Thread: Ask an Atheist
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Old 08-31-2009, 01:20 PM   #40 (permalink)
SecretMethod70
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Famous View Post
If you died, and met God, would you disappointed?
I kind of glossed over this question at first, but then I realized it goes to the core of how many believers totally misunderstand what it means to be an atheist.

It's not like atheists are sitting around secretly believing in a god or gods and really hoping that there isn't one just because they want to live a life without consequences. People don't become atheists out of some desire to be selfish and amoral. None of that has anything to do with atheism.

Would I be disappointed if I died and encountered a god or gods? Hell no! There are very few people who would not want to believe in an afterlife. I hate the fact that when I die, so many new and amazing things will be discovered that I will miss out on. I will likely never know what it is like to step foot on the moon, or better yet, Mars, and that saddens me. I would love nothing more than to die and find out there are still new experiences to be had. I simply don't believe it. There's absolutely no evidence for it whatsoever, and there's plenty of evidence and well-reasoned arguments that indicate we've come to such beliefs as a by-product of our evolutionary development.

There's nothing about being an atheist that would make one feel disappointed to discover there is a higher power. Many atheists come to their lack of belief through an understanding of science and how the world works. Scientists are constantly revising what they know, proving themselves wrong in some way and continuing on with their new knowledge. If I discovered the existence of a higher power, it would merely be one more of the many things I've been wrong about in my life.

You could ask me, "aren't you worried that when you die and discover that higher power, it might punish you for your lack of belief?" That's a non-issue though, and certainly not an argument for belief, because I could ask you the very same question: aren't you worried that when you die and discover the existence of some other god who you don't worship, that that god will punish you for worshipping the non-existent god that you do? You can see, Pascal's Wager is a ludicrous reason for belief. It's impossible to worship all gods, since many require that you worship no other gods, and it is equally unknowable whether or not there is any god at all as it is unknowable whether or not you are worshipping the correct god. In the face of no reason to believe other than the fact it would make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, I am forced to come to the conclusion that it makes the most sense to choose non-belief over picking just one of the thousands of likely-wrong belief options that would comfort me with an afterlife.
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