Has atheism made the world a better place?

[Dumb Ideologies]

A thoroughly mixed blessing, as you would expect from something without a defining set of beliefs outside from the absence of gods.

The turn towards questioning orthodoxies had more than a little to do with subsequent advances in science and technology, but these themselves have had bad social and environmental impacts as well as the good. If it indirectly contributed towards there being more people living for longer then there's a utilitarian argument, though others would maybe counter that those lives perhaps had less meaning due to lower levels of faith. People have turned to poltical leaders and ideologies as their new vessels of faith, often with destructive consequences, and increasing diversity in identity and opinion has led to the fragmentation of societies.

They also ruined the fedora.

[The Emerald Legion]

Religion is one of many excuses. It's a very useful excuse, but protecting a revolution or something like that works just as well and doesn't require a God.

Removing a powerful excuse for tyranny is itself a good thing to do in and of itself.

Not really no. Not when literally anything else could be used as an excuse.

There have been many theocracies in the past, from the time of the pharaoh's and especially during Crusades, where the name of God is invoked and used as a basis for political and economic systems.

You cannot deny that religion and ideologies are related.

The furhtest religion usually goes in that regard is "Spread your belief, burn the infidels"

Fun Fact. Norse Paganism has no decree to spread the faith. Most people who attempt to do so, do so entirely out of the entirely practical secular desire for strength in numbers. Likewise, there is no concept of an infidel.

[Tarchuna and Ravenna]

You shouldn’t force people to give up their faith. Many religions also have moral codes, and yes, many do not follow them, but many others do.

[LimaUniformNovemberAlpha]

It isn't just religious wars that get people killed. It's religious opposition to embryonic stem cell research.

Religion is a deadly poison and needs to be treated as such.

[The New California Republic]

You shouldn’t force people to give up their faith. Many religions also have moral codes, and yes, many do not follow them, but many others do.

Who is talking about forcing anyone?

[Ifreann]

Atheism has proliferated apostasy from the truth of religion. This alone makes it a negative effect on society, and more importantly it is deadly to heavenly society. Atheism destroys the joy of souls.

Again, atheism is the default. People must learn to believe, must create religions. Atheism doesn't do anything. It just is.

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I'll quote Karl Marx here: "Religion is opium for the people"

You realize Marx meant that as a sort of compliment to religion, right?

"Religion is like this thing that makes you feel great and takes away your pain"
"Wow, Marx sure did think religion was for nerds"

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Ladies and gentlemen, Atheism is a meritless delusion which defies all sense and restricts the mind, plain and simple. There is an argument to be made that deism made the world a better place, but Atheism has dulled the minds of generations, and must be fought and killed on the intellectual battlefield.

You cannot possibly "kill" the concept of not believing in any god or gods. Even if you could convert everyone on Earth, you can't stop people from having a personal crisis of faith. I guarantee you that there are people in your own religious community who are actually atheists.

[The Emerald Legion]

Atheism has proliferated apostasy from the truth of religion. This alone makes it a negative effect on society, and more importantly it is deadly to heavenly society. Atheism destroys the joy of souls.

Again, atheism is the default. People must learn to believe, must create religions. Atheism doesn't do anything. It just is.

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You realize Marx meant that as a sort of compliment to religion, right?

"Religion is like this thing that makes you feel great and takes away your pain"
"Wow, Marx sure did think religion was for nerds"

---

Ladies and gentlemen, Atheism is a meritless delusion which defies all sense and restricts the mind, plain and simple. There is an argument to be made that deism made the world a better place, but Atheism has dulled the minds of generations, and must be fought and killed on the intellectual battlefield.

You cannot possibly "kill" the concept of not believing in any god or gods. Even if you could convert everyone on Earth, you can't stop people from having a personal crisis of faith. I guarantee you that there are people in your own religious community who are actually atheists.

Not really. The idea of the spooky scaries and spirits is pretty darn natural.

Animism is the default, even if not inherently formalized.

[Tarchuna and Ravenna]

It isn't just religious wars that get people killed. It's religious opposition to embryonic stem cell research.

Religion is a deadly poison and needs to be treated as such.

Source?

[Cekoviu]

Not particularly, but only because it hasn't spread enough.

[United Muscovite Nations]

Not particularly, but only because it hasn't spread enough.

