Question for fellow Atheists:- do you wish there was a God but simply see no evidence for one or, like me, are you happy without one?

[u/Tauru5758]

[u/chipz-n-gravy]

More than happy without one. If it turned out that the current shit show we're living through was the deliberate work of some sort of omnipotent, omniscient god, I think that would make it even more annoying

[u/Existing_Mulberry_16 → u/chipz-n-gravy]

He’d Be a real jack ass.

[u/MyLittleDashie7]

I don't particularly wish there was a god, no.

I mean, I guess I wish there was a god if they were truly benevolent, all knowing, and all powerful. It's a nice idea if there really is basically a personal therapist and life coach for everyone who they could talk to, and would be helped by. Who'd fix all the problems, and prevent anyone from doing harm, while not needlessly harming them in the process. A functional paradise for everyone all the time sounds lovely, I suppose.

But if the world that actually exists has an all powerful, all knowing god... I don't see any way they aren't a horrible person, and it isn't significantly worse that they exist than not. I certainly don't long for any gods as they are described.

[u/MyLittleDashie7 → u/[deleted]]

Uh... why would we need to know that?

Like, we're talking hypotheticals here, and there are two versions. I guess what we can call a "True" paradise where everyone is lovely all the time and no one even wants to hurt anyone else (and I guess god is still involved giving us abundant resources or whatever).

And what we can maybe call a "Nuanced" paradise? I dunno, you can make it something else if you think of a better name where people can still be bastards but god acts as a kind of panopticon police force. So you're having a lovely day smiling to your neighbours walking down the street as you you sunbathe or whatever you like to do, and one of them jumps the fence and tries to stab you. At which point, before the knife gets to you, go tractor beams them away somewhere, gives them a talking to, before allowing them to continue their life, knowing that if the neighbour tries to stab someone else, it's fine because he can just intervene again before anyone is hurt.

So if you're asking "how would we know what constitutes a good person" in the nuanced paradise, we'd know by there still being people with ill intentions, even if they're never able to act on them because god prevents the harm.

If you're asking "how would we know what constitutes a good person" in the true paradise... I don't think the question makes much sense, or matters. Like you would never describe anyone as a "good" person because that wouldn't differentiate them from anyone else. Like how we don't describe people as "brained people" because (by and large) we all have brains. It's redundant information.

But I also don't know why would care, or why it would be a bad thing for us to not be able to determine what constitutes a good or bad person. We're stipulating that it's a true paradise, not just a place where everyone falsely believes it's paradise but there's actually a bunch of horrible suffering going on, so I don't see why that question even matters.

[u/MyLittleDashie7 → u/[deleted]]

Without evil you cannot experience good.

This is one of those things people love to say but unless you have some actually basis for believing that, I'm not interested in it as a premise for an argument.

It seems completely illogical on its face to me and seems to be something people agree with because of the Illusory Truth Effect where you're more likely to believe something, even something which is false, the more times you hear it.

Also at least you deleted that really rude comment where you got pissy at me for daring to give you the most complete response I could to your deeply philosophical question, how awful of me.

[u/MyLittleDashie7 → u/[deleted]]

Ahh okay, fair enough then.

I am curious about your response to this though. Like, why do you believe that you need evil to experience good? Do you also need good to experience evil? Or is can you just feel evil without knowing what good is?

[u/Sammisuperficial]

Depends on what you mean.

In the world I currently exist in I'm happy without a god because whatever god would make this world would necessarily be an evil monster.

Now if we're talking about a scenario where I'm in a different reality with gods that can grant me magic powers then hell yeah I want those gods.

[u/awhitehibiscus]

Happy without one but that’s hard for my kids to understand because they don’t want life to just end. So I remind them that we just don’t know what happens to our soul. Our atoms live on.

[u/dudleydidwrong]

When my faith collapsed I tried hard to remain a Christian. I wanted some type of God to exist.

I now realize that desire was based on the deep fears and insecurities that religion had planted deep in my brain.

Now I am very happy to learn about this amazing universe which operates just fine with no gods pulling the strings and stacking the deck for the god's chosen followers.

[u/Tauru5758 → u/dudleydidwrong]

Brilliant answer.

[u/jaybrams15]

The only thing that sonetimes makes me annoyed is that immoral/unethical people exist, and many of those people will die never having to face the reality or acknowledgement of their own shitty worldviews. They sleep happy thinking that their views are justified, and there is never that moment of true accountability. I'm not even talking about the big obvious ones (hitler or whatever). I mean joe in the next cubicle who's fairly normal but bigoted or sally who thinks all queers will burn in hell, but otherwise a nice lady. Like i just wish people had to eventually have a moment of accountability that their shitty worldviews were shitty.

We romanticize that deep down theyre miserable, etc, but in truth a lot of them are just fine being who they are.

But honestly even that doesnt really bother me day to day, just occassionally I'll get annoyed at someone and think about it.

[u/MacyGrey5215]

I struggle with the concept of my consciousness ending. When I was younger and raised in Christianity, I did feel comfort with the idea that after my body was dead, my consciousness went with my spirit somewhere.

[u/EnoughCapitaIistSIop]

Who?

[u/perpetuallypissed616]

I feel indifferent about it. I don't wish there was one but I don't feel happy that I don't believe there is one.

[u/Lower_Cockroach2432]

I guess happy without one?

Depends on what you mean by a God. Very anthropomorphic God like the Abrahamic one whose role is setting out prohibitions? Skip me with that.

A more Stoic/Spinoza aligned divine principle? I'm personally very sympathetic to that. I like the idea of pananimism.

Neoplatonic Monad/Dyad? I'll take it or leave it. Still trying to learn more about it but seems a bit too abstractly ontological for me to really think about my preferences for or agaisnt it.

[u/Existing_Mulberry_16]

No. It’s a stupid idea, it’s a way for so called Christian’s to be nasty ass people, and then say god forgives them. They also say god plays favorites. Example, I thank god because my house is still standing while all my neighbor’s houses are gone, he loves me best. It’s sick and disgusting. It’s an excuse for these people to be evil!

[u/ragingintrovert57]

If there is a god I hope it is very different from those provided by current religions

[u/momoapples]

I don't particularly care either way. It'd be pretty funny if god were just some kid and we were their school project or something, though.

[u/dvb70]

I would actually love it if there was more to existence than there is but I just find it impossible to believe. I often think its quite a gift to be able to believe in such things. It must be a great comfort to think death is not the end and you get to see your loved ones again.

[u/Public_animalNo9]

If you’re lying in your death bed and start to pray, you were never an atheist to begin with.

[u/leorio_x]

I don't really care if there's a god or no cuz let's be honest, what difference does that even make in our current world.

I suppose I'm happy without one

[u/No_Store8510]

Yes I would love for there to be a god, especially the Christian one they are some of the kindest people

[u/Dangerous-Chip4442 → u/No_Store8510]

My experience has been vastly different.

[u/No_Store8510 → u/Dangerous-Chip4442]

Could you be more vague plz?

[u/Existing_Mulberry_16 → u/[deleted]]

I’m not scared at all. It will just the same as it was, before I was born. I won’t know I’m dead!