Am I the only one who wishes he was an atheist?

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It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it?

No rules (or at least you could make the rules up yourself). You could do whatever you want as long as it was legal. For that matter you could break the law if you were so inclined.

Lie in on a Sunday morning, that would be nice.

But I could obviously not be an atheist because once you know, you know. You can’t un-know.

I know that we have it right. But it would just be so much easier to be blissfully ignorant.

I can’t be the only one who feels like this from time to time. Or am I?
 
Of course you aren’t the only one. Just more intellectually honest than most people.

However… so contrast what is gained (basically the “freedom” to sin without conscience) with what is lost (namely,
*existential meaning of suffering and death
*concept of inter-connectivity that stretches beyond the grave
*the belief in heavenly aid
*a bind with other humans seeking “something outside themselves and above themselves” (which doesn’t have to be religious, but often is… and even when it’s not, the striving after natural virtue precludes so-called “freedom” to enjoy life’s pleasures at-will.)

I’m sure the list could go on for a mile. But I still think he bottom line that that what’s gained by a sensual atheistic life is not worth what’s lost by a godly life or even an atheistic life of natural virtue (like Aristotle). As my nine year old would say “it’s not worth the opportunity cost, Mom.”
 
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I understand where you are coming from but you overlooked something important. When an unbeliever sins, or does something contrary to natural law, even without knowing it, they are still subject to the consequences, even if it’s just the physical consequences.

Take for example contraception and fornication. Many are hurt by contraception through failed marriages, usury, demeaning sexual conquest, and the lack of fruitfulness in a true relationship. Yet they don’t understand that the pain caused is due to the sin because society tells them those things are good and the results are just part of life.
 
MockSock said:
It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it?

No rules (or at least you could make the rules up yourself). You could do whatever you want as long as it was legal. For that matter you could break the law if you were so inclined.
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Darn. Why didn’t you tell me before. All those years wasted doing the right thing…
 
No I would not rather be an atheist. All that ‘freedom’ would not do me any good, if I thought there was no God or afterlife and it meant nothing.
 
You would rather not know the Gospel about our Lord? To be atheist, to me, would be to not know Jesus.
 
Many atheists and agnostics don’t have it nearly as easy as those who rigorously follow a religion. This is because they don’t have all of the rules and guidance an organized religion offers. They have to think much more deeply, oftentimes, about how to proceed through life if they want to do so in a moral fashion. No path in this life is easy.
 
MockSock said:
It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it? …
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Some religions are atheistic (no belief in any god) yet have rules. It would be more difficult to be atheist because of the difficulty in obtaining a state of sanctifying grace - the root of joy.

Psalm 16
11 You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
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I can honestly say, even if I learned for certain God didn’t exist, I would still try and live the same way (other than prayer, worship, and receiving sacraments which would no longer make sense). The older I get, the more I see the wisdom in the “rules” we have and the folly of “doing whatever you want.”

Of course, this should be the case since the moral law is rooted in reason.
 
MockSock said:
But it would just be so much easier to be blissfully ignorant.
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I don’t think so. But at one point in my life I would have agreed. That was when I was younger. I understand now why “eating right and staying active” is so important. It was not apparent to me when I was younger. Life is much easier for me when I do the right thing. And as I’ve come to find out, the Church’s ‘rules’ largely coincided with what is good for me. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
 
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MockSock said:
It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it?
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Nope. If I were an atheist then I would be lacking in hope and my life would be missing a number of important dimensions, namely the love of Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life with him for me and my loved ones.

If I were an atheist I would have killed myself either long ago, or perhaps right this minute, because I have thought many times over the course of my life there is no good reason for me to be here. I now understand that the reason for me to be here was stated in the Baltimore Catechism which my mother quoted to me repeatedly when I was growing up: I am here to love God and serve God in this world, and hopefully to be happy with him in the next.

You seem to think being an atheist would be a non-stop hedonistic party. I don’t think you’ve really thought this through.
 
MockSock said:
Lie in on a Sunday morning, that would be nice.
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Do they not have 5 pm Masses on Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon where you live?

I have no problem sleeping in on Sunday, I just go to a later Mass. I’m fortunate to live near a college where often there is a Mass at 9 pm on Sunday night.
 
MockSock said:
Am I the only one who wishes he was an atheist?
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To me, this is asking “Am I the only one who wishes they were an orphan?”

God is your Father. You’ve focused on the “rules” when I would encourage you to focus on the relationship.
 
1ke said:
To me, this is asking “Am I the only one who wishes they were an orphan?”
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And to extrapolate further, this is like the kid whose parents have just told him to turn off the video games and do his homework and he says, “I wish I were an orphan, then I wouldn’t have parents telling me what to do.”

If he actually thought this through or had to live the life of an actual orphan, he’d change his tune pretty fast.
 
I see what you’re saying but no I don’t feel that way. My life now isn’t prohibitive. It is empowering. I do not desire to feel the emptyness I feel when I am far from God as my everyday life. And I would hate to be trying to raise a family right now without that wellspring of Grace. We’d all be just woudning eachother WAY worse than we do now.
 
MockSock said:
It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it?
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With the Church you have the full Truth.
Atheist don’t have the same advantage. They do have the natural law but we who go to church have so much more. We have the Magisterium.
So no, it is not easier being an atheist!
 
Do you know any atheists?

One of my good friends for the past 30 + years is an atheist.
MockSock said:
No rules (or at least you could make the rules up yourself). You could do whatever you want as long as it was legal. For that matter you could break the law if you were so inclined.
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My friend is a very moral man, he is kind, compassionate, he does good works, he is one of the friends I could call in the middle of the night and he would drive 300 miles to help me.

Having an intimate friendship such as we have, I see the times when life is dark and “blissfully ignorant” is the last thing I would use to describe these times. He does not have the hope, this life is all he has. It is sad, it is not blissful.
 
Many people have the option of going to Mass on Saturday evening, or late Sunday, so they can sleep in!
 
I don’t know why anyone would wish to cease to exist after death over a glorified heaven of eternal happiness…
 
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