One of the things that I particularly like about atheism is that I think it is actually a humble worldview. At the core of atheism is the honest assessment that we just don't know what happens after death; that we just don't know much about a good many things. And importantly, part of atheism is the facing and acknowledgment of this reality.
In many ways I think this acknowledgment of these limits is inspiring. After all, it is the not knowing something that causes you to wonder and powers curiosity. It also encourages you to get out and experience life, to live life to the fullest.
Depending upon your perspective, however, there are also negative consequences. If you were likely to experience a lot of heartache and unrelieved hardship would you put up with it? I can see a lot of benefits of believing in heaven if your life on earth is hell. And to be brutally honest, I don't think a group of atheists would have survived the dark ages. Suicide would be a too appealing prospect compared to a life of unremitting toil and heartache.
This is why I think the evolutionary approach to understanding religious belief makes a lot of intuitive sense. Perhaps there's even an amusing irony in there: it may be thanks to many generations of believers who struggled through difficult times that I may now be a happy atheist.
No comments:
Post a Comment