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A lot of people bring up the effects of religion on society. Seems to be a mixed bag of positives and negatives. But what about atheism?


For Debate:
1. Is Atheism good for society? Please explain why or how.
2. Is Atheism good for individual well-being? Do you feel that you have some of the things that religions tend to offer, like purpose, meaning, value? Any other positives? Is it positive overall?
 
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I’m a weird, intense person, probably “spectrum,” meaning on the autism spectrum. And no, I’m not officially diagnosed. At age 60, very few people will be diagnosed.

My point being, I stand in awe of people who take religion in stride, without taking any of it too seriously. They take it as ritual for the birth of a child, marriage, and death.

They view it as good moral rules, such as don’t lie, don’t steal. And yes, of course, there are 100 exceptions to the “don’t lie” rule. The religion approach is not very sophisticated, which is another reason most people just don’t take it all that seriously.

Advantages of being an atheist:

1) more skills of skepticism including things like “multi-level marketing” also called “network marketing.” [and they probably have a new name by now! ]

2) avoid the trap of the promise of healing. For example, we have no idea why a child dies even though plenty of people are praying for him or her. Probably the best thing is to just respectfully offer the parents a sincere and heart-felt hug, and not try to lay any kind of philosophy on them.

3) Many of my posts here at our site are just topics for fun. But some of my posts are with the goal of providing a soft landing for people who are leaving religion. For example, it wasn’t until pretty late in my life that I found out just how many problems and issues the Bible have.

I’ve written about some of these in our Christianity (section 2), in which the Bible is not considered authoritative.
 
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2) avoid the trap of the promise of healing. For example, we have no idea why a child dies even though plenty of people are praying for him or her. Probably the best thing is to just respectfully offer the parents a sincere and heart-felt hug, and not try to lay any kind of philosophy on them.
I can see the benefit here. The theist might say well I have ONE big option where anything is possible, i.e. God. But even theists should know that God does not always answer the call to heal which is why even good Christians can die from sicknesses and from other tragedy. So then comes the benefit of atheism, where you don't put your hope all in one place but instead can explore a range of medical options. These medical options may also not always work but it beats waiting on a higher power to do something.

3) Many of my posts here at our site are just topics for fun. But some of my posts are with the goal of providing a soft landing for people who are leaving religion.
(y)(y)
 
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1. Is Atheism good for society? Please explain why or how.
I rarely see things in black-and-white and this is one of those occasions. I think atheism has some good and bad to it. The good aspects is that it gives you more freedom in that it's less restrictive. Where religion has all of this list of things you can't do, in atheism, there is no authority telling you what you can or can't do, like who you can have sex with. Although, nothing in the meaning of atheism says that atheists must be rational, but we can't deny that there is a strong and long tradition of atheists relying on reason and evidence. SO that would definitely benefit society when it comes to cutting through false ideas and superstition.

While lacking an authority has its positives, but this can also be a negative, like when standards (e.g. morals) can go in different ways or any way imaginable. Even if the atheist uses reason and evidence as their point of reference, but that is not always clear cut since some things can't be assessed using science. This might ultimately leave the question of what is "good" for society being decided by trial and error, and that's assuming we can all come to a common and practical understanding of what good is.
 
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So then comes the benefit of atheism, where you don't put your hope all in one place but instead can explore a range of medical options. These medical options may also not always work but it beats waiting on a higher power to do something.

I think the vast majority of Christians will use the services of a doctor for a sick child [or physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner, elevated as needed ].

In fact, there’s even a joke in evangelical circles about a man’s house getting flooded and he’s praying for God to save him. He’s now on the roof to escape the rising waters. A boat comes by and invites him to get onboard. But he tells them, “No, I’m waiting for God to rescue me.” A bigger boat and a helicopter also come by and he tells them the same thing.

The man dies and goes to heaven and he says to God, “Why didn’t you rescue me?” God says, “I tried to rescue you. I sent two boats and a helicopter, and you refused to get on board.”
 
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This might ultimately leave the question of what is "good" for society being decided by trial and error, and that's assuming we can all come to a common and practical understanding of what good is.

I took college ethics taught by the philosophy department. And almost all the class was a contrast and compare between . . .

Immanuel Kant’s “Categorical Imperative”

and

John Stuart Mill’s “Principle of Utility.”

And almost all the essays in our textbook emphasized the disagreements between the two theories, I think because that makes for livelier essays. But over the years I’ve kind of decided . . .

. . . that there’s a heck of a lot of overlap between the two theories.

For example, what’s good for human welfare is usually good for human rights, and vice versa. And if my mind immediately jumps to counter-examples seemingly right at my fingertips [and dear reader, maybe your mind immediately jumps to counter-examples, too!] , it generally means school has really emphasized the “on the one hand . . ” and the “ . . on the other hand . . ” side of citizenship. We might call this the “argumentative” side of citizenship! At the expense, I guess, of learning a variety of practical skills. How to have a happy marriage or a happy single life, how to do basic first aid, how to buy a car with much less chance of getting cheated, etc, etc, etc, and yes, how to be a good citizen, too.

PS I think schools sometimes try to do all this, but to be honest, not very well!
 
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Atheists and Fundies have been compared before, and while that is generalizing i think many of the comparisons hold up. I would expect a believer to trust someone with a caduceus on their lapel bc they are both in the world, and neither understands the advice of the Bible there. Personally i welcome ppl who have perceived problems and issues with the Bible, as that becomes an accurate reflection of heir state of mind; which i dont mean negatively.