Is Atheism Frightening? By God Yes
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The ramblings of a 40 year-old who found relief through non-belief.
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I so wish I could feel confident that our soul (our consciousness/memory/personality) somehow survives our body’s death. Nothing has convinced me that anything other than energy transfer will take place, but because all life has energy within it (animism?) it all has value and should never be wasted. So reincarnation could make sense if you looked at it from an energy transfer standpoint. I hesitate to use the word “sacred” to describe life, but to me any one thing on the planet has just as much “right” to be here as any other thing.
Under anaesthesia (they bring you to the very brink of death and back) I had a euphoric/near death experience that I knew I would “come down” from so I struggled as hard as I could to remember the thoughts I was having at the time so I could later tell others. It was a very ‘religious” type experience- after it I felt at peace and content for a long time. I later found out I had been overdosed and they worried about “bringing me back.”
The revelation? That “death” was a change from the body centered existence to another kind of existence. With this came freedom from the things that drive the body- hunger, desire, pain. For some reason this was very comforting.
Whether or not we actually reunite our consciousness with those of our loved ones who died before us, I feel very strongly that the things they did in life- as well as the memory of them- informs, consoles, and haunts us during our own.
The medical folk just came up with a new report on near-death experiences and claim it has everything to do with endorphins, and other hormones and nothing to do with a spiritual experience. Who know…
LOL Randal! My mom very succinctly summed it up when I was a kid and asked about hell. (Some older kids had been scaring me with the idea, and I was pretty little and did still believe in the Santa and Bunny myths, but never went to church. I was highly gullible and imaginative.)
She said, “Hell is a make-believe place that naughty people are told they will go to forever if they don’t quit being bad. If those kids told you God was going to send you to hell, do you really think you want to believe in a God who would do that?” Even the most naughty child gets out of the time out chair eventually.
She explained that some people need a “Angry Father” in the sky to be afraid of or else they wouldn’t behave themselves. Thinking of all the times I had been frightened into bedtime compliance by fear of the bogeyman under the bed, I immediately grasped the concept.
As I am not a full blown atheist in my certainty, I am pretty secure in my definite senses that there are energies and forces greater than man- an interconnectedness with all life and the universe- which maybe counts as “GOD” for some people. What I reject is the anthropomorphic deities that have all the foibles of the humans that invented them- being jealous, capricious, inconsistent, and vindictive are qualities I’d associate with a bad parent, hardly God.
That last paragraph pretty much nails it for me. That’s pretty much where I am coming from too. Organized, dogmatic religion (assuming there is any other kind) tends to be silly and immature. What I like about the posted piece is the idea that the guy hit the re-set button on his beliefs–clear out the mythical dogma and start from scratch, with an open mind. As a species we just can’t settle for anything ultimately definitive but have to keep open the possibility that we can’t get it perfect and right and that our beliefs (or non-beliefs) should never be beyond revision as experience teaches us otherwise.
Mother Hen,
Sounds like you’ve got a great mom! Oftentimes parents don’t take the time to listen to their kids and truly allay their fear and uncertainty. More concerned with helping her child feel better than just perpetuating certain beliefs.
I must admit I do subscribe to much of the anthropomorphic deity belief,although it’s strongly skewed towards the “loving God” point of view. People are often surprised that an otherwise rational person (who can discussing politics or the economy intelligently) can believe in Satan or Jonah and the Whale. There’s a lot I can’t explain or consider immaterial, but it doesn’t stop my belief. Just the way I’m wired I guess.
Hey if you’d asked your mom that question today-maybe she would say it’s a place for teabaggers to go when they die 🙂
Blessings on the wisdom of your Mother, MH~! And it’s true. Quite true… we take our ‘stuff’ with us. I’ve spent endless, creative hours debating with some science devotee and atheist friends that the last synapses of the brain fire up are NOT our ‘afterlife’ experiences… yeah… tell that to folk like Dannion Brinkley who spent more than 11 mins brain dead, fully. He returned a changed human being… fer sure dudes. He’s the strongest clairvoyant I’ve ever experienced and to be sure, I’m very stingy about whom I think is one.
I am an animist, myself. I walk my talk with Spirit, mostly whom I know are my Ancestors. But y’all know that. 🙂
I’ve experienced the NDE… but the fun is that all I eventually recalled was being above my body cussing the medics out for cutting my designer jeans off. I doesn’t diminish my awareness that we really are Spirits in the material world.
Excellent post Holte!
NDE’s make a very strong case for my belief that we are more than our physical bodies.
