If in the next hour, everybody alive became an atheist, what would happen?

[Cheerful Charlie]

The end to foolishness like creationism, exorcism, biblical based homophobia, and war on Christmas type hysteria.

 

[Juma]

A few billion simultaneous existential crises.

No. The existential crisus is caused by believing things you know aint true.

 

[Angry Floof]

In any community of humans there's always going to be a number of them who for whatever reason can't or won't treat others with respect or control their passionate outbursts or they're fucking evil, or whatever. that's the reason it makes sense to have justice systems and laws and agreed upon consequences, etc. Somehow this gets translated into myopic, negatively biased, literal-thinking minds as "humanity is fundamentally horrible."

 

[Lion IRC]

Well as a lifelong atheist, of atheist parents...

Your parents are/were atheists?
Why did they bring you into the world when they know there is suffering in this world?
That's the accusation God faces. How do atheists explain suffering which they could prevent but don't?

 

[bilby]

Well as a lifelong atheist, of atheist parents...

Your parents are/were atheists?
Why did they bring you into the world when they know there is suffering in this world?
That's the accusation God faces. How do atheists explain suffering which they could prevent but don't?

God doesn't 'face accusations'; he is a fictional character.

My parents decided to have children; they are not, and have never claimed to be, omnicognisant, omnipotent, omnipresent, nor concerned only with doing good. Had they been, perhaps they would have chosen differently.

Although as that collection of characteristics is incompatible with observed reality, that was never on the cards - no such entities are possible.

 

[ideologyhunter]

The question for me is, why do people want children when they know how self-absorbed, destructive, noisy, and expensive kids are? Jesus. Get a dog. You can keep them in the basement for a couple of hours and go shopping and latte-sipping. When you get back, the dog isn't cranky -- he's happier and more in love with you than ever.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Nothing. Billions of people continuing to fake it.

"Continuing" to fake it makes it sound like billions are already 'faking it'. I really doubt that.

I don't. I strongly suspect that at least a couple billion people are faking it. There are true believers, sure, but there are also many many in the closet non-believers. I can't prove it, but I would be shocked if it wasn't so.

 

[skepticalbip]

Thread: If in the next hour, everybody alive became an atheist, what would happen?

A thundering slapping sound as billions suddenly realized how much of their lives they have wasted:

 

[Lion IRC]

I wonder if a lot of atheists feel they too are 'wasting' much of lives their time proselytizing and debating religion. I guess Pascal's wager cuts both ways when it comes to the face-palm.

In fairness though, the Op isnt predicated on any event of instant discovery of evidence that atheism is true - just a sudden (miraculous) conversion to the belief that atheism is true. The Op doesn't give us the mechanism of conversion and the newly-minted atheist wouldn't even be able to comprehend the reasons behind their former belief - let alone regret that they used to hold such a belief.

Still, you make an interesting point that the newfound atheist believer isn't going to waste another minute with anything to do with God and the afterlife. They really are going to kick off their shoes and live like there's no tomorrow.

As Ashley Madison would say...life is short.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I wonder if a lot of atheists feel they too are 'wasting' much of lives their time proselytizing and debating religion.

You mean, wasting time trying to get people to stop discriminating based on some old dead guy's views of what's right and wrong? Or to stop trying to uphold traditions of tomfoolery in the face of science? or to stop lying to make an invisible skydaddy happy?

No, i doubt many of them are feeling they're wasting their time fighting for enlightenment or progress or at least rethinking some of the sillier commandments.

I guess Pascal's wager cuts both ways when it comes to the face-palm.

Not really.
Atheists are atheistic about all religions.
Pascal's Wager starts with the assumption that there's only one religion. Not very comparable.

 

[Lion IRC]

If I was a 100% convicted atheist I wouldn't waste one second of my short life worrying about what someone else mistakenly thought about God.

I certainly would waste any time debating Lion IRC.

 

[ronburgundy]

If I was a 100% convicted atheist I wouldn't waste one second of my short life worrying about what someone else mistakenly thought about God.

I certainly would waste any time debating Lion IRC.

Atheists fight against theism because while God has zero impact on the world, belief in God does. Beliefs impact actions, and false beliefs usually impact actions in harmful ways. Atheists lives are impacted by living in societies where the majority of people around them hold objectively false beliefs about God that in turns creates false beliefs about the nature of reality, the source of valid knowledge, the nature of human behavior, the causes of important events, and inherent relativity and subjectivity of moral judgments.

 

[Angry Floof]

I wonder if a lot of atheists feel they too are 'wasting' much of lives their time proselytizing and debating religion. I guess Pascal's wager cuts both ways when it comes to the face-palm.

In fairness though, the Op isnt predicated on any event of instant discovery of evidence that atheism is true - just a sudden (miraculous) conversion to the belief that atheism is true. The Op doesn't give us the mechanism of conversion and the newly-minted atheist wouldn't even be able to comprehend the reasons behind their former belief - let alone regret that they used to hold such a belief.

Still, you make an interesting point that the newfound atheist believer isn't going to waste another minute with anything to do with God and the afterlife. They really are going to kick off their shoes and live like there's no tomorrow.

As Ashley Madison would say...life is short.

As long as children (or any people) are abused, manipulated, frightened, denied medical attention, etc., due to religious beliefs, no one is wasting their time challenging religion.

Do the religious ever feel like they're wasting their time praying to an invisible friend when they could just fucking man up and do something?

If indeed, something actually needs to be done. Do the religious ever get tired of having so few options to even discern what might be done?

Do the religious ever get tired of having huge swaths of reality invisible to them because of instilled religious fear of possibilities other than narrow, absolutist, authoritarian children's stories?

