This episode is part of my podcast series DEAR ATHEIST… If you prefer, LISTEN NOW.
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The way I see it, it would be easy to be an atheist. You’ve got no one’s rules to follow but your own. As long as you also follow the laws of the land where you live, you’ve got no problem.
With no belief in God, there are so many life experiences that one could experiment with, without fear that they would have to give account to anyone for their actions. You wouldn’t feel guilty for living a selfish life, doing only what feels good and right to you… or even breaking the law – if and when you think you could get away with it! I mean, what does it matter anyway?
So, now all I have to think about is my business and my family – that’s if I ever settle down to have one. I mean, there are no restrictions on who I can sleep with, or even how many. Why do I have to get tied down? And who needs kids anyway? Yes, they are adorable, but what a way to waste precious time and money! So I guess it will just be about the business…
So much more free time to get that money! And lots of it too!!! No point giving to anybody else, because anyone who can’t get their own is bloody lazy or stupid! Don’t mind my french.
Now, what will I do with all that money…? No Church. No charity. No family. Friends? Any friend of mine will certainly have their own money, so they won’t need mine. Well, maybe I’ll buy my own island! Awesome idea!!!
So, imagine I got my own island. It only took me about 30 years because of those thieving tax laws. Now I don’t have to pay taxes ever! The Island is pretty small though. I need to get some food. Oh damn! I don’t know anything about farming!
Got to get that stuff imported. In the end, I figure out that I need more than food. I need other people to help with building my mansion, and hooking me up with all the services I need, so I won’t need to travel back and forth so much.
By the time I get everything set up, and pay everyone their due wages, I’m going to need a job again! This lifestyle is expensive.
And I hate to admit that I’m lonely. Sleeping with prostitutes wiped me out! If I’d settled down, I’d have gotten sex for free. Plus, they would have helped with a lot of the stuff I had to do on my own… And maybe they’d have been good company too. I quite like that idea now…
But, alas, I’m too old… Nobody wants to hire me. Nobody fancies me. Heck, no one likes me. I don’t even know if I like me 😦 What’s the point of living anyway, if no one cares that you’re alive?
In this very unlikely scenario, that’s when one might realize that life has to be for more than self. This person was actually fortunate to get this far. He or she could have met their end with many kinds of misfortune, including victimization (with the crime rates in such an irreligious society), imprisonment (for his petty or major crimes), sickness, accident, sudden death, poverty and destitution, among many things that humans face.
Maybe with suffering, they might have come to realize that they need other people sooner than that. That to live in harmony with others, we need more than state laws, but moral laws that keep us from hurting others – even if no one but us knows about it! Maybe they might have appreciated the value of friends and family, and the fact that money can’t buy happiness. Maybe they would agree with Jesus that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
Maybe you’re an athiest, and can’t see any comparison to the person I’ve illustrated because you love life, family and friends. My question to you is – if there’s no God, no rules and no morality, why are those things important to you?
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Categories: Dear Atheist, Issues of Life, Random Musings, The Latest, True Religion
Grace and Truth 
Some I know who claim to be atheists do seem to have it easy, but others not so much. I chalk that up to Romans 1 being true and many atheists merely living in denial of the God they know exists. That has to be tough. I don’t know a single atheist who is angry at Buddha (or any of the other false gods). All of their anger is channeled at the God of the Bible, but not at other religions. I think that that proves that Romans 1 is true. 🙂 Good post.
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I think you’re right! The evidence is clear and their without an excuse. But now they’ve shut God from their minds, it would be interesting to know why some of the are law-abiding, morally conscious and social people who care about friends, family and people in general. Why do they care?
The answer should lead us somewhere, I hope!
Thanks again for contributing 🙂
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Applause, applause!! Ya gotta have a definition of an inch to make a yard-stick! Thanks! Nice to meet you and new follow here.
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Thanks a lot! I appreciate the follow too. I’ll follow back 🙂
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I hate to have to burst this little bubble world you’ve built but… if what you propose were true, then it should be easy enough to find see correlating evidence for it. Simply put, the lower the rates of any population’s religious belief (having access to ‘morality’ by ‘Just Following Orders, Lord) we should see a correlated increase in all these negative behaviours you assign to non belief.
Well, Lord love a duck, but we don’t find this. In fact, and to the extreme discomfort of believers who peddle this atheists-can-do-what-they-want-because-they-have-no-cause-to-be-moral-like-believers-do trope, we find exactly the opposite. The opposite.
Bummer. Why do atheists have lower rates of all kinds of socially dysfunctional behaviour? Why are they under-represented in criminal populations? Why do populations of lower religiosity seem to have a very strong correlate to what we call ‘moral’ behaviour in rates greater than the faithful? How can this be?
Simple. Your thesis is wrong. Now you figure out why the godless are so much more moral than believers.
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Nice challenge… I think it may have something to do with what Paul said here: “Now we know that the Law is good, if one uses it legitimately. We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching that agrees with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted…” (1 Tim 1:8-11).
Being religious never stopped anyone from being lawless and unrighteous. Being spiritual actually is a different thing. There are far too many religious people, and far too few spiritual people, and both are easily jammed together as religious. So, I’m afraid your census based on religiousity is not at all telling for the results of true spirituality.
Cheers, Ufuoma.
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Right. Not a True Scotsman.Not truly ‘spiritual’. Got it. And, hey, this new wrinkle no solves all the incompatibilities, right? Well, no, actually… it doesn’t. It merely substitutes yet another groundless claim (all those millions of people aren’t ‘properly’ spiritual, you see) and so this tactic (which is well known and commonly used fallacy) shifts the problem of accuracy of your thesis one step further away. Now we have to delve into what is the ‘right’ kid of spiritualism (and only you seem to know… not like those millions of others who are somehow confused about what it might be) to keep your thesis on life support…. a life support that you now have to introduce!
Good grief, Ufuomaee, You can think better than this, you know. But that change won’t come from your faith-based beliefs. Ever. You have to want to think better.
And I don’t think this is going to happen when you seem to enjoy having a god whisper the ‘right’ kind of spiritualism into your privileged ear. Not that you can be accused of being anything less than humble and not worthy, of course… but, hey, it is what it is and you have this very special personal connection to the creator of the universe… not like those millions of others who don’t practice the ‘right’ kind of spiritualism and so don’t have your clear-eyed insight into the transcendental realm of god’s intentions and purposes and nature that you have, coincidentally. Funny, that.
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Funny how… It really isn’t my fault. Jesus rightly said “Enter at the narrow gate”! There will be a multitude, and many will be wrong, but it never invalidates the genuine followers.
You and I agree on one thing though, religion doesn’t work in changing people. That’s why God brought about the New Covenant. With the Old Covenant, men did their sacrifices without caring to obey. They were not changed…. And in many ways, that sort of mentality is still deeply entrenched in Christianity. I guess that’s why Jesus said many will say to Him that they did so and so in His name, but He will tell them He never knew them.
All I know is that if people actually followed Jesus, and lived righteously, the world would indeed be a better place.
Cheers!
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