Why are atheists so unhappy?

[SHW]

Even here, though their may seem to be only two choices, we can still ask why we are being asked this particular question and not some other one? Is this really a good question or does it have some faulty premises behind it such as questions like “do you still beat your wife”? Or what is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?

Personally, I asked the question about the existence or nonexistence of God a lot in my twenties and tried to figure out what a transcendent God must be like if such a God existed. And in thinking, reading, and writing, about the question, the question itself went away. It does not really seem like a question to me anymore. It’s just not a question that I even have. I now wonder if I ever would have even asked the question if I hadn’t been born into a culture where this question is pre-supposed to be meaningful and important. I no longer think it is.

Best,
Leela

Relevancy:
**
If there is a God**, then every person needs to find out for what purpose this God created us and also what does He expect of us. He is the potter, we are but the clay, and so we need to find out what the consequence(s) or reward(s), if any, are for acknowledging Him as God our Creator, and also the consequence(s) or punishment(s), if any, for not acknowledging Him as God our Creator.

We can then each make our own choice to either know Him, love Him, and serve/obey Him until we die and inherit eternal life as our reward or else we can choose to reject/deny Him either outright or reject Him by disobeying His commandments and not repenting before death and therefore spend eternity condemned in a lake of fire. Our individual choices will indeed have eternal consequences.
**
If there is no God**, then we can live for “today’s pleasures” without thought or regard for any eternal consequences for our actions.

Our choices better be based upon what we can live with for eternity or else we will be very unhappy if we find out after we die that we were wrong and God does exist and He does truly judge all of us either worthy for eternal life or worthy of being cast into a lake of fire.

 

[Angel7]

Not being able to make sense of whatever distinction you’d like to make by talking about “Earthly things” it is difficult to answer directly. Consider this anaology to the situation taken from Harris:

Suppose my family and I were concinced that there was a huge diamond buried somewhere in our backyard and that we enjoyed looking for it on Sunday mornings. I tell you “That diamond gives my life meaning.” You might find our behavior strange, but you would probably not take a lot of interest in our activity until we started saying things like “I just couldn’t LIVE without believing that there was a hige diamond buried in MY back yard. How can you go even go on without believing that there is a huge diamond buried in YOUR backyard?”

Now you are a little annoyed with my diamond hunting family, but if there were any evidence that believing that there were diamonds buried in the yard made people better people, you might be tolerant of such odd behavior and ignore such condescending claims about how our lives had been turned around by our beliefs. But in the absence of such evidence, suppose that the belief in the huge diamond instead involved suspician and discrimination against those who do not believe in the Diamond or that such Diamond Hunters insisted that their believes be taught in schools. You might at that point start to think that it is about time to start speaking out on the issue and pointing out that believing in the Diamond is not such a good thing all around.

Best,
Leela

By Earthly thigns I mean, would you rather live a life not believing in what is beyond death?
Alot of NDE’s and other paranormal phenomenon sure point to something unnatural.
Doesn’t this spike curiosity?
Would a link to show Angel’s singing in a Bethany Kansas Church, interest you
(Strangley there was another in Bethany, Israel)

I Find it interesting, that the Singing in this video of the Event, are Higher then the Human Vocal Chordes can Produce.

video.google.com/videosearch?q=angels+singing+in+Church+Amazing+2966+Views&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=angels+singing+in+Church.±charlotte&hl=en&emb=0

 

[theistgal]

Picture this:
An atheist who while out hiking fell off the side of a cliff, only to grab on to a branch that stopped him from falling to a certain death. He held on for dear life, with nothing between him and the canyon below. He decided at that moment to give prayer a chance, asking God for salvation from his fate. A voice from above told him to let go of the branch; his new faith would save him. The man thought for a moment, and then looking skyward asked, “Is there anyone else up there I can talk to about this?”
Need I say more?

I am pretty sure that if an atheist actually heard a voice speaking to him or her at that moment, he or she would consider that “evidence” and respond accordingly. The problem for atheists and agnostics, as I understand it, is that they have not heard or seen any such evidence.

Need I say more?

 

[j1akey]

theistgal:

I am pretty sure that if an atheist actually heard a voice speaking to him or her at that moment, he or she would consider that “evidence” and respond accordingly. The problem for atheists and agnostics, as I understand it, is that they have not heard or seen any such evidence.

For the first part of this statement I think it’s hard to say. I’ve never heard voices before so it’s hard to say how I would respond if I did, with my current thought process though I’d probably think I was halucinating, it’s hard to speculate though unless without ever having experienced a situation like that. Either way if I was hanging off a cliff, prayer would probably be the last thing on my mind, more than likely I’d be trying to figure out how to save myself.