It's created a void of philosophical dialogue, as most atheist "intellectuals" nowadays are STEMlords who reject the idea of things like metaethics or epistemology.

[Cekoviu]

A thoroughly mixed blessing, as you would expect from something without a defining set of beliefs outside from the absence of gods.

The turn towards questioning orthodoxies had more than a little to do with subsequent advances in science and technology, but these themselves have had bad social and environmental impacts as well as the good. People have turned to poltical leaders and ideologies as their new vessels of faith, often with destructive consequences, and increasing diversity in identity and opinion has led to the fragmentation of societies.

They also ruined the fedora.

Hot take: fedoras were never good. Real men and women wear top hats, not shitty knockoffs.

[LimaUniformNovemberAlpha]

It isn't just religious wars that get people killed. It's religious opposition to embryonic stem cell research.

Religion is a deadly poison and needs to be treated as such.

Source?

[Cekoviu]

Not particularly, but only because it hasn't spread enough.

It's created a void of philosophical dialogue, as most atheist "intellectuals" nowadays are STEMlords who reject the idea of things like metaethics or epistemology.

Right, which is why atheism needs to spread further beyond the shitlord & gamer community (i.e., Reddit).

[Tarchuna and Ravenna]

Source?

How does this prove that “religion is a deadly poison” and there is “religious opposition to stem cell research”?

[United Muscovite Nations]

It's created a void of philosophical dialogue, as most atheist "intellectuals" nowadays are STEMlords who reject the idea of things like metaethics or epistemology.

Right, which is why atheism needs to spread further beyond the shitlord & gamer community (i.e., Reddit).

It has, most young people are atheists in my experience, most people don't take any kind of philosophical positions though, so it doesn't matter. It's a battle between the non-religious movements (which tend to be dominated by STEMlords) and the humanities.

[Tarchuna and Ravenna]

Do you think there may be a reason why they are shitlords?

[Aureumterra]

Right, which is why atheism needs to spread further beyond the shitlord & gamer community (i.e., Reddit).

It has, most young people are atheists in my experience, most people don't take any kind of philosophical positions though, so it doesn't matter. It's a battle between the non-religious movements (which tend to be dominated by STEMlords) and the humanities.

I would say agnostic rather than atheist, oftentimes the ones who are hardcore atheists are the ones who were raised religiously

[United Muscovite Nations]

It has, most young people are atheists in my experience, most people don't take any kind of philosophical positions though, so it doesn't matter. It's a battle between the non-religious movements (which tend to be dominated by STEMlords) and the humanities.

I would say agnostic rather than atheist, oftentimes the ones who are hardcore atheists are the ones who were raised religiously

Yes, that's fair, but in my neck of the woods, that's a sizeable portion of young people.

[United Muscovite Nations]

Do you think there may be a reason why they are shitlords?

Because they were raised by overbearing evangelical parents, found out that their parents' religious beliefs were ridiculous, but don't understand that there is actually any other kind of religion out there (i.e. religions that have thought critically about their beliefs).

[Cekoviu]

Right, which is why atheism needs to spread further beyond the shitlord & gamer community (i.e., Reddit).

It has, most young people are atheists in my experience, most people don't take any kind of philosophical positions though, so it doesn't matter. It's a battle between the non-religious movements (which tend to be dominated by STEMlords) and the humanities.

Irreligious != atheist, and that's absolutely not a real battle that exists

[Tarchuna and Ravenna]

Right, which is why atheism needs to spread further beyond the shitlord & gamer community (i.e., Reddit).

It has, most young people are atheists in my experience, most people don't take any kind of philosophical positions though, so it doesn't matter. It's a battle between the non-religious movements (which tend to be dominated by STEMlords) and the humanities.

I mean, the stats don’t really add up. I have honestly only met a few atheists in person before.

According to Wikipedia, there are “200 million to 240 million self-identified atheists worldwide”, and the world has a population of more than 7.5 billion.

[VoVoDoCo]

Atheism is simply the lack of believe or disbelieve in a god. It has no economic platform, no political platform, no social platform, absolutely nothing. Blaming Chinese authoritarian history and tendencies on its atheism is like blaming Donald Trump’s misogynistic tendencies solely on his Christian beliefs.That’s not the best example, since you can justify misogyny based on passages from the Bible, but you get the idea.

