What are some of the consequences of being an atheist?

[JOZeldenrust]

I see lots of responses from people who have become atheists, but none from people who were never religious in the first place. As you can imagine, there was no moment when I understood religion for what it was. I was raised by atheists, in a secular society. I knew about other people believing in supernatural things, but that was always something other people did. My grandparents were religious (Catholic from my mothers side, Calvinist from my dads) but religion didn't inform their actions in any discernable way, and the major conflict in the world, as far as I could tell, was between the communists and the capitalists. To me, religion was inconsequential. What concerned my parents was trying to maintain a position of defending social security and the wellfare state while distancing themselves from communist dictatorships and terrorist groups like the RAF and Brigade Rosso. They also wanted to make it clear that they valued civil liberties, while distancing themselves from CIA-sponsored neofacist groups. In short, they were your average left wing European intellectuals.

When the Wall came down I was six years old. To me that meant the end of the biggest problem that existed in the world. A few years later the Netherlands got their first secular government: the purple coalition of social democrats, liberal democrats and fiscal conservatives. In the next eight years they legalized abortus, euthanasia and the recreational use of marijuana. Social security was reformed to include more incentives to get back to work, and everything seemed to be on track. Still, religion seemed to me to be nothing more then a marginal phenomenon.

The obvious moment for this attitude to change would've been september 11th 2001, but it wasn't. I don't think religion played that big a role in those attacks. What made me conscious of the influence of religion was the succesful mobilisation of the religious majority in America for the neoconservative agenda. It really puzzled me that so many people acted contrary to their own interest. At first it seemed limited to the war on terror. People gave up their liberty, allowed the American government to spend record amounts of money to fight wars with dubious mandates in international law, and even let the government invent a new subtype of human beings to blatantly circumvent human rights. It made no sense to.

It made a little more sense when I started paying a little more attention to the anglo-saxon debate on the existence of God and the negative effects of religion. I got the impression that these people really felt threatened. I don't know what scares them exactly, and I suspect that it differs from person to person, but a lot of it seems to be about what will happen when (political) power ends up in the hands of people who don't share their world view. People seem honestly afraid that anyone who isn't a conservative republican Christian is out to get their money, enslave them in a communist dictatorship and sodomize their daughters (they might be right on that last count).

I always thought science was the pretty universially accepted method for describing the way the world works, but over the last few years it has started to dawn on me that some people genuinely see science as an existential threat. Stating it that boldly might go to far even for them, so they'll resort to mental gymnastics like thinking in conspiricies and the like, but the fundamental anti-reason attitude is there.

I guess the biggest realisation I've had because of all this is that it's being an atheist is a luxury position, and that the vast majority of the world isn't so fortunate.

[Pennant]

I always thought science was the pretty universially accepted method for describing the way the world works, but over the last few years it has started to dawn on me that some people genuinely see science as an existential threat. Stating it that boldly might go to far even for them, so they'll resort to mental gymnastics like thinking in conspiricies and the like, but the fundamental anti-reason attitude is there.

I guess the biggest realisation I've had because of all this is that it's being an atheist is a luxury position, and that the vast majority of the world isn't so fortunate.

I found your commentary to be very interesting and informative. Thank you for that. I absolutely agree that many religious people view science as a threat. They are correct to do so because every new scientific discovery tends to undermine the infallibility of their holy books. At the ordinary worshiper level that means loss of their comfort zone and the promise of eternal salvation. In the church hierarchy it means a loss of power and status.

What I find very disturbing about religious beliefs is the way in which believers hold absolute conviction that they are totally right and that anything they do in God's name is acceptable, even to the extent of genocide. Yet when one examines the basis for those beliefs eventually they boil down to unsubstantiated assertions by devout individuals who claim to have received messages from God, where there is no evidence to support the assertions. Its kind of scary!

[mindyourmind]

I see lots of responses from people who have become atheists, but none from people who were never religious in the first place. As you can imagine, there was no moment when I understood religion for what it was. I was raised by atheists, in a secular society. I knew about other people believing in supernatural things, but that was always something other people did. My grandparents were religious (Catholic from my mothers side, Calvinist from my dads) but religion didn't inform their actions in any discernable way, and the major conflict in the world, as far as I could tell, was between the communists and the capitalists. To me, religion was inconsequential. What concerned my parents was trying to maintain a position of defending social security and the wellfare state while distancing themselves from communist dictatorships and terrorist groups like the RAF and Brigade Rosso. They also wanted to make it clear that they valued civil liberties, while distancing themselves from CIA-sponsored neofacist groups. In short, they were your average left wing European intellectuals.

When the Wall came down I was six years old. To me that meant the end of the biggest problem that existed in the world. A few years later the Netherlands got their first secular government: the purple coalition of social democrats, liberal democrats and fiscal conservatives. In the next eight years they legalized abortus, euthanasia and the recreational use of marijuana. Social security was reformed to include more incentives to get back to work, and everything seemed to be on track. Still, religion seemed to me to be nothing more then a marginal phenomenon.

The obvious moment for this attitude to change would've been september 11th 2001, but it wasn't. I don't think religion played that big a role in those attacks. What made me conscious of the influence of religion was the succesful mobilisation of the religious majority in America for the neoconservative agenda. It really puzzled me that so many people acted contrary to their own interest. At first it seemed limited to the war on terror. People gave up their liberty, allowed the American government to spend record amounts of money to fight wars with dubious mandates in international law, and even let the government invent a new subtype of human beings to blatantly circumvent human rights. It made no sense to.

It made a little more sense when I started paying a little more attention to the anglo-saxon debate on the existence of God and the negative effects of religion. I got the impression that these people really felt threatened. I don't know what scares them exactly, and I suspect that it differs from person to person, but a lot of it seems to be about what will happen when (political) power ends up in the hands of people who don't share their world view. People seem honestly afraid that anyone who isn't a conservative republican Christian is out to get their money, enslave them in a communist dictatorship and sodomize their daughters (they might be right on that last count).

I always thought science was the pretty universially accepted method for describing the way the world works, but over the last few years it has started to dawn on me that some people genuinely see science as an existential threat. Stating it that boldly might go to far even for them, so they'll resort to mental gymnastics like thinking in conspiricies and the like, but the fundamental anti-reason attitude is there.

I guess the biggest realisation I've had because of all this is that it's being an atheist is a luxury position, and that the vast majority of the world isn't so fortunate.

Atheism as a luxury position. I like that. And it is, you're right.