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E-SKEPTIC is the weekly electronic version of Skeptic magazine. In November 00, I posed a challenge to E-SKEPTIC readers that was presented to me by an old friend named Randy Kirk, who is a Christian with whom I have had many long discussions and debates about science, religion, and philosophy. That question is What are the benefits of being a skeptic (or nonbeliever, atheist, agnostic, free thinker, etc.); conversely, along the lines of Pascals wager, in Randys words How can the anti-god folks argue that their persuading others away from God, Jesus, and religion is a benefit to them now or in some potential afterlife. All the scientific evidence points to benefits of faith.
Some entries were lightly edited for grammar and length. The response from several believers, and Randy Kirks response, follows at the end.
Why would anyone purposely add the limitations of a superstition to his/her intellect and imagination? As human beings on a backwater planet, our faculties are already limited enough. -Ron LaDow, rwmld@email.com
What does not believing in God have to offer? Nothing. I believe things because Im convinced that they are true, not because they make me happy. If I believed in things to be happy, I would believe in God. -Dan Mason, jlapaglia@hotmail.com
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Our ability to feel the affect that might be named transcendence seems to be an emergent characteristic of our species. It appears in all ethnic groups, but with variation among individuals and tempering by culture. Our ability to hold at one time both a rational understanding of something and a faith-based understanding also seems to be an emergent characteristic of our species. An appeal to a religious faith as an explanation for a feeling of transcendence simply diminishes both explanation and transcendence. I have enjoyed a lot more of both since dropping my belief in the personal presence of a god. -Lee Van Slyke, San Clemente
As a student and teacher of anthropology of religion, Ive always been struck by the extreme religious ethnocentrism that is almost invariably inherent in the Pascals wager-like arguments presented by Christian devotees. If they were to take this wager seriously, it would be incumbent on them to apply it to all of the worlds diversity of religions. This would take them into a study of that diversity, and they would soon become aware of the in-depth lack of uniqueness of their particular religion, as well as the contingent nature of their chosen faith. In fact, such a study, if carried out in any depth at all, would leave them little to no time to devote to just one religion! -Leon Albert, lalbert001@earthlink.net
Although my conversion was more discovery than change, I have substantially shed the debris of superstitions, unwarranted assumptions, and attacks on my credulity that characterizes life among the faithful. I feel exhilarated, and even cleansed. At long last (Im 81), a substantial chunk of who and what I am seems to be falling into place. Although I have and will debate/discuss/argue with others, and write letters to editors and to members of the Ohio school board re Darwin v. Design, I think it is fruitless to proselytize. I just enjoy. -Shel Harper, Broadview Heights, Ohio
Ever since the day I became a full blown skeptic, and I was unafraid to announce my skepticism in organized religion and the need to answer to a God who seemed to be very demanding in areas of Love of him/herself, I am now free to live without fear of a Godly damnation and a life of everlasting fear and pain, as described by the Christian religion that I was raised in. I am now prepared to leave this world one day, and I have no fear of the unknown anymore. I am being judged by my own conscience and I still believe that man must assist others when necessary in order to achieve the most important thing that I know of Self Respect. -George Poole, gpoole@adelphia.net
I have embarked upon a journey. An entity whose world was prescribed from beginning to end, where the deepest mysteries are given meanings, and life is promised beyond the grave. Not willingly did I depart, nor yet know the final port. But once underway, there is no turning back. The winds that push me are the sins of manipulation and deceit. Only my ignorance of these practices allowed me to reside in the Promised Land. Awareness began my journey and insight and understanding became my destinations. Is there a benefit to this journey for me or for others? The question is open-ended by not specifying to what end. If your purpose will be enhanced by a close affinity to reality and truth then the dissolution of mythologies is required. If subjugation to pacifistic norms is desirable and rational thinking disruptive then there is no benefit to journey away from the dogmas of religious beliefs. I measure the benefits of my journey through the knowledge and understanding of who I am denied me in that far away Promised Land. -MMantyk@bcbsm.com
My behaviors are now my own. They are not the product of religious guilt or indoctrination, but of my own mind and my own appreciation of that which makes life (all life) great! I am free to appreciate a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a sinner for whom they are, not what they are. When I walk beneath the stars, I can look up and wonder at their origins, while tasking my mind to try and comprehend their endless mysteries. Everything in this world becomes a question, leading to more questions, leading to endless possibilities and thought invoking quandaries. The simplest organism is precious and awe inspiring. Questions and thoughts have replaced faith and dogma. My mind is now free to roam in places once restricted. Where God once imprisoned my mind, atheism has set it free to roam the universe in search of answers...in search of nothing more substantial than a place to roam! -Shawn K. Heflick
There are more than a dozen major religions, many of which profess to represent the true nature of existence. Among these, some describe an afterlife, promising wondrous things for believers, and eternal torment for the rest. Being a believer would mean choosing one of these religions, or possibly personalizing one for myself. In essence, I would be betting on the one that seems most appropriate to me. But what if there were no afterlife? I would have wasted some of the short time I have on this world encumbered by my religions code of conduct. Even worse, what if there were an afterlife, but I had picked the wrong beliefs, thereby vouchsafing for myself eternal torment? In short, the chances of my choosing the right religion and experiencing a wonderful afterlife are slim. Given the further possibilities of no afterlife or eternal torment, I find it best to live my life true to myself. -Jamie Sanderson, jamie@sanderson.ca
Lets separate faith and doctrine. As a person raised in Christianity for the first 18 years of my life, I can tell you that it was a huge relief for me to reject religious belief. I was rid of a lot of guilt and confusion. I am much happier now. Has Mr. Kirk read the Old Testament? How can anyone in their right mind revere a god like Jehovah, who murders, burns, and destroys his chosen people when they disobey him? -james11@rocketmail.com
Freedom to see/hear/feel life through my own experiences, not through the filter of religion. Without religion, I can immediately experience, enjoy, judge and evaluate any experience without first running it through the God filter and deciding how I am supposed to feel. And contrary to what most people think, I find that a greater sense of moral responsibility comes from only having to answer to oneself. -Sheila1
Benefits to being a non-believer in the supernatural
1. You are constantly searching for meaning and the truth since you do not settle for the god did it, it was a miracle, God has his own (not-understandable by mortals) reasons, etc.
