Ask Lemmy

I’m gathering from your comment that you’re being motivated by disillusion and disappointment in the universe, rather than a purely logical approach? While I am an advocate for atheism, I don’t know if you’re looking at it for the most sound of reasons. I will play devil’s advocate (badum-tss) to clarify some things about the belief system for you. 

There’s a well-known quote by Epicurus that comes to mind:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. 

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. 

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? 

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

You see that there is evil in the universe, but that could be explained by an uncaring or malicious deity. If there is a deity that knows of the universe’s evil and chooses not to stop it even though it would not ail the deity any to do so, then that deity is evil and undeserving of worship. 

I’m slightly an agnostic-atheist (even though I think the term itself is a bit sloppy), since I think it’s technically plausible (but essentially unknowable) that an astronomically large being could have created the Earth and its inhabitants through scientific and/or mechanical means but for their own entirely selfish and uncaring reasons. The deity in the poorly received film Eternals is the closest representation I’ve seen to what I consider to be a plausible “creator”, since he created Earth and its life to selfishly exploit them for his own species’ natural procreation, and he achieved this through scientific and mechanical means such as a factory forge (you’ll have to ignore the little bit of literal magic that he does perform in the movie).

Atheism also does not categorically conclude that there isn’t an afterlife, but most atheists would believe that there is not one. Maybe when we die, the electro-chemical signals in our brains get turned into antimatter and get zapped over to another dimension? It may be an off-the-wall notion and be fundamentally unprovable and non-disprovable, but atheism does not require a belief that there is no afterlife.

Not having to abide by the arbitrary rules and dictations of religions can be freeing, but don’t get carried away and think that nothing matters or that you’re okay to take up any vice or do any crime. Religions have sometimes plugged in the wrong formula and accidentally got the right answers, like “Thou shalt not kill” or “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, which generally will be destructive and hurt undeserving people if you violate them. 

I think of religious views as just another set of beliefs, and I consider any belief that is ridiculously detached from observable reality, contradictory, taken up without evidence, or devoid of empathy to be a belief deserving of being mocked and scorned. I don’t grant an exception on the merits of categorization or level of conviction or personal attachment, though I do circumstantially avoid mocking it out of courtesy.

Hope this helps clarify some things and that you make the best of your future.