It’s common for people to say something like: “Atheists don’t have anything to live for, because they believe in nothing.” Well, Ricky Gervais has a nice response to that: “We have nothing to DIE for, so we have EVERYTHING to live for.” 🙂
It’s a good point. I believe in lots of things: honesty, friendship, trust, love, responsibility, hard work, education, etc. But I fail to see why I need faith in a parrochial Bronze Age deity for these things to be valuable. They are inherently valuable, for themselves.
Dan Turner
DOC #767569
Interesting point. Maybe believers in God have faith in all those qualities too, but less faith in things that only last for a mortal lifetime, like ambition, success, wealth? Every person believes their own experience, and integrity means living what you believe. So someone who has experienced connection with a living God beyond their expectations or imaginings will believe in God, and someone who has experience of the natural world with nothing beyond it will have an atheist belief. What seems important to me is that no one pretends, and that people don’t pressure others to accept their experience (whether of God or of atheism) as the only sane mindset.
Anyone else want to comment?