. You believe that everything is explainable in principle, and the only difference between a miracle and a natural phenomenon is that you are not able yet to explain the former in natural terms.
. You do not feel compelled to teach your children a dogma of any kind other than to think freely and to push the limits of knowledge. There are no questions that need to be silenced, ignored or dismissed as an attitude problem. It makes it okay to answer, I do not know to many of the great questions in philosophy.
4. If, in the future, a more technologically advanced civilization learns about our rituals and myths they may want to enslave us by putting on a Second Coming show, or impersonating Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and the like. That will not work with skeptics.
5. You are more likely to like and understand science because it will not conflict with your belief system since it is your belief system.
6. Your moral values are not based in a reward and punishment system and the complexity of morality is more apparent to you than to those that believe it was handed out to them by a being that supposedly knows best.
7. You do not blame the devil for the bad things that happen to you, you do not thank God for the good things that happen to you. You understand the statistical nature of events beyond your control and you take responsibility for your own mistakes if that is what caused the bad thing to happen and thank yourself and your teachers (parents, friends etc.) for the good things that are a direct result of a good decision you made.
8. You live life to the fullest because you do not trust there is life after death. You have obvious reasons to work on making this world a better place. You acknowledge that nobody really knows what happens after you die so there is no reason to see death as a good or a bad thing for the individual that dies and definitely as a bad thing for those who are emotionally attached to that individual.
. You have no moral quarrels with the advancement of medicine and the extension of life because if this is it, you may want to stay around a bit longer.
10. From my personal experience I have found that I am more likely to have friends belonging to different faiths than someone that feels compelled to stick to their own kind. People also tend to speak their minds more freely around you. -Jose H. Diaz, jdiaz100@cox.net
We need to first clarify the question by making a few distinctions and definitions. Skepticism does not necessarily equate with non-theism. Skepticism is essentially a way of forming and evaluating beliefs, in philosophical terms, an epistemology, plus perhaps an associated ethics of belief. Skeptics believe that in matters of the intellect we ought to follow our reason so far as it is possible. This means keeping an open mind and basing your beliefs, so far as possible, on the total evidence. None of this necessarily precludes belief in God or an afterlife. It may be that most skeptics are non-theists and doubt the possibility of an afterlife. If this is so, this is a contingent matter of fact-it just so happens that, in reality, there is no credible evidence for the existence of God or an afterlife (and perhaps rather strong reasons for doubting both). A second and essential point is that if someone is a non-theist, he or she ought to adopt that position because it is the truth (or the most likely to be true given what we know). It is a mistake to think that we ought to either believe in God or not believe in God because of the psychological benefits of doing so (or not doing so). So, in answer to the question Why should I be a non-believer? the response should fundamentally be, because that is the truth, and you ought to believe the truth-this what rationality requires.
Someone might say that the existence or non-existence of God is not a matter of the intellect but rather of the heart, of the emotions, of faith. My response is that going this direction leads us to nothing but a quagmire of incompatible positions that all claim to be based on faith or feeling, for if reason can give us no guidance, what is there to indicate that any one faith is any better than any other? Reason is and must be the final arbiter of truth. Having said all this, I think it is a misconception that a non-theistic, non-religious worldview must be bleak and depressing. The universe may be contingent and it may have only the meaning that humans give it, but why should this be so terrible? There is abundant awe and wonder in the natural world for those who are willing to see it, and the achievements of humankind, while finite and fragile, are achievements nonetheless. As Bertrand Russell once wrote, Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. -Shawn Dawson, sl.dawson@sk.sympatico.ca
One benefit I derive from my nonbelief in a God or gods is the satisfaction of being honest with others and myself. Intellectually, I find the proposition of the existence of God or gods fantastic, to say the least, and about as likely as being true as of there actually being leprechauns. I began feeling this way at an early age, but because I was raised by fundamentalist Christians it took me many years to own up to my own brain. It also took me time to develop my thinking skills to where I could make such decisions rationally and objectively rather than based simply on emotion, as I was raised to do. Years later, I can finally say, I am an honest person-I admit that I do not believe in God, Zeus, Osiris, or any other such supernatural entities.
A second benefit I derive is freedom-freedom from fear of being watched by the All-Seeing Eye of God who watches and judges everything a person does; freedom from the rules and dictates of the writers of the Bible thousands of years ago whose motives, morals, education, and very identities are unknown. I remember distinctly the terrifically joyous feeling I had when I finally admitted to myself that there was no God! I was finally free of all the superstitions, rules, tired aphorisms, and nonsense that is organized religion. I could be my own person, act by my own humanist beliefs, and finally enjoy life instead of spending my time worrying about death. And I was free to find my own meaning to my life rather than blindly adopting someone elses.
