Confessions of a Serial Mapper

This is mainly aimed at those who think atheism is nihilism.  I assure you, it isn’t.  It is far from it and in this article I want to explore the reasons why and debunk this foolish statement once and for all.  It seems to be a very popular argument, up there with atheistic regimes and atheism being a faith.  (2 rather countering argument actually, how can atheism be nihilism and a faith based position at the same time?)  I’d also like to point out that what follows is my personal views, there may be other atheists who are nihilists, but the fact most are not should be enough to debunk this idea.

Life Ends

The first and most important thing when dealing with the atheistic world-view is that atheists know and accept the life has an end.  You will die.  When you die there will be no afterlife, no judgement, nothing, your mind and ideas of self will fade as your body rots.  The reason for believing this is firstly, atheists don’t give in to religious dogma, it is this dogma which claims there is an afterlife built up in religion.  There is no actual reason to believe you carry on when you die, the main problem is that you can’t come back and tell everyone else still living if there is an afterlife.  Next, seeing as the mind is connected with the physical brain, when one dies, so does the other.  They are linked, they are in fact one.  If the brain dies, it seems logical that your idea of self will die with it.

So, that’s it, we’re all going to die and that’s that, what’s the point in anything, without god and an afterlife, why strive for anything.  Typical theistic nonsense.  To them, a world without god seems meaningless because they can’t consider the world without one.  Their life revolves around god so much so, that to remove it would shake their beliefs so much, that it would be natural to just say “what’s the point in it all, we are but a blink of life on a planet in the infinite of space.”

This is where the critical difference is, atheists view their lives on the smaller, personal, relevant scale.  To sit back and look at everything in it’s entirety, yes, everything is ultimately pointless, the universe will end eventually.  But this is a useless and unhelpful position to take, when deciding what my purpose in life is, what my goals are, I don’t look at the ultimate long run, I look at the shorter term, I look at the scale of time which matters, my life span.  I will die, but because of that, it makes life special, something to treasure, to enjoy fully and help others to enjoy.  This is the one life you get or at least reliably know your going to get, it would be a shame to waste it preparing for one that doesn’t exist.

If there was an afterlife, then this time being alive is ultimatly meaningless (it is infintecimal in comparison), if I have all infinity to look forward to in heaven, then surly I want this life to end as fast as possible.  It is meaningless because infinity is just ahead of me.  May as well kill myself now and get to the good stuff.  But, this was carefully thought of, suicide is a sin and will send you to hell.  So I ask, why doesn’t one theist simply kill all the other theists.  It may seem like a harsh idea, but think about it, all the theists will go to whatever heaven they think they are going to when they die and avoid the suicide clause in the process.  This one glorious person sacrificed himself for the benefit of everyone else, what a hero!  But no, this hasn’t happened, why?  I offer one personal answer, theists are greedy, they want to be in heaven and enjoy that glory and happiness of being with their god, so they won’t sacrifice ones self for everyone else.

Being Good Matters

When we say good, we mean acting in a way that benefits society, that benefits the super-organism.  Simply because it is the right thing to do, I want to have the chance of enjoying life as fully as possible, but I also want others to have that chance too.  We only have one life and to live it in suffrage or poverty or in an abusive household is wrong because it robs people of that chance to do so.  We have transcended the battle for survival and now look towards enjoying life as much as possible.  Working together ensures not just the continuation of the species, but also the enjoyment of living for this generation and the next.  Acting in a bad way, such as murdering and stealing is wrong because it removes the possibility for others to be happy and enjoy their limited lives.

Of corse, we still need to focus in on the shorter term, looking at it at a universe scale, it is all meaningless, but looking at a much smaller one we can see that being good is essential, it is fair and it is necessary.  I like the feeling of having fun and doing the right thing, I don’t like the feeling of being bad.  I simply want to be happy and happiness is increased by working together.  The total utility of the super-organism/society is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

A rather short post, just to let everyone know I ain’t fallen off the face of the