Originally posted by Grampy BobbyTo understand the answer, you need to rephrase the question:
What are the short and longer term benefits of being an atheist?
What are the short and longer term benefits to throwing off the God delusion?
I suggest you read some books on the topic eg The God Delusion or God is not Great.
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/anti-religion
You will find plenty of arguments for why religion is bad for the world.
Originally posted by googlefudge"You are still not getting it." -googlefudge
You are still not getting it.
I lack a belief in gods not because I think it will benefit me, although it does.
I lack a belief in gods because I don't think they exist and don't think it's a good
idea to believe in the existence of things that don't exist.
What people believe about reality influences their decisions.
I believe that a ...[text shortened]... of atheism, You don't believe in gods that don't exist, with everything
that comes with that.
Doing my best with information that's all new; please be patient.
What people believe about reality influences their decisions." -googlefudge
I'd be interested in knowing what you 'believe' about reality.
Originally posted by twhiteheadThanks for the recommendation.
To understand the answer, you need to rephrase the question:
What are the short and longer term benefits to throwing off the God delusion?
I suggest you read some books on the topic eg The God Delusion or God is not Great.
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/anti-religion
You will find plenty of arguments for why religion is bad for the world.
Originally posted by Grampy BobbyI bought and read The God Delusion based on recommendations in this forum. Prior to this forum I had never heard of Richard Dawkins or his book. Also prior to reading that book I was generally neutral towards religion, ie I was an atheist but didn't see much harm in theism, I had a sort of live and let live policy. I only objected to extremism such as suicide bombers, the troubles around Israel and the attempts to teach creationism as science in the US.
Thanks for the recommendation.
However the above book convinced me that religion has far reaching negative effects on individuals and on societies. It wasn't just arguments made in the book, but rather the fact that it made me think about it more and analyze my own experiences in more detail.