A third benefit, and possibly the most important, is that, by ridding myself of a belief in God, I gained a firm ground in morals. The moral foundations of deistic religions are based on the might makes right principle God says it is right to do X and wrong to do Y, and since God is bigger than you and me, we have to do what God says. Read the moral tenets of the Bible; you will find no justifications or explanations. The only ground for the moral teachings of the Bible is Do this and dont do that because God says so. The religious weltanschauung is that people are puny, miserable wretches (as in the song Amazing Grace) and God is the King of the Universe, so God has all authority to make the rules, reward his followers, and stamp out the ingrates as He sees fit. According to this view, humans only need to be good to each other because we are ordered to do so, not because we have empathy for other beings, or because we care for them, or because we recognize that we are all part of a mutually dependent society, or any other number of good reasons for being kind to one another.
Since throwing off the yoke of such teachings, I have developed an understanding of humanist ethics and found that my morality is much stronger and more honest because it is based on personal intellectual rigor and personal enlightenment rather than through mindless, blind obedience. -Jon Puro, puroj@pcez.com
Isnt being committed to the truth, wherever it leads, the only way an intellectually honest person can live? This is an inherent benefit for living the way of the skeptic. Im less susceptible to being conned because I want to see the evidence. Skeptics understand human life is special because of our human values and high human aspirations, not because of some sadistic God who made things the way they are. Thus skeptics are more inclined by nature to solve their own problems, because we know there is no man in the sky who is going to take care of us. We know that turning things over to God basically means doing nothing. Being a skeptic means being a mature adult who takes responsibility for his or her own life. How could any adult person make a conscious decision to live their life any other way? -William Winston Newbill, Arlington, Texas, Newbill@aol.com
As the webmaster for one of the oldest personal websites on the net devoted at least in part to skepticism (www.bidstrup.com), and one of the busiest (over 4,000 reads per day), I get a lot of email on this question, and have for years, and have become quite practiced (and rather brutally frank) at providing an answer. This is what I tell religionists, who of course are primarily Christians, who ask me that question
First, I must say that the universe is quite coldly indifferent to what us mere humans wish to believe. Belief for the mere sake of belief, is, in my opinion, nothing more than a form of mental masturbation, and about as useful in enriching our lives-reality doesnt care what we want, so belief based on nothing more than a desire to believe accomplishes absolutely nothing in terms of approaching the truth as to the nature of the universe and our place in it. If we are descended from pond scum, then the reality is that we are descended from pond scum, and all the angst of a Woody Allen, the abhorrence of a Benjamin Disraeli, or the sneering contempt of a Duane Gish would not change that reality. Indeed, all the centuries of religious mysticism and, frankly, wishful thinking, have accomplished very little human progress in comparison to the four centuries that have elapsed since the Enlightenment, which in its philosophical basis is essentially a rejection of religious mysticism in favor of a reliance on human faculty in discerning the nature of reality. When Christianity ruled the world, we called it the Dark Ages, and our rejection of religious rule of both the political and natural sciences has come to be called the Enlightenment. Why, then, can we not recognize and accept what this tells us about the nature of religious belief, and the usefulness of religious doctrine in the governance of our lives?
Second, as a matter of personal comfort, I find that a belief in the best description of reality I can discern (while recognizing its limitations), however indifferent to my circumstance, is far more comforting than belief in a set of doctrines that demand that I worship a narcissistic god, or obey an arbitrary one. This is particularly true when I contemplate the vast variety of dogmatic systems, most of which are mutually exclusive, but nearly all of which demand my acceptance of their doctrinal exclusivity. If a god exists, that god has allowed an intolerable degree of confusion as to its nature and the manner in which its existence is to be honored, worshipped or observed. Such an intolerable confusion, without a single shred of evidence as to which, if any, are correct, represent an unacceptable injustice on the part of a being usually described as omnibenevolent. How can this be?
Third, the arguments for a belief based on the desire to believe strike me as essentially infantile, like the child who believes in Santa Claus only because the notion of a magical being who can provide him with the toys he wants is comforting to him. One of the quintessential elements of maturity is the ability to recognize, accept and face the world as it really is, not as we wish it to be, and to make an exception in the case of religion is neither an example of maturity nor is it flattering to our belief in ourselves as rational beings. Why then, do we congratulate the growing maturity of our children when they abandon their belief in Santa Claus, and yet insist that they accept what is in essence, a grown-up version of the same thing? Is not a mature acceptance of an uncomfortable reality better than the acceptance of a warm and fuzzy fantasy?
Fourth, I find it much more satisfying to assign the meaning to life which I wish to assign to it, than have it assigned for me by an arbitrary doctrinal system, which has only a very tiny chance at best of being factually correct (only one of the many thousands of mutually exclusive doctrinal systems can possibly be correct). When I was born, the meaning for my life is a blank slate, and I thank the Universe for that! It means I am quite free to assign the meaning I choose, and to make whatever contribution to the world I am capable and desirous of making, or Im equally free to make none at all if I so desire. It is the ultimate in personal freedom, and I find that notion to be deliciously satisfying! Theres no being standing over me with a whip telling me to do this or that; rather, there is instead the freedom offered by my own sense of self esteem and self worth directing me to make the contribution that I choose, based on my own talents and interests. So why would I prefer to have the meaning to my life arbitrarily assigned to me by a doctrinal system that, with almost absolute statistical certainty, is arbitrary itself?
