouldn't I rather be happy? I have been atheist for most of my life (with a notable exploratory excursion into my own version of theism) and would get all fired up trying to introduce truth and logic into the fogs of religious belief, but though I still enjoy a good debate, now I find myself much more relaxed in my personal life. Does it do harm? Yes, oppose it. No, don't worry about it.

 

[Ella S.]

OK, thanks. The question behind this was, assuming no harm is done, do you value factual correctness higher than happiness? There's no correct answer of course other than correctly reporting one's own feelings. Your answer is plain. You would rather be correct, even if that caused you unhappiness. I'm a little disappointed that you wouldn't just leave them in peace though, as the implication was intended to be that challenging the logic of their belief might cause some of them to abandon it, and thus be less happy.

I promised my own answer, which is "leave them in peace" if I couldn't bring myself to accept their beliefs enough to join them. I've always lived as you do. The search for truth has been paramount. But in my declining years, another thought has crept in. Given a choice, wouldn't I rather be happy? I have been atheist for most of my life (with a notable exploratory excursion into my own version of theism) and would get all fired up trying to introduce truth and logic into the fogs of religious belief, but though I still enjoy a good debate, now I find myself much more relaxed in my personal life. Does it do harm? Yes, oppose it. No, don't worry about it.

I don't place value in externals like the happiness of other people. I don't control how other people feel, so I'm not responsible for it. I'm only responsible for acting properly in accordance with my own values. I see it as a moral duty to try to correct these sorts of errors when I see them, although I'm only responsible for "leading the horse to water" as the saying goes.

I would feel terrible about myself for not at least trying to help them reason better. Letting them live in ignorance because it makes them happy would make me feel like I was being condescending and disrespecting their intellect as thinking human beings. I just don't have it in me.