Most of the classes (extra ciric.) I took were in what they called at the time, para-psychology. My psychology degree is a BS not a BA… now they call it psi-science and it’s accredited. Raymond Moody came in and lectured our group … he was just getting ready to publish… LIFE AFTER LIFE. He had Brinkley in tow. Think as you may, but my maternal bloodline is filled with women who are as “gifted” as they come… the cops in Hornell would come to my great grandmother when a child went missing (and they were missing no more). My grandmother whooped far greater than that. My mom…not so much with the world as I (or the little bat signal) couldn’t go far without her knowing what we were up to …somehow. She knew the ‘gifted’ on sight and she never ever counseled us to pursue this… only watched as I studied what I would. She knew the day I met Ray Moody and how he affected my personal world paradigm. That night she tracked me down at the local pub in Watkins Glen to ask me; “Who has brought your GrandMother to your side?” It’s a question only those who have experienced the reality of this “sixth sense” phenomena to be as part of life as breath. That day Ray Moody opened my heart wide as the cosmos because he very intelligently exposed me to empirical of life after death. I was ‘saved’ you might say by the science of death. The ongoing research and development of it is as frustrating as making free energy systems dynamic. It’s my nature to go on… sorry… but Mr. Lawyer… there is a wonderful book to read: LIFE AFTER LIFE by Raymond Moody. Brinkley broke through my fears by shaking my hand, ‘zooming me’ and connecting me with my GrandMother. Who stands behind my right shoulder as I write this.
MH writes:
“I am pretty secure in my definite senses that there are energies and forces greater than man– an interconnectedness with all life and the universe– which maybe counts as “GOD” for some people.”
You know I believe that so does that mean I am not an Atheist? Even my shrink hates it when I call myself an Atheist. There has to be another word or phrase. You know one more socially acceptable like: I believe the idea of God, from a religious point of view is utter nonsense?
Of course that could offend some of my friends who are good Christians who don’t try to judge me and force their beliefs on me like some of the good people here for whom I have a great affection. I don’t want to offend those folk. So I guess I will stick with being a good ole down home Atheist.
It doesn’t offend me. I think we all should try to lead good lives, the Atheists/Agnostics here all seem to do that. If you guys would indulge me in a personal observation, most of you atheists/agnostics are better Christians than a good many Christians. If that sounds patronizing it isn’t meant that way, it’s meant to say to a believer like me come Judgment Day you guys would head upstairs to pick up your wings while Falwell and Robertson head downstairs wishing they had worn asbestos underwear.
I’m being funny kinda, but also serious. Not intended to be patronizing. I think what counts, is what’s in a persons heart.
Agreed.
Agreed Oso, what’s inside is much more important that what you choose to believe or not to believe. Another point, fundamental atheism is equally grating to me as fundamental Christianity.
d’accord!
One of my favorite parts of that flick is when the Middle Eastern guy is listing all the sex acts to Andy.
The Lawyer, you are linguistically defining everything from the initial point of Belief. That is the default. If in, say, 200 years, 60% of Americans are atheist (oh, God, I hope so), then that default will shift, like Polaris being the current north star, and in time, Vega being so. Of course, we could go around and around all day, but then we’re venturing into an endless spiral of deconstructionism and then I would have to set things on fire.
osori, the idea of damnation is so laughable to me, that I don’t give it much thought save when reading Dante. I’m not being flippant, it simply never crosses my daily mind.
Randal,thanks and understood!
Holte,
I think Judge Joe and I are the only “open and outta the closet practicing Christians” here, so my perspective is different. His being frightened is certainly understandable, when much of your underlying belief system is taken away it is frightening. Little kids learn there’s no Santa, as they grow they see their parents fallibility and shortcomings. So to experience that on a cosmic scale would be scary.
I would see it as attributing human shortcomings to the Divine, so to me it would not follow that God isn’t there.
I understand atheists take a LOT of flack from Christians who associate non-belief with evil, which is stupid and intolerant. I can empathize.
I can conceptualize the fright due to a collapse of the belief system and also the uncertainty of no one “divine” to turn to, no equivalent of the Fed up there, no heavenly “lender of last resort” to bail your soul out!
OTOH an atheist by definition sees no eternal damnation facing them, no Hell awaiting them. Their behavior is totally determined by either social mores or their own internal beliefs.
I would imagine an atheist choosing to lead a caring, decent life can be more commendable in many ways than when a Christian leads a good life. We’ve got that “going to Hell” thing always lurking in the back of our mind.
I would ask to atheists, how does not fearing damnation affect one’s outlook? Would it be a comfort ?
Oso, I tend to think we create our own damnation. I just don’t need a powerful being in the back of my mind to compel me to do the right thing. It’s just not there.
“I encourage you to press on – the rewards are truly immense. A mind-opening, perhaps even (dare I say it?) spiritual experience awaits you.” That would be a benefit–open-mindedness and religion have not, historically speaking, had a great relationship.
At the risk of stirring the pot: I still do not see how non-belief is not just a belief in the absence of something. I seriously ask, how is that not playing with semantics?