The reason that it is urgent that we abandon our religious dogma is simple human justice and intellectual and social progress demand it. -Scott Bidstrup
The freedom inherent in the view that there is nothing preordained by an omniscient entity is supremely liberating. However, my agnosticism allows more. At heart I am a physicist. I truly enjoy the contingent aspect of scientific knowledge. It is possible that one day a new theory will be announced that, in a completely novel way, accounts for some aspect of reality better than what we have now. The twin revolutions of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics did this. Each changed our views of reality in fundamental ways and allowed us to extend our understanding, and thereby our control, of whole ranges of phenomena. As we learn we see reality in entirely new ways and we can use this knowledge to create a better world.
The meaning of life is found in our contributions to the sum total of human culture. For me this is far more fulfilling than following the dictates of an omniscient and omnipotent whatever. Without a god the struggle produces something that could not otherwise be. -Leonard Tramiel
I take great satisfaction in knowing there is no all-powerful invisible man living in the sky whos just waiting for me to step out of line. What a terrible thought that gods might actually exist and that we would be powerless before them. Christians and other religious people say we need moral laws handed down from a higher power, with fear of eternal consequences if we dont obey. Otherwise were free to just act on any notion that pops into our heads. So what of gods in that case? What are they but beings with no higher power telling them what to do, and no fear of any consequences? Gods can act on any selfish, outrageous whims that they want, and we would be told to obey or else. I take great comfort in the lack of gods. -Burt Ward, Skyflight@Decepticon-Empire.org
The first question we have to ask ourselves, before we ask anything else, is whether it is more important to us that our beliefs are as true and accurate as we can make them-or whether it is more important to us that our beliefs work in our lives, that they provide us with comfort, reassurance, and a sense of identity and meaning. What is true and what we would like to be true are not always the same, and many false beliefs will work for the people who live happily by them.
To ask the question what are the benefits of being an atheist, agnostic, skeptic, etc. is to implicitly begin from the assumption that what matters most is ones personal comfort, not truth. If this really is your ultimate standard-and if your choice does not clash with the happiness and freedom of anyone else-there may not be any point in telling you that youre wrong. But by the same token, you cannot tell anyone else that they are wrong-there is no wrong by this standard.
The beginning of wisdom is a love of truth, the Greeks once wrote. I agree. -Sue Strandberg
Liberating is the key word. You dont have to choose sides, and belong to a group that is in competition with so many other groups that claim spiritual superiority. From this outsiders vantage point, on balance, so much competition and conflict between religions outweighs their usefulness.
When I was growing up in Pasadena, I remember the great emotions of cheering our football team in the homecoming game against the hated cross-town rivals. Looking back on it, I was so emotionally invested in the fortunes of my high school team that I really believed we were better than our rivals.
A year or two later I happened upon a homecoming game in a nearby town. Suddenly I realized that my emotional investment in the fortunes of my home football team was entirely an accident of where I happened to go to school, not a function of how good or deserving my team was. If religious people recognized that the particular beliefs they hold are most likely simply a function of where they happened to grow up, perhaps the diminished emotional intensity of their religious experience-presumably a minus to them personally-would result in less conflict with other religious people. -Ralph Leighton, tuva@sprintmail.com
For the secular mind (a term I prefer to atheist or nonbeliever), life is much more comprehensible and simple. The ancient, clouded beliefs fall away to reveal the vast splendor of nature, of existence, the preciousness of being alive, being conscious, of being sentient. This experience is not mediated by the belief in a higher power; it is direct and very powerful. For some, it is almost too much to bear. Life may become poetry, but not everyone is a poet. Some may fall in love with nothingness and some may wish they had never been born at all.
In place of trying to puzzle out the hopeless mystery of Gods justice, a very human morality emerges that strives to make our lives better. Morality is something man does for himself and it is mans sense of fairness that drives it as well as all forms of government or systems of justice. Human moral systems are imperfect, but they have been continuously improved with experience.
The secular mind feels at ease among other animals and life on this planet and accepts our place in the greater scheme of things. For some, family may become more important that fame. For others, pleasure may no longer be deferred for an afterlife. The realization dawns that each individuals sense of purpose is independent of the workings that resulted in the individual, that the meaning of human life is for humans to determine and no one else. Men at some time are masters of their fates The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.… -John Howard, Silverlake, California, JoHo44
Why am I an atheist? Life makes more sense this way. Think of all the big questions Why is there pain? Because things happen that dont work well for us. For instance, natural disasters dont usually work for our advantage. Also, diseases tend to hurt us. They arent out to get us. Theyre just doing their thing, which we happen to dislike rather strongly because it interferes with our goals. Since the universe was not designed with us in mind, this makes sense.
Why is there evil? There isnt. There are just people who do bad things. There will always be people who would rather break the rules than follow them, and those people will always hurt others and themselves.