As for the second part, I have to agree with it, at least for myself if not anyone else. I’ve never seen anything or heard anything that would lead me to think that there is any kind of deity out there.

 

[Leela]

By Earthly thigns I mean, would you rather live a life not believing in what is beyond death?

I try to believe things that are true and not believe things that are false like anyone else. Whether or not it would be nice to believe that there is some sort of life after death does not come into the equation. It is generally considered to be a good habit of mind to distinguish what we wish were true from what we have good reason to believe. Nothing has convinced me so far that there is good reason to think that there is life after death nor that anyone has any idea what that would be like. On the other hand, I am convinced that what happens after I die will have nothing to do with which statements I held to be true or false during “earthly” life since, as I said, everyone does their best to believe true things and disbelieve false things.

Best,
Leela

 

[OneTrueCathApos]

I am pretty sure that if an atheist actually heard a voice speaking to him or her at that moment, he or she would consider that “evidence” and respond accordingly. The problem for atheists and agnostics, as I understand it, is that they have not heard or seen any such evidence.

Need I say more?

Many have seen and not heard, yet believe. It is called FAITH.

 

[josie_L]

Many have seen and not heard, yet believe. It is called FAITH.

Apparently it’s God’s fault for not providing the evidence.

 

[Leela]

Many have seen and not heard, yet believe. It is called FAITH.

I don’t seem to have that ability. Is it a matter of effort, practice, or what? Maybe you can demonstrate how to make yourself believe something that you don’t already believe is true by believing that, say, pigs can fly. I don’t know if that is a particularly hard one or not. Maybe you can suggest an easy one for me to try to believe before trying to believe in God again which doesn’t work for me.

 

[Leela]

Apparently it’s God’s fault for not providing the evidence.

I don’t know how I could conclude anything else. If God made me, then God made me a person who needs a certain sort of evidence to be convinced, and God would know exactly the sort of evidence that would convince me that he exists. Apparently, he chooses not to provide that evidence. Either that or he doesn’t exist.

 

[josie_L]

I don’t seem to have that ability. Is it a matter of effort, practice, or what? Maybe you can demonstrate how to make yourself believe something that you don’t already believe is true by believing that, say, pigs can fly. I don’t know if that is a particularly hard one or not. Maybe you can suggest an easy one for me to try to believe before trying to believe in God again which doesn’t work for me.

It’s a matter of opening your mind/heart, and giving God a chance.

“And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.”

 

[CWBetts]

I don’t seem to have that ability. Is it a matter of effort, practice, or what? Maybe you can demonstrate how to make yourself believe something that you don’t already believe is true by believing that, say, pigs can fly. I don’t know if that is a particularly hard one or not. Maybe you can suggest an easy one for me to try to believe before trying to believe in God again which doesn’t work for me.

Faith is one of the gifts of the Spirit. ANd wghat you say makes sense, many of the truths I now accept on faith had to come over time. One does not become Super-Christian (complete with red cape and tights ) overnight. But if you could give some kind of explanatioan as to what destroyed your faith that you once had would be very useful for us. Getting to a place of faith from agnosticism/atheism is not an impossible journey! I was there once myself.

 

[OneTrueCathApos]

I don’t seem to have that ability. Is it a matter of effort, practice, or what? Maybe you can demonstrate how to make yourself believe something that you don’t already believe is true by believing that, say, pigs can fly. I don’t know if that is a particularly hard one or not. Maybe you can suggest an easy one for me to try to believe before trying to believe in God again which doesn’t work for me.

I know it can be hard in this awful world we live in, but there is a plan. Just to read the Bible, church history, and to know that people have believed in Christ for 2,000 years. Millions upon millions of conversions that were impossible to convert. Like the Mayan Indians in Mexico. millions converted to the Catholic faith whom didn’t even know about Christ. It was His Mother who converted them.

 

[josie_L]

I don’t know how I could conclude anything else. If God made me, then God made me a person who needs a certain sort of evidence to be convinced, and God would know exactly the sort of evidence that would convince me that he exists. Apparently, he chooses not to provide that evidence. Either that or he doesn’t exist.

God doesn’t need to give you a sign as that is not necessary. We have enough evidence if one researches the lives of the saints, the many miracles produced by them, the apparitions of Mother Mary, the tilma of Gaudelupe, the shroud of Turin, the eucharistic miracles, the absolute beauty and diversity of nature and the nigh impossible odds against our world being created (and that nothing can come out nothing, i.e., the first cause).