Do the religious ever wonder how it is that non-believers are aware of things like children being killed and tortured based on Bible scripture and yet it's always news to religious people who come to boards like this one?

Do the religious even know what's in their holy books? Or how the ideas in those books actually play out through the minds and actions of real human beings?

Do the religious ever get tired of living a life of arrogance based on ignorance, and are they tired of not being free to question human nature or explore science and evidence outside of "god did it"?

Are the religious tired of science, education, and skepticism offering solutions and information that are actually useful in the real world?

When it comes to actual suffering being actually eased and actual problems in the world actually solved and actually handled with maturity and intelligence, do the religious ever get embarrassed that the magical story they are trained to believe contains the answers actually doesn't?

Do religious apologists ever get tired of marching forward in ignorance with tired old arguments provided to them by others who also don't know how to question only to find they've been debunked for a long time in myriad ways?

Do the religious apologists who get their asses handed to them in communities like this one ever get pissed at having been taught bullshit stories and having been denied the tools and instruction that might have allowed them a chance to figure out what might actually be true?

Do the religious still swallow Pascal's Wager without examining either the wager itself or the religious lies it's meant to defend?

Do the religious ever get tired of claiming "pro life" values as they get their abortions? Do they ever get embarrassed at giving lip service to "the sanctity of marriage" as they get divorces?

Do they get tired of their beloved mouthpieces and politicians lying, buying prostitutes, molesting kids, or cheating on their spouses?

I could go on with these questions all day if you like. As a purveyor and defender of religious disease, I expect you will be happy to answer all these questions and more.

 

[skepticalbip]

If I was a 100% convicted atheist I wouldn't waste one second of my short life worrying about what someone else mistakenly thought about God.

I certainly would waste any time debating Lion IRC.

You probably wouldn't but many if not most atheists are secular humanists to some degree, concerned with elevating the human condition.

 

[Keith&Co.]

If I was a 100% convicted atheist I wouldn't waste one second of my short life worrying about what someone else mistakenly thought about God.

I certainly would waste any time debating Lion IRC.

Well, could you see spending any time correcting Lion IRC's mistaken view of the motivations of atheists?

 

[Lion IRC]

Non-stamp collectors aren't motivated to stop others from collecting stamps are they?

All the talk about secular humanism and 'atheism plus' and wanting to make the world a better place etc. etc. puts you in the same category as anyone else who really believes they are doing something worthwhile.

 

[fromderinside]

I would join China's program of building islands around the world. No better way to protect oneself than having your own island where your brand of atheism can be practiced without belief correct police getting others up in arms about how wrong your atheist belief is actually. Atheism is not a cure for humans being self centered aggressive other hating fools.

 

[skepticalbip]

Non-stamp collectors aren't motivated to stop others from collecting stamps are they?

All the talk about secular humanism and 'atheism plus' and wanting to make the world a better place etc. etc. puts you in the same category as anyone else who really believes they are doing something worthwhile.

Interesting take.

So lets take just one example: A secular humanist would certainly think it is a worthwhile use of time to try convince someone who believes that prayer will cure their child that it won't. Trying to convince them to try medications (prescribed by a doctor) because the germ theory of disease has been amply proven to be a better explanation for their child's illness than demons or god's punishment for the child's sins. Do you think such an attempt to convince them that their religious belief of why their child is ill and how to cure it is nonsense shouldn't be made?

 

[Angry Floof]

Non-stamp collectors aren't motivated to stop others from collecting stamps are they?

All the talk about secular humanism and 'atheism plus' and wanting to make the world a better place etc. etc. puts you in the same category as anyone else who really believes they are doing something worthwhile.

If stamp collecting was a behavior that cornered the market on child molestation, you bet your ass people of conscience would be opposing it loudly. We'd also seek to find out why stamp collecting so often results in child abuse. Unlike the religious, we are not bound by ideology that says we can't question stamp collecting, or that we shouldn't punish child molesters as long as they are pious in their stamp collecting rituals.

I like how you apply only the most superficial and egotistical motivations to atheists, as if there's no other possibility for understanding why we speak out against inhumane beliefs and behaviors of religionists.

Shall we speculate on your motivations for being here defending inhumane ideology? Would it have to do with the group identity and acceptance you have been conditioned to crave based on whether you believe the correct thoughts and how many others you can bring into the fold? Are you uncomfortable thinking of the possible consequences from your ideological group if you were to question your beliefs?

Do you have a little fantasy going on about how you will "bring atheists to Christ" or some shit, and receive all kinds of recognition and approval from your ideological group? Or maybe to punish and humiliate atheists for not believing the correct story of human sacrifice and magic? Either way, I imagine it's a quite delicious fantasy.

By the way, if you haven't noticed, we love when religious apologists stop by thinking they'll teach us something. You should have a chat with some of our regular religionists on this board. The few that stick around end up abandoning or severely modifying their world view, or avoiding the topic, or just going on and on in a crazy loop of just blabbing out whatever religious bullshit and shutting down any capacity to receive new information. It's not pretty, that last one. It's sad.

 

[Angry Floof]

I would join China's program of building islands around the world. No better way to protect oneself than having your own island where your brand of atheism can be practiced without belief correct police getting others up in arms about how wrong your atheist belief is actually. Atheism is not a cure for humans being self centered aggressive other hating fools.

It's not atheists or secularists who want to close themselves off from the world. In fact, it's common among atheists to object to ideologies that punish doubt and foster fear of outside information.

Atheism is not a cure for anything. Questioning is, though. Ideologies that don't allow questioning of self correction of any kind cause a lot of suffering that can be cured by daring to question.