Is three years a necro-bump?
Without thinking it through in detail, these are some of the things I like about being an atheist:-
1. I can subscribe whole-heartedly to the Scientific Method, and be proud of how it has consistantly led humanity from one achievement to another. I feel unreservedly good about two of humankind's greatest accomplishments; going to the moon, and observing the universe from the Hubble telescope. We didn't pray our way to the moon - it was science, yeh!
2. One of the fundamental precepts of the Scientific Method is the idea of the Minimum Working Hypothesis, i.e., that the simplest hypothesis to explain the evidence is the one to adopt until it is proven false. Another is that extraordinary claims require extraordinarily good evidence or proof. This gives me the confidence, or is that complaisancy, to dismiss religious claims, yetis and UFOs.
3. The atheist doesn't have to "doublethink" all the time.(Doublethink is about accommodating two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time.) For example, many religious people talk about how their prayers get answered, but when they have a toothache, do they pray it away, or do they go to the dentist? If the latter, then they are doublethinking; relying on the Scientific Method to solve their problem, but simultaneously believing in the efficacy of prayer.
4. Today, the atheist doesn't have to spend precious time and money in and on some self-appointed religious institution. Once I've fulfilled my social and legal obligations, I'm a free man.
5. The atheist doesn't have to worry about being embarrassed by his church. One example of this embarrassment was with the Jehovah's Witnesses. They predicted that The Apocalypse would happen in 1975, so red faces all round when nothing happened. As an atheist, I can laugh at their folly and discomfort.
6. If I want I can indulge the pleasures of the flesh without agonising unnecessarily. I don't have to sacrifice the here-and-now in hopes of getting a better deal in the hereafter. I don't have to revere or strive for celibacy, which (Aldous Huxley) "is the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions."
7. Should be number one really, but I can think what I like, without having to conform to a system of belief that is decided by someone else. For example, I worked out the size of my family to my own convenience; the only opinion I had to consult was my wife's.
I'm sure I'm missing stuff. Anybody else want to continue the list or write their own?
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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953
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