The lesson we should learn from China isn’t that atheism cannot save the world. We should’ve already known that. Getting everybody to not believe in God isn’t going to solve poverty or fix the environment. What will do that is compassion and activism.

If there is a lesson we should learn from China, it’s that authoritarianism, regardless of form or religious inspiration, is bad and should be resisted at all cost.

Now that’s not to say that atheism will provide no value. There’s plenty of people that are hurt by the systematic abuse of their church. People who are kicked out of their church and not allowed to see their family, its debilitating effects on the poor who feel compelled to give 10% of their salary, its perseverance in American politics, etc. If you’re looking for atheism to solve world hunger, cure cancer, bring back the dodo bird, and discover the fountain of youth then you are going to be sorely disappointed, Especially if you’re banking on a single party authoritarian state with socio/economic goals to act as a viable representative of an entire group of free thinking individuals with A diverse array of Socio political thought.

There’s not a single fix that’ll usher in a golden era of human development. But to say that atheism has not bettered the world, and your example is China, is very shortsighted.

[Panslav]

It has, most young people are atheists in my experience, most people don't take any kind of philosophical positions though, so it doesn't matter. It's a battle between the non-religious movements (which tend to be dominated by STEMlords) and the humanities.

Irreligious != atheist, and that's absolutely not a real battle that exists

Irreligious is another term for agnostic atheist though.

[Tarchuna and Ravenna]

Atheism is simply the lack of believe or disbelieve in a god. It has no economic platform, no political platform, no social platform, absolutely nothing. Blaming Chinese authoritarian history and tendencies on its atheism is like blaming Donald Trump’s misogynistic tendencies solely on his Christian beliefs.That’s not the best example, since you can justify misogyny based on passages from the Bible, but you get the idea.

The lesson we should learn from China isn’t that atheism cannot save the world. We should’ve already known that. Getting everybody to not believe in God isn’t going to solve poverty or fix the environment. What will do that is compassion and activism.

If there is a lesson we should learn from China, it’s that authoritarianism, regardless of form or religious inspiration, is bad and should be resisted at all cost.

Now that’s not to say that atheism will provide no value. There’s plenty of people that are hurt by the systematic abuse of their church. People who are kicked out of their church and not allowed to see their family, its debilitating effects on the poor who feel compelled to give 10% of their salary, its perseverance in American politics, etc. If you’re looking for atheism to solve world hunger, cure cancer, bring back the dodo bird, and discover the fountain of youth then you are going to be sorely disappointed, Especially if you’re banking on a single party authoritarian state with socio/economic goals to act as a viable representative of an entire group of free thinking individuals with A diverse array of Socio political thought.

There’s not a single fix that’ll usher in a golden era of human development. But to say that atheism has not bettered the world, and your example is China, is very shortsighted.

Exactly.

[Panslav]

Atheism is simply the lack of believe or disbelieve in a god. It has no economic platform, no political platform, no social platform, absolutely nothing. Blaming Chinese authoritarian history and tendencies on its atheism is like blaming Donald Trump’s misogynistic tendencies solely on his Christian beliefs.That’s not the best example, since you can justify misogyny based on passages from the Bible, but you get the idea.

The lesson we should learn from China isn’t that atheism cannot save the world. We should’ve already known that. Getting everybody to not believe in God isn’t going to solve poverty or fix the environment. What will do that is compassion and activism.

If there is a lesson we should learn from China, it’s that authoritarianism, regardless of form or religious inspiration, is bad and should be resisted at all cost.

Now that’s not to say that atheism will provide no value. There’s plenty of people that are hurt by the systematic abuse of their church. People who are kicked out of their church and not allowed to see their family, its debilitating effects on the poor who feel compelled to give 10% of their salary, its perseverance in American politics, etc. If you’re looking for atheism to solve world hunger, cure cancer, bring back the dodo bird, and discover the fountain of youth then you are going to be sorely disappointed, Especially if you’re banking on a single party authoritarian state with socio/economic goals to act as a viable representative of an entire group of free thinking individuals with A diverse array of Socio political thought.

There’s not a single fix that’ll usher in a golden era of human development. But to say that atheism has not bettered the world, and your example is China, is very shortsighted.

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