Why do good things happen to bad people, and bad things to good people? Because life isnt fair. If no one is upstairs keeping score, then there is no one upstairs to screw up and make bad things happen to good people, or vice versa. This makes sense in a world without a god. Regardless of whether there is or is not a god, life is still the same. Imagine A Christian and an Atheist walk down the street together. Regardless of what they see, think, feel, or say, theyre still walking down the street together. Its the same existence for all of us, and what we believe about it doesnt change it. If God had wanted us to worry about the intangible, God wouldnt have put us in a tangible world. -Peter Wall, peterj@madnet.net
Nice question, but as pointless as the opposite one, What benefits are there in believing? Yes, one can find rational explanations for believing in God (or any other esoteric phenomenon), like consolation or Pascals wager. Quite correctly various philosophical and theological thinkers pointed out that none of these can be a basis for individual belief-you either do or dont. I am not looking for a benefit in my non-believing. I actually prefer Douglas Adams position, calling myself a radical atheist who is deeply convinced that there is no such thing as God except in the mind of people choosing the easy way to interpret the world. When they ask, But how can you live in a world you presume to be without a meaning, an aim, they show that they cannot fathom to give meaning to their life themselves. Skepticism does have benefits in that people have to look at the world and decide for themselves, which means to be non-partisan and tolerant of others (until they threaten ones own tolerance and life). -Dierk Haasis
First of all, for me, Pascals wager is a profoundly cynical and calculating approach to Christian belief. Its basically a rational-choice, cost-benefit analysis of a conviction that comes to people-if you believe religious people-non-rationally.
What is more, Pascals Wager comes from a Christian perspective, which believes in the persistence of the personality in immaterial form after death, and reward or punishment for that immateriality. Pascal, after all, lived in a monolithically Catholic culture. From this cultural perspective, Pascals Wager makes sense because of the tacit, culturally conditioned acceptance of the possibility of eternal punishment in a hell. But when one understands that the existence of an immaterial soul, a heaven, and a hell are not self-evident, but merely culturally and historically contingent beliefs, the rationality of Pascals Wager disappears.
As to the second question, I find myself puzzled. If Christian faith can be shaken by rational examination of beliefs, then it is not really much of a faith. To charge atheist thinkers with destroying the faith of Christians insults Christians. Are the minds of Christians so weak that the merest whisper of rational enquiry can shatter their worldview, and rob the universe of its wonder? This, it seems to me, was formerly the position of Catholic cultures; therefore, free expression was suppressed.
We no longer live in a culturally or religiously monolithic culture. Christians must accept this, and expect to face challenges to their beliefs at every turn. Otherwise, they can choose to sequester themselves from the hurly burly of American public and academic life. But the impulse to suppress our societys freedom of thought and expression in order to safeguard the religiously faithful is at the core of the dangers of fundamentalism, and from this danger springs a great deal of my repugnance for it, be that fundamentalism Christian or any other kind. -Carol Ann Wald, C. Phil., UCLA Department of English, wald@humnet.ucla.edu
The benefit comes not so much from not believing itself but from the process that might lead one to nonbelief discovering, through the proper study of history, nature, and human nature, the fundamental fact that we are all prone to latching on blindly to such dogmas, be they religious dogmas or political or social ones. It is not through atheism itself that one is freed from these shackles, for atheism can also be a kind of dogma, if embraced for cynical, ideological reasons as it often is. It is rather through the methods and the intellectual honesty that comes from a true study of human history, reason, and science that one is best equipped to free oneself from all dogmas, and to embrace the challenge of discovering new mysteries for the sake of the inquiry itself, without concern about where the inquiry might lead, if anywhere at all. Finally, such a realization has broad applications in all aspects of life, including politics, business, social, and family life. The courage to be wrong, an awareness of the frailties of our intuitions, and the willingness to accept mystery are always our best guides in life, and provide us with a deep strength in the humility inherent to such principles, as contrasted with the seductive sound-bites offered by religious doctrine which lead only to hubris. -Gerry Ohrstrom, gfohstrom@aol.com
You cannot think freely within the frameworks of religious faith anymore than you can judge fairly with the prejudices of a bigot. Loss or lack of faith opens up more questions than it answers, of course, but that is the point. What is the point of god other than to provide psychological comfort for those who do not need answers? I really dont see its value to society. The benefit of nonbelief is a much larger, much more interesting world. As a non-believer I know that the consistent and reliable physical properties of matter control my existence, not an unpredictable deity whose actions and motivations can only be characterized as mysterious. I can study science and better understand how I affect and am affected by the world around me. Studying god, at best, allows me to understand the human process of rationalization. -Bill Henske
I often wish that I could believe in a god, but alas, one cannot make oneself believe something when your logical mind cannot perceive any evidence to support it. It seems to me that it is (or should be) a high moral principle to always seek the truth. This is the only justification that I have for the value of my non-belief. The god story has no justification and panders to the strong feelings that humans have for purpose, life after death, and someone to watch over them (i.e. it is most convenient and emotionally attractive). Nevertheless, I wish I could believe it and I would not want to convince others to abandon their faith. If it helps them get through life and doesnt hurt anyone else, well, thats good for them. (I feel the same way about drugs.) My only concern is when they begin to 1. violate my moral principle (Seek the Truth) by denying the knowledge that science has provided and attempting to convince others of the validity of conflicting religious interpretations of the physical world (e.g. Creationism), or . imposing their moral values on others (e.g. homophobia, dress codes, suppression of alternative views, censorship). Otherwise, Let them enjoy their lovely delusion. -Allan Ferrenberg, Bishop, CA
Faith in religion is a mask that prevents a person from seeing the world and the universe as it really is, rather than the way he or she or someone else thinks it should be. Scientific findings that conflict with the tenets or dogmas of religion, such as on the origin of the universe, life and evolution, will not be accepted objectively, on their face, without emotional bias. A religious person thinks that religion has some truth to bear on topics like these, but that is false. Different religions across the world would claim knowledge of the answers to the specific questions in such fields, but these answers are not derived from empirical evidence. They are what someone once thought they should be. Not only are they at variance with sciences answers, they dont agree with one another either. So there is a Christian origin story, a Moslem one, a Hindu one, a Taoist one, etc.
