Why Atheism is Appealing

[Hockeycowboy]

Aldous Huxley:
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”

Quote by Aldous Huxley: “I had motives for not wanting the world to have...”


Mr. Huxley is saying he doesn't want to believe in God, specifically the Christian God, because God has moral standards for us to live by, but he wants no restrictions....he wants "sexual freedom"!
(I should've used past tense: he died in '63. His freedom doesn't matter now, does it?)

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

Comments? (No cake recipes, please...I learned my lesson.[Inside joke for @Sunstone ])

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

That wouldn't make any sense for someone to become an atheist just to eschew Christian sexual restraints. Plenty of religions, such as Wicca, do not have the sexual hangups that the Abrahamic religions have. So how does sexual freedom drive atheism while there are plenty of religions that offer the same sexual freedoms?

 

[WalterTrull]

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

Are lemmings free of restraint?

 

[Quintessence]

A rather strange argument for atheism, considering there are plenty of theistic religions that don't have a puritanical approach to sex. Clearly someone never discovered Gardnerian Wicca before they went atheist...

 

[ADigitalArtist]

That is a rather narrow quotation and doesn't really reflect the full scope of his discussion, including his previous paragraph where he condems it as a opposite extreme.
Here is the full (legal) text:
Full text of "Ends And Means"

In the circumstances, the fact was not surprising. One unscrupulous distortion of the truth tends to beget other and opposite distortions. Passions may be satisfied in the process; but the disinterested love of knowledge suffers eclipse.

For my part this never entered my atheism, which was much more about being honest with myself and simply admitting I didn't believe. Not trying to keep up a farce.
My behavior changed very little. I've only had one sexual partner (My husband).

 

[Jesster]

I'd say this is a poor reason to be an atheist. Applied skepticism is a far better reason.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

My behavior changed very little. I've only had one sexual partner (My husband).

That's really commendable, ADA!
You're an exception, though, I'm sure.

If I may ask you a question. Were you raised as an atheist?

 

[osgart]

Why wouldnt one want a loyal relationship versus one of just being used for an attraction; religious or non religious?

I suppose its a matter of what you want to put your heart into and what it takes to fulfill it. Or just never being satisfied.

I suppose some people think of sex like food, vs something about caring for the person.

Some people are like that song 'Night Moves', and others are all about the ring, and marriage because they take it personally.

I would think those who take it personally are more conducive to some religions.

And those who are just wanting their appetites satiated, are more conducive to non religion.

Lust vs. Love.

Love is trustable. Lust doesnt really care for anyone.

 

[England my lionheart]

Aldous Huxley:
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”

Quote by Aldous Huxley: “I had motives for not wanting the world to have...”


Mr. Huxley is saying he doesn't want to believe in God, specifically the Christian God, because God has moral standards for us to live by, but he wants no restrictions....he wants "sexual freedom"!
(I should've used past tense: he died in '63. His freedom doesn't matter now, does it?)

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

Comments? (No cake recipes, please...I learned my lesson.[Inside joke for @Sunstone ])

I don't see that as atheism, it's not an erotic self satisfying sex driven thing at al Imo.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

That's really commendable, ADA!
You're an exception, though, I'm sure.

If I may ask you a question. Were you raised as an atheist?

My parents are extremely private about their beliefs. To this day I am still not sure what it is they personally believed. I did go to churches and a couple Buddhist temples for decades, however. Including about ten years with a family friend who is a full time pioneer (her husband an elder) to weekly meetings and study groups. Was never baptized, though.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

That wouldn't make any sense for someone to become an atheist just to eschew Christian sexual restraints. Plenty of religions, such as Wicca, do not have the sexual hangups that the Abrahamic religions have. So how does sexual freedom drive atheism while there are plenty of religions that offer the same sexual freedoms?

If you'll notice, I said "a" driving force. One of several.

And other religions probably made no sense? To tell you the truth, to me much of what is taught in Christendom makes no sense either.....influences from pagan sources, and not their own Scriptures. But I see practical wisdom in the Bible that is mostly ignored.

 

[Jesster]

If you'll notice, I said "a" driving force. One of several.

And other religions probably made no sense? To tell you the truth, to me much of what is taught in Christendom makes no sense either.....influences from pagan sources, and not their own Scriptures. But I see practical wisdom in the Bible that is mostly ignored.

I can't necessarily speak for all others outside of some personal observations, but it wasn't a factor for me when I became an atheist. I can somewhat relate because I did feel more free to live my life afterwards, but it's not part of what made me change my mind.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Comments?

The supposed "appeal of atheism" laid out in that quote is underpinned by the false assumption that the atheist would have good reason to believe the Christian god existed to begin with. I feel no pressing need to believe in dragons or fairies, but even if I did, my desire would take second stage to the lack of evidence.

Some people seem to need to detach their emotional and religious prejudices from discussions about why others become atheists in order to avoid falling for false and self-serving assumptions.