 

[RNRobert]

Many have seen and not heard, yet believe. It is called FAITH.

C.S. Lewis wrote that he only knew of one person who had ever claimed to see a ghost. The funny thing was that this woman did not believe in ghosts, either before or after the experience. In other words, he said, seeing is not believing. He also said that if a materialist experienced the Last Judgement as literally described in the Bible, he could spend eternity convinced he was suffering from some psychosis.

 

[lil_flower_luv]

For the first part of this statement I think it’s hard to say. I’ve never heard voices before so it’s hard to say how I would respond if I did, with my current thought process though I’d probably think I was halucinating, it’s hard to speculate though unless without ever having experienced a situation like that. Either way if I was hanging off a cliff, prayer would probably be the last thing on my mind, more than likely I’d be trying to figure out how to save myself.

As for the second part, I have to agree with it, at least for myself if not anyone else. I’ve never seen anything or heard anything that would lead me to think that there is any kind of deity out there.

Yes, maybe you would have to hear God’s voice from Heaven or see Him standing before you to believe. But, (as mentioned in above posts) “blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe,” in God.

 

[lil_flower_luv]

C.S. Lewis wrote that he only knew of one person who had ever claimed to see a ghost. The funny thing was that this woman did not believe in ghosts, either before or after the experience. In other words, he said, seeing is not believing.

Believe me, if you see the face of God or someone sent by Him (from Heaven) for the good of your soul, you will know exactly what is in front of you!!

 

[theistgal]

Many have seen and not heard, yet believe. It is called FAITH.

Yes. And Faith (as the Catholic Church teaches) is a GIFT from God. We should not look down, or sneer at, anyone who hasn’t been given that gift, but simply pray for them.

Speaking as someone who has struggled with faith, I can tell you that no one is ever ridiculed, harassed or insulted into believing. In fact, it is pretty much 100% guaranteed that it will have exactly the opposite effect.

And I’m sure you’re not deliberately trying to chase people away from God - right?

 

[theistgal]

For the first part of this statement I think it’s hard to say. I’ve never heard voices before so it’s hard to say how I would respond if I did, with my current thought process though I’d probably think I was halucinating, it’s hard to speculate though unless without ever having experienced a situation like that. Either way if I was hanging off a cliff, prayer would probably be the last thing on my mind, more than likely I’d be trying to figure out how to save myself.

As for the second part, I have to agree with it, at least for myself if not anyone else. I’ve never seen anything or heard anything that would lead me to think that there is any kind of deity out there.

Yes, I thought of that as well. I think for the purpose of the “hypothetical” situation, you’d have to have some way to verify that it’s really the voice of God and not just your own imagination.

Though frankly, if I were in that situation, and there were no other options, I’d probably just give in and assume it was God … what’s the worst that could happ …

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

OOOPS!!!

 

[Angel7]

I try to believe things that are true and not believe things that are false like anyone else. Whether or not it would be nice to believe that there is some sort of life after death does not come into the equation. It is generally considered to be a good habit of mind to distinguish what we wish were true from what we have good reason to believe. Nothing has convinced me so far that there is good reason to think that there is life after death nor that anyone has any idea what that would be like. On the other hand, I am convinced that what happens after I die will have nothing to do with which statements I held to be true or false during “earthly” life since, as I said, everyone does their best to believe true things and disbelieve false things.

Best,
Leela

Wouldn’t it be sad though? Living a few years on this life. With out the Hope of Salvation.
Is there nothing on the other side? I would find a Life of no Meaning. To be very depressing, and sad.

 

[Angel7]

I don’t seem to have that ability. Is it a matter of effort, practice, or what? Maybe you can demonstrate how to make yourself believe something that you don’t already believe is true by believing that, say, pigs can fly. I don’t know if that is a particularly hard one or not. Maybe you can suggest an easy one for me to try to believe before trying to believe in God again which doesn’t work for me.

Here is one, After people Recieve Communion. Have a conversion of Heart. You notice people act very differently.
We don’t believe pigs can fly, cuz they can’t.
We believe in G-d, because we Know G-d is true.
It is practically impossible to provide evidence of G-d. But I find it incredible that the G-d who created the Universe is loving and Humble enough to live in us, we are altars to the holy spirit, our bodies.

Like I was saying, if there was Evidence for G-d (If you look deep enough you get really close, start questioning Life) that would undermine Faith.

“Blessed are they that believe and have not seen”