Yes, at the core it is hollow, meaning empty.
Atheism argues one thing and one thing only, that there is no God. This is a negative that implies a hundred other negatives that go nowhere. That is what I experienced as an atheist in my youth. The negative effects of atheism on my life were profound. It was only when I began to see the negative effects of atheism on others (and on society at large) that I was able to look in the mirror and see them in myself as well.
What is positive about atheism? Nothing.
What is positive about religion? Everything, so long as you have the right religion. Some radical religions are also negative, but none of them are so hollow as atheism.
This is not to say that atheists cannot be upstanding citizens in society or have virtues that commend them. But it is to say that atheism cannot spring from fundamental roots that grow happiness in our lives.
I do not say that religion is a guarantee of happiness, since too many people by the lip service they give to their faith show in their lives that their faith is not authentic.
The true desire to see God, however, inspires hope and virtue in a way that atheism can never do.
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Positives about atheism: no dogma, open mind, looking at intelligence and facts.
What is positive about atheism? Nothing.
Except that there being no Hell for a god to throw you into part. There's nothing positive behind the science which says our sun will explode in 6 billion years but that doesn't mean it won't happen.
What is positive about religion? Everything, so long as you have the right religion.
Yeah, providing you were brought up in a family practicing the right religion. Since all religions profess to be right, I guess you're pretty much fucked if your ancestors picked the wrong one.
And everything is positive about religion as long as you ignore all the sectarian strife and infighting throughout history.
"Atheism argues one thing and one thing only, that there is no God"
atheism doesn't claim it. that just the default position while there is lack of sufficient evidence that point otherwise.
'Hollow'? Dyson Spheres.
Just ask a certain Starfleet Chief of Engineering, when his ship was found on the outside surface of one. [/"ST:TNG"; "Relics"]
'We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.'
-Gene Roddenberry
"The true desire to see God, however, inspires hope and virtue in a way that atheism can never do."
That scene in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier". NEXT!
What is positive about atheism, huh? It frees people from superstition. It allows truth to take precedence over mythology. It allows real solutions for real problems. It escapes the hypocrisy of supposedly Christian politicians, cynically wielding religion as a tool to help win elections. And it doesn't require the ritual public repetition of nonsense. That's a good start.
What we can see, hear, smell, touch, and otherwise experience for ourselves is real.
That which occurs the same way every single time when the same factors collide is fact.
What atheism argues, in the rare instance it directly bothers to ascertain the existence of the divine, is whether or not we have more purpose than we decide for ourselves.
The answer is "fuck you and fuck God if that bastard is watching we make our own fate" and that is what we will continue to think until we are even slightly deterred.
So, yes, atheism is not dogmatic. You fill it with whatever you like. Personally, I put in pagan ethics. It works out pretty well.
As for Charlemagne, leave the man alone. He founded France and the Holy Roman Empire. Too bad he had to rely on the catholic church, which had pretty much destroyed the Roman Empire with its demands and persecution against hpagans and heretics.
I don't think I can even engage with this argument on its own terms. I am an atheist and I am not going to sit around listing the ways in which atheism is positive. Why? Because my positivity, my happiness, my feeling good, has nothing to do with my belief (or lack of belief) in a god.
I have been the same person my whole life; sometimes happy and sometimes sad (almost always anxious). That hasn't changed whether I believed in a god or not. I think the same is true of most people: we have ups and downs but it is not specifically anchored to our religious beliefs.
It reads as if this person was an atheist at the same time in their life when they were sad. They've conflated the two and have chosen to believe that one caused the other.
In a way it is sad. If your happiness in life is so strongly tethered to religion and belief then it suggests you live a pretty sad life. If what makes you happy, if the source of positivity in your life, is that things will get better after you die or that some invisible force is taking care of you then it sounds like you live a miserable life.
Right, atheism is a negative answer to a single question. It has a positive effect on society because of all the time and funds it frees up for activities that actually benefit humans, thus prompting happiness.
This is a slightly disguised circular argument. I wouldn't say people who don't believe in dragons are hollow inside. What's the difference?
The difference is that you think God is real, and that belief in God is special. So, all you are really saying is that Atheists are wrong because they are wrong. No argument to show why.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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