Matt Heath: Why I'm sick of being an atheist - it can be stressful

[rug]

Matt Heath is a radio host on Radio Hauraki and Herald columnist.
5:00 AM Monday Mar 28, 2016

There is nothing in the Bible about the day after Jesus' resurrection. Meaning there is no compulsion for religious types to do anything on Easter Monday.

You can relax, feel bad about Jesus or treat yourself to a massive pile of chocolate eggs. It's up to you. For me Easter Monday is a great time to reflect on how boring it is to be an atheist.

My granddad was a minister. My mum read the Bible to me at night. But for some reason - like more than a million other Kiwis - I didn't grow up a believer. People like me will never feel the crucifixion, resurrection or ascension in our souls. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are just some mates we know.

But what can we do? No matter how hard we try we can't force ourselves to believe something we don't. Try this philosophy 101 experiment. Look at your right shoulder. Now concentrate really really hard and make yourself believe there's a takahe sitting on it. You can't. Even with a gun to your head, you couldn't make yourself believe.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11612527

[DetlefK]

1. He should have learned to pick his fights instead of fighting wind-mills.

1. Don't get into arguments about proving/disproving God's existence. Believers always have the unbeatable fall-back of defining God as undisprovable.

2. Don't waste your time preaching to preachers. "Belief" is personal and immune to outside arguments. It has to come from within them.

3. The mindsets of science, materialism and atheism are outcrops of the Renaissance-tradition of looking beyond established truth. (The cultural predecessor of the scientist was the occult magus of Renaissance-Europe.) Spread a mind-set of curiosity, questioning and doubting. That's how to combat religion in the long term, not by yelling at people.




Hi rug.

[rug]

2. Good morning, DetlefK.

The more atheist literature you read, the more annoyed you get with society. You see through the matrix and start to question the foundations of the system. I started blaming everything on religion, from wars and teenage pregnancy to not being able to buy booze on Christmas day. You feel a deep duty to spread the word that the word is rubbish. It's stressful.

He agrees with you.

[Jerry442]

3. Take time to look at the stars...

...or spend an hour looking at a flower close up. Or plant a garden and watch the plants grow day by day. Or try to grasp the reality that you are the descendant of an unbroken chain of millions of generations of humans, proto-humans, primates, and on and on.

There's more than enough awe and wonder out there for us all, mate.

[edhopper]

4. I'd say this is not true of the far majority of atheists

We spend our time loudly quoting Richard Dawkins at Christian friends. We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Most just keep their atheism to themselves.

However, I have a few very Christian relatives who do spend there time talking about what God wants us to do. I also see Orthodox Jews who must be exhausted trying to make sure every facet of their lives are in accordance with god's arcane laws.
But atheists, must just live their lives unencumbered by worry a God judging them.

[rug]

5. I think most people primarily try to lead good lives regardless of ideology.

[edhopper]

6. I agree with that

Unfortunately to many let hate of other people shade their thinking. And I am thinking about Trump and the GOP, not religion.

[MisterP]

7. if his friend's frothing at Psalm 137, disco can help with that

[rug]

8. He wiil survive.

[MisterP]

9. oh no, disco's inspired by gospel music! better trash 'em right after they get the "St."

out of the name of St. Louis!