Methinks They Protesteth Too Much

[Biblegate]

Atheists assert that God does not exist, and some spend their lives battling against Him. Their livelihood depends on it. But, is that what they truly believe? Are they hiding something? Could it be that deep inside they know there must be a supernatural being to Whom they are accountable? Is their angry obsession with proving God does not exist a clue that they really do believe He does exist? Do they protest too much?

https://youtu.be/LVrokYE2XeE

[MMathis]

The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.
I've often wondered why some people spend so much time worrying about something they don't believe exists.

[Biblegate]

A neighbor stopped by our garage sale one day and we got into a pleasant theological discussion. He said he was an atheist because God had let his dog die.

[steve]

Sounds about right.

[Paidion]

I'm sure that there are SOME so-called atheists who actually are not atheists but who are angry with God and who protest His existence.

But I must put in a word for true atheists who try to convince others that God does not exist. I think some of them want to convince believers of God's non-existence because they are genuinely concerned that believers have been deceived and thereby have been led to live unrealistic lives on the basis of their suppositions of God's existence and of an eternal after-life of joy. I think they presume that we have only one life here on earth, and can have more fulfillment in that short life without the restrictions established by the commandments of an imagined deity. I think some of them are genuinely trying to help others to live more deeply fulfilled lives which they think is hindered by "religion."

[Singalphile]

A neighbor stopped by our garage sale one day and we got into a pleasant theological discussion. He said he was an atheist because God had let his dog die.

One can have sympathy. I bet we've all humbly asked God to help a loved friend with some pain or bad situation? (If you haven't, I guess you're young, and I'm sure you will.) If and when God does not act or denies the request, is it not disappointing, even puzzling?

Perhaps this man loved and cared deeply for his dog, and he sincerely and repeatedly asked God to take away the dog's pain or illness. (I assume the death was not just old age.) Then the dog dies, and the man wonders why God couldn't be bothered to do one tiny, tiny little thing that would cost nothing and would seemingly hurt nobody. If God won't even do a simple, easy thing like that then ...?

I disagree with the man's conclusion as much as anyone, but I don't think it's silly or irrational (I realize that nobody said it was). I don't know if the man's angry or if he just figures there ain't nobody up there looking out for us. It's sad.

[steve]

I think they presume that we have only one life here on earth, and can have more fulfillment in that short life without the restrictions established by the commandments of an imagined deity. I think some of them are genuinely trying to help others to live more deeply fulfilled lives which they think is hindered by "religion."

No doubt they do think this. How ironic.

If there is no God, and nothing after death, then there can be no such thing as living a "meaningful" life. Our lives, in that case are no more meaningful than is that of a lizard. It's only purpose is to survive and reproduce. Why reproduce? To create more lizards who have no higher purpose than to do the same. Of course, a lizard may be said to serve a purpose, in that it keeps down insect populations, and it provides food for large birds, and amusement for housecoats. However, none of these creatures have any higher reasons for existence than has the lizard itself. Nothing means anything.

A human, unlike an animal, can work to improve living conditions for other humans (that is, to be a humanitarian), or to preserve the earth's ecology (that is, to be a conservationist), etc. But none of these things has any lasting meaning, either. The people whose lives are thus improved have no transcendent purpose for their own brief existences, and all life on earth itself will eventually be destroyed, despite the labors of conservationists, when the sun eventually burns out.

A million generations of humans may come and go before that point is reached, but all of them will be equally meaningless. Only if there is a transcendent plan (and planner), and an eternal outcome, can anything we do or enjoy be regarded as more than transitory, lacking any meaning, other than what we arbitrarily choose to imagine its meaning to be.

What a difference it makes to know God! I cannot imagine any other life that can give purpose, meaning, and the potential for personal fulfillment. I often wonder what the atheist believes that he has, as a benefit of his atheism, which can even begin to equal what I have.

[Paidion]

I often wonder what the atheist believes that he has, as a benefit of his atheism, which can even begin to equal what I have.

I doubt that an atheist would even hint that he had anything equal to that which you claim to have. Rather, many of them would affirm that you live in a dream world believing that you will have "pie in the sky when you die."

Not all atheists would take the above position. Indeed, many who are called "atheists" in our day, are actually agnostics who neither affirm nor deny the existence of God.