Science doesnt work like this. It doesnt care what someone thinks things should be. The answers it derives are based on time-tested heuristics known as scientific methodologies, in which empirical evidence is used to get answers in a manner as unbiased as humanly possible. We speak of American religion, Arab religion, Chinese religion, Indian religion, and so forth. There is no such division for science. How science is done anywhere in the world is the same, and American science is not in any way different from Indian science.
Giving up religion changes your whole way of thinking. Religion relies on dogma and authorities for answers. Science relies on empirical evidence, looked at and considered as objectively as possible. A theist approaches problems with the mindset of, What does my religion have to say about this? A skeptic and scientist instead seeks to understand the problem by finding as many facts as possible and then connect those facts to the problem as objectively as possible. The non-theist therefore can deal with the world as it really is. The theist deals with the world as he or she thinks it should be. -Ron Ebert, ron.ebert@ucr.edu
The benefits of faith, whatever they are, ring hollow if they are based on a faith in something that doesnt exist. The related benefit of disbelief is the satisfaction of being courageous and intellectually honest. We must see what is true and then deal with the consequences-we cannot choose what we would like to believe based on the benefits of the belief itself. I frequently hear the argument that I should change what I believe to achieve some end-to avoid going to Hell or to live a happier life or whatever. The bizarre thing about this argument is the implication that I can choose to believe something just because I stand to gain by doing so. I know that the Earth revolves around the Sun. If you promised me a million dollars to change that belief and accept that the Earth is the stationary center of the universe, I might want to change my belief, but I dont think I could, no matter how hard I tried. I could say I believed it, I could act like I believed it, but I couldnt really believe it. - Mark Gilbert, markgilbert@pobox.com
What are the benefits of non-belief and skepticism? Well, what are the benefits in non-belief and skepticism in Santa Claus? When the Santa myth becomes unsustainable, adults teach children that being good is its own reward. We teach them that being law-abiding will keep them out of trouble with society; we teach them that doing unto others will help them remain loyal to their friends and acquaintances; we teach them that holding true to their principles will keep them out of trouble with their psyche. We tell them that if they do this all year round, they will not need a Santa to deliver presents on December 5th. Losing your belief in a Santa who convinced you to behave as a child did not cause you to issue moral wagers about Santa! Why is that? Whether you believe in God or not, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Believing in God does not change that. Modern societies recognize that throwing virgins into volcanoes will not enhance crop production. Why would God create rules for a physical universe that are so observable and logical but not create rules for spiritualism that are just as obvious? As I ask all my religious friends If I can be a good person without religion, what are the benefits of belief and dogmatism? -Susan van Druten, Duluth, MN
There is a selection bias at work here. Randy is ignoring the countless people suckered out of income that they cannot afford to give, countless people birthing children they cannot afford to feed, countless people suffering from diseases that they are believing on God to cure. There are plenty of instances of people throwing away their insulin at a healing rally and promptly suffering diabetic collapse.
There might be some scientific evidence pointing to some benefits of faith, I suppose, but I think we could probably dig up some to the contrary-particularly faiths that encourage people to live life in guilt and fear and to deny that this is what they are doing. Not to mention things like bible-sanctioned child abuse (the blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil etc). But the real benefit of nonbelief is one that todays me-first generation might not be able to appreciate. Its not the immediate benefits to the individual that are the most important nonbelief has created a better society. Public health, science, and tolerance-all these things came about in the west as people began to reject reliance on faith and revealed religion. Compare the life you live today with that of the dark-age peasant. Thats what nonbelief has to offer and has delivered. -pmurray@bigpond.com
To me the benefits of being a skeptic and nonbeliever in religious nonsense is that I am not burdened with believing things that are demonstrably untrue or very likely untrue. Ones beliefs tie in to other beliefs; for example if one believes in non-physical entities (spirits) that can interact with the world, it sets you up for various other goofy notions. I think you can waste a lot of time and mental energy dealing with unjustified beliefs. But fundamentally, I value truth. I want to know the truth of the way things work. I know that despite the attempt to winnow my beliefs, there are some things I believe that will later be shown false. But I definitely dont want to bother with quite obviously failed hypotheses. I echo Laplace. On another tack, I dont think that I feel more than the usual existential angst, and indeed I get quite a bit of enjoyment out of life. I also dont notice that religious people are any more serene about this than I am, despite their often proclaimed belief in an afterlife or the comfort of belief in a father like god. If there are negative consequences for your life in being a skeptic (more likely to be social than existential), well, you just have to live with them. Unbelief offers the freedom to roam intellectually, unbound by dogma. -Richard Thomas, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, rthomas@rrpac.upr.clu.edu
Not believing in God, in an afterlife, in a premeditated decision to bring human beings as a species into existence can initially have the appearance of a cynical, bleak outlook on life. The more that the implications of this view are examined however, the less hopeless it shows itself to be; the more it becomes apparent that not only is there room for hope, it is a necessary outcome of critical thinking. Not a vague, undemonstrated, unlikely form of hope, but real hope with a backbone. Demonstrations of the power of empirical evidence tell us we are getting better at working through problems that at one time we could find no way of positively addressing and therefore harbor no real hope for solving. We had the option to simply want to decrease infant mortality, to communicate quickly with people from around the world, to understand our place in space and in time. As it happened, we found that addressing questions like this had a fruitful direction to take.