 

[Twilight Hue]

A rather strange argument for atheism, considering there are plenty of theistic religions that don't have a puritanical approach to sex. Clearly someone never discovered Gardnerian Wicca before they went atheist...

I wonder if @Skwim had anything to do with it? *Grin*

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

The OP offers an example of why atheism was appealing to at least one person, begging the question: So what?

 

[LuisDantas]

Even most Christians don't really take the traditional sexual restrictions very seriously these days, and for good reason.

Most of those don't seem to be very inclined to become atheists, though. Nor should them. There are far more sensible reasons to be either theists or atheists.

Generally speaking, someone who gave sexual freedom as a core reason to be an atheist would be suggesting that he somehow wasn't quite sure about whether there is somehow a god who wants people to be sexually restricted.

Which is a bit odd, frankly.

 

[Jumi]

Mr. Huxley is saying he doesn't want to believe in God, specifically the Christian God, because God has moral standards for us to live by, but he wants no restrictions....he wants "sexual freedom"!
(I should've used past tense: he died in '63. His freedom doesn't matter now, does it?)

Sounds like he was a product of his time giving such a dull reason. A lot of theists in those times also wanted sexual freedom so atheism offered no advantage in that. Quite the opposite probably, but I wasn't living in those days so I can only guess.

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

I think pointless limitations to consensual sex between adults has been a driving force in making people leave rigid religions. That much I can agree. But once you have more freedom, what are you going to do with it? Not much as it turns out... kids are more atheists where I live than ever and teenage pregnancies are down at the same time.

Such things as trying to get sexual freedom never entered my mind when I was atheist and they don't enter my mind now when I'm theist. I was closer to asexual much of the time when I was atheist. Now I'm with more testosterone but still find sex something uninteresting except perhaps as something to debate.

When I was atheist it was solely due to having no evidence of gods, the difference between me now and my atheist self is mostly that now I have God.

 

[joe1776]

Aldous Huxley:
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”

Quote by Aldous Huxley: “I had motives for not wanting the world to have...”


Mr. Huxley is saying he doesn't want to believe in God, specifically the Christian God, because God has moral standards for us to live by, but he wants no restrictions....he wants "sexual freedom"!
(I should've used past tense: he died in '63. His freedom doesn't matter now, does it?)

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

Comments? (No cake recipes, please...I learned my lesson.[Inside joke for @Sunstone ])

I have a hard time believing that Huxley would say such a stupid thing. But, you found it on the Internet so it must be true and accurate.

 

[shunyadragon]

Huxley's narrative is a lousy reason to be an atheist. I am a theist, but I have explored reason to be an atheist or possibly agnostic. I personally consider agnostic the better alternative.

I found there are abundant reasons to reject the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as stand alone religions, and I would have been and still would be igonostic and indifferent to the existence of the God of these religions that reflect an ancient world view. The 'Source' in Taoism and Buddhism without the anthropomorphic hands on Theism of Western religions is more appealing. The ultimate Brahman without the trappings of cultural Hinduism has possibilities. I am presently a Baha'i, but find the atheistic/agnostic alternatives to be better than the illogical, and irrational choices of the individual ancient religions. In terms of reasons to believe the atheism/agnostic choice, skepticism, critical thinking, and detached reasoning leads to this choice. .

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

Perhaps that is why you would want to be an atheist, but I think you will find that the vast majority of atheists are no different than your fellow Christians when it comes to sex.

 

[exchemist]

Aldous Huxley:
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”

Quote by Aldous Huxley: “I had motives for not wanting the world to have...”


Mr. Huxley is saying he doesn't want to believe in God, specifically the Christian God, because God has moral standards for us to live by, but he wants no restrictions....he wants "sexual freedom"!
(I should've used past tense: he died in '63. His freedom doesn't matter now, does it?)

Wanting freedom from sexual restraint, I think, has been a driving force in promoting Atheism.

Comments? (No cake recipes, please...I learned my lesson.[Inside joke for @Sunstone ])

Jolly good, another creationist quote-mining exercise. Keep it up!

In this case there is a giveaway in the use of the ironic phraseology and the past tense. Huxley is in fact describing a facile, fashionable belief in meaninglessness that he flirted with for a while. However earlier in the same book he wrote the following:

" Our conviction that the world is meaningless is due in part to the fact (discussed in a later paragraph) that the philosophy of meaningless lends itself very effectively to furthering the ends of political and erotic passion; in part to a genuine intellectual error -- the error of identifying the world of science, a world from which all meaning has deliberately been excluded, with ultimate reality. (p. 267)"

In fact he describes this bloodlessly "scientific" (i.e. hip and trendy in the 1930s) view of things in his dystopian novel "Brave New World". It is not a pretty picture.

P.S. Sorry, forgot to include my source for the above: Apologia Atheos: Aldous Huxley and the meaning of the world