Atheism =/= Despair, nor Ugliness

(or even if it did, is that an argument against it?)

SOURCE.

If you've been reading my posts you might have noticed that I sometimes reference "my religious friends." I can assure you this isn't a rhetorical gesture; I actually do know and get along with people with a wide range of belief systems as well as political stances (at least, I get along with the religious...perhaps not the political). Of course, they don't read this blog...

That being said, I've come to notice a few different distinct characters which emerge when my religious friends stumble upon the fact that I'm an atheist when I, say, roll my eyes at the "under God" in the pledge of allegiance or eat a baby for breakfast. There's Righteous Anger, Sanctimonious Preaching, and Condescending "It's a Phase"-ing. But by far, the most common type is what I affectionately call the Oh-You-Poor-Dear. 

OYPD is a sympathetic soul. She cares. She is also confused, wondering how I get out of bed in the morning instead of burying my head in the pillow and wailing WHY?! Oh WHY is there no god?! Life is so meaningless! 

The Atheists, OYPD knows, are sad sad souls (not that they know they are souls) trapped in the oblivion of meaninglessness brought on by their own over-rationalizing little brains, unable to see beyond chemistry to embrace the all-encompassing mystery of divinity and its ultimate purpose-giving to us all. 

Even Joss Whedon knows it, benighted atheist though he might be. Didn't you realize Dr. Horrible was a gospel meditation?

Well. We all struggle with meaning and teleology, especially those of us cursed with analytical minds and too many philosophy seminars. But I resent the implications and baseless arguments that my life is meaningless because I don't believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving deity. I don't honestly believe that god gives much purpose to anything, and if he does, what an odd purpose to think that one's life will culminate in misty song-singing on a cloud (I know, I'm being unfair in my characterization of heaven. But try as I may I haven't been able to glean a more exacting description).

For some reason, the atheistic world is supposed to be sterile, barren, cold and bleak. If atheists had their way, OYPD knows, we would live in vaguely glowing white cubicles and no one would ever be allowed to paint. Atheists must be sad, because they live in a pathetic world where existence is reduced to atoms and chemistry. 

This is a caricature of rationalism carried to the extreme, of logic without emotion and a society built to extinguish human creativity, as if that were somehow a conclusion logic would come to. It's a fun dystopian rumination embedded with a sinister core of anti-intellectualism, something our nation would do well to begin discouraging. But beyond that, it's a silly kind of disparagement to make. Why is a scientific worldview (even presuming that is what we atheists all share) supposed to be so depressing? As Minchin so famously put in Storm, isn't the world beautiful enough? Just because I do tend to see things through the lens of "science," why does that render everything unhappy? 

We all go crazy in the end.

My life is meaningful. I love people, I think I'm doing meaningful work, I attempt to contribute to the rational progression of human civilization as much as I can. And I struggle with what that all means as much as I did when I was religious. Sadly, I don't believe that a remedy for the existential questions can really be answered by belief in god. Perhaps the OYPD's of the world believe differently, but I can't condone that kind of security. 

The atheistic worldview is not devoid of meaning, love, conviction, or art and music. We do not sit at a table on a first date and imagine the person across from us as a collection of molecules (not to say we might occasionally have these thoughts...). We laugh, even. We still have someone to thank--usually someone just a little closer to home than up in that misty cloud region. 

Much of human history is bound up with religion, such that much of our art and expression has been heavily influenced by the religion of the people involved. This is only natural--but it's led some of my more religious acquaintance to falsely equate beautiful human expression with deeply religious sentiment. When I spent six months in Europe I was deeply impressed by the cathedrals I saw...but I saw them as wonderful testaments to human creativity and ingenuity. And as an atheist, I didn't feel excluded from that. I did rather wish that these gorgeous buildings could be dedicated to learning and education and we could start pouring our industry into universities rather than churches...

Atheists don't lack beauty. We see meaning and beauty in a million places, perhaps even more than the religious, since we are able to appreciate things on their own terms rather than having to reach to the skies for some kind of extra explanation.

Gothic architecture is one of my favorites.

Do I worry about death? Don't we all. At least biology gives me the assurance that my body will remain part of the system in this universe, becoming new life, in a much more understandable and verifiable fashion than religion. Again, I appreciate this system. I find it significant and fascinating and utterly satisfying. Atheism improves my view of the things, and I don't feel I've lost anything from discovering this as my worldview.

SOURCE.