What was the trade-off? We bartered false hope for longer life, ways to reduce pain in that life, fruitful methods to find out about nature and in so doing discovering ways to approach a highly varied manner of problems and desires with a real chance of making a positive impact. Yes, problems came up to. The environmental ones, the awful potential for mass extinction that our weapons make possible, grossly unnecessary animal experimentation. But there is a way to deal with these problems. We could want them to solve themselves or we can look at reasonable methods of addressing each of them. We can throw our arms up asking why God let another tragic event occur and pray for forgiveness, or we can work on preventing future tragedy with sound methods. That is real power.
I am throwing ethics into this because science itself needs help on what to do with its power. Do you want someone to interpret then act according to a book that can be seen as condoning killing for belief or non-belief in its particular version of God; or would it be better to come to ethical decisions using an informed intellect that finds the mentioned course of action to be unacceptable? Indeed, if there were an afterlife, then the taking of a life should cause no real grief if the deceased were a good person. Its easier to take life for granted when you have something even better coming afterwards.
If this life is the only one we are getting, and there is no evidence that this is not the case, how much more appealing this life is! There is no longer a resistance to troubling scientific findings like evolution. Now you can experience that facet of nature as the true and amazing phenomenon it is. Knowing that you didnt inadvertently make a mistake that will cause a vengeful God to stick you into a place where you are horribly tortured for eternity also has its psychological perks. Could there ever be a case where I would find it unnecessary to let my skepticism be known? Well, picking my battles, I would probably not hold this debate with someone that was on their deathbed who thought they were going to heaven. There may not be enough time for them to come to terms with these ideas where they would have had a chance to if told earlier. There are other cases, Im sure, but it is an overwhelmingly positive, indeed necessary, thing to come to grips with reality, or at least attempt to get as near to it as we can, if we hope to make positive changes in the real lives we have. - Scott Armetta
Having grown up in a skeptical family, I was surprised to find, when I joined various humanists groups. How bitter many of the members were toward religion. I think that the reason that surveys of church members find them happy is because the others have left. And they left because the teachings of their churches crippled their ability to love and accept themselves, because their churches made them feel guilty about ordinary human sexuality. Most of the humanists I talk to say that giving up the idea of a god has given them the joy of appreciating life, knowing that the time to be happy is now.
Another point is that you give up the constant cognitive dissonance that religious people live with. Many people I know who still attend churches say that they put aside the conflicts between science and religion by putting them in separate compartments. They know that the Bible is a collection of old myths cobbled together by a relatively primitive society, but they still want to focus on the beautiful teachings and visions that are mixed into the stew. I dont believe that this really works for anyone. I dont think it works for anyone when there are really difficult moral and emotional issues to be resolve. I think when a child dies, a spouse leaves or suffers horrible illness, the false comfort of belief fails and people face the same struggle to find interior personal strength that atheists do.
I think that skeptics appreciate the mysteries of the universe more because we dont make up answers. Skeptics know that we dont know everything. We understand Hamlets charge that there are more things in the heavens and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, but we dont believe that making up answers solves any problems. This may deprive us of a false sense of security, but it may enable us to be more successful at finding workable and realistic solutions. -Judith Daar Berkeley, Secular Humanists of the East Bay
Benefits of nonbelief include
1. Authenticity. An atheist does not have to stifle inevitable perceptions of the absurdities present in religious teachings and rituals. (For instance, atheists do not weekly utter and lead us not into temptation while suppressing the question of why they are worshiping a God who would tempt them into wrongdoing unless begged not to.) An atheist does not answer, yes to the question, Do you believe in God? while silently thinking, but probably not the God you think Im affirming when I say that, and certainly not the God preached from the pulpit of the church I attend. Few of us-whether believers or nonbelievers-are completely honest with others and ourselves, but atheists have removed one very common and profound source of personal inauthenticity.
. Freedom from fear of others beliefs. While we all have good reason to fear some acts motivated by religious beliefs, atheists need not fear exposure to others beliefs. Atheists dont believe that a change of their own beliefs will cause them to lose some eternal benefit or incur eternal damnation, and they have no creed or sacred book that discourages their association with those having different views on religion. They are free to associate with whomever they please, to read whatever interests-even challenges-them, and to subject their own views to questioning. These freedoms make full engagement in the world less threatening to atheists, and open its wonders to them.
. Freedom from fear of the hereafter. Many god-worshipers believe that there is an afterlife that can be wonderful or horrible, and that the nature of ones afterlife depends on believing and doing precisely the right things here. Many of those afterlife-believers know that there is disagreement among them as to which beliefs and acts confer the desired ticket. Accordingly, they should have at least a vague uneasiness about their own afterlife qualification status. And even among those who are certain they know and have satisfied the admissions formula, there must be dread for the fate of loved ones (atheists, agnostics, or those of other faiths) who arent meeting that formula, and great internal tension over conflicting drives to convert loved ones for their own good and to remain silent for the sake of the short-term earthly relationship. Atheists might feel the same tension between their own desires to convert and to converse with god-worshiping loved ones, but are freed from worry that anyone will suffer eternally on account of their beliefs.
4. Responsible citizenship. Religions divide people, and those divisions have caused and are causing incalculable suffering. Religious dogmas can cut off evaluation of the facts bearing on important matters of public policy such as population growth. An atheist is free to engage any persons, facts, or ideas, and can respond to them on the basis of their merits. The progress of mankind has depended, and will depend, on the extent to which people do that. -L Becker, lbecker@mn.astound.net
I believe there are five major reasons why people cling to religion
1. An afterlife, a soul, life eternal. This is perhaps the most powerful attraction. What thinking being really wants to contemplate a final end to their personality, their very essence? How many parents, confronted with the death of a child, are comforted by the belief that their son or daughter is not really dead, but simply in a different place, a nice place (heaven) perhaps watching them as they go about their daily affairs. How could you ask people to really give that dream up?
. A friend in high places. Imagine having an open and direct line to the ear of the creator of the universe, the most powerful leader and being anywhere, a being who not only listens to you but occasionally, grants your wishes. Wow! Its like having your own genie in a bottle. To give up praying to your powerful but imaginary friend is to give up your genie; its a very tough thing to do.
. A powerful force to administer justice to the evil. How could humanity keep its sanity if it felt that the Hitlers and Stalins and evil emperors of the world would not get their just punishments when they finally came before God. Judgment Day is one of the most popular and tenacious teachings of all religions.
4. Control. Religion comes with a lot of rules that control the population and help others to manipulate it. World leaders for example, routinely capitalize on religion to get their soldiers to fight to the death. The power that religion has on controlling mens actions has not been lost on world leaders. From medicine men to witch doctors to priests to kings, everything from rigid social conformity to abortion to the brutal conquest of the world by Christians following their manifest destiny has been controlled via religion.
5. Community. Church is a very attractive way to make and keep friends and feel a part of a community. Sometimes, that community does good things that give you a sense of warmth. Sometimes, it can even do horrible things to others, all in the name of religion. Even so, people cling to religion, in part, to belong!
Why then, with all these good reasons, have I abandoned religion?
A line from the book and movie Contact by Carl Sagan can best summarize my reason. In the story, Palmer Jost is explaining to Elle Arroway why he opposed her nomination to become the Earths ambassador to space. He stated that he could not in good conscience, vote for a person who thought that the 5 percent of the people on Earth who believe in God were suffering from some mass delusion. Her response was simple wishing for it does not make it so! What then? If it is not true, and you know it, what do you do? Do you knowingly delude yourself into trying to believe it anyway? In short, do you lie to yourself in exchange for some of those precious benefits?
I believe that deep down most people have answered that question with a yes. In short, they agree to be brainwashed! If a person, with help from preachers and books and friends and world leaders can actually fool him/herself into believing in souls and ghosts and eternal life and powerful Gods to watch over us, what have we got to lose?
I faced that question many years ago and realized what I had to lose was myself. We only have one time around on Earth. I would rather live that time being honest to myself, shaping my values based upon universal morality and truth, not some fear of the fires of hell or Gods who created us on a whim and play with us like toys. I would rather live a life of truth than a life deluding myself into a belief I know is false. -Frank Gregorio, fs.gregs@gte.net
We used to sing a song that said, I can tell you now the time and I can take you to the place where the Lord saved me by his wondrous grace. A large amount of time in our Pentecostal services was devoted to such testimonials by converts telling the story of how they had been saved, born again, passed from death to life, the before and after, and how they knew it had happened because they now loved the brethren (and sistern). As a Christian, these were joyous reinforcing bits of soul food-Joy unspeakable and full of glory. That many of us have had Pauline like, on-the-road-to-Damascus experiences when losing our religion is not celebrated often enough. Hearing such stories always bolsters me. Not all of our stories may be equally dramatic but most of us can hark back to some event where a wondrous doubt entered our consciousness. You can remember where and when it happened. You want to sing songs to the glory of that moment.
The defining moment in my life happened in a class in New Testament Greek at John Brown University, Siloam Springs, Arkansas in 14. We Preacher Boys had just returned to class from the compulsory weekly chapel service at the Cathedral of the Ozarks. It had been a glorious service. The guest speaker was a well-known radio preacher from the West Coast. He had preached on the meaning of Zionism for Born Again Christians-Israel had just become a nation! The bottom line to his exciting message was that now that Israel was a nation Jesus would return within the next 0 to 40 years. He proved all this by the Bible. You cannot imagine the joy that good news brought to we who were preparing to go out and preach the gospel of Jesus Second Coming. As we walked back to class, we were, as William James expressed it, When we lifted one foot it said GLORY! And when we lifted the other foot it said AMEN! Within our lifetime, Jesus would have returned and we Born Again would be ruling the world. It doesnt get any better than that.
The professor could hardly get us to settle down and have class. He finally said, Have any of you ever read a book entitled, I Have Been Robbed? Of course, none of us had. The book raised the question about the whole concept of a God who would have a chosen people whom He would bless and whose enemies he would curse. He did not talk more than five minutes but as he spoke a brilliant doubt began to flood my soul. We do not praise doubt nearly enough. If, I reasoned, the story of the chosen people is not true then none of it is true. All of it-the story of Adam and Eve, Noahs Flood, the Covenant with Abraham giving Canaan to the Israelis, the Cross making Christians now Gods chosen people, the awful events of the Second Coming, and the dreadful fear of hell-were removed from me as far as the east is from the west. I was set free at last. My lifes dreams of a large tent to preach the coming of Jesus washed ashore amidst rocks of doubt that eventually left me in a state of ecstasy. I have thoroughly enjoyed losing my religion. -Bob Minick, http//www.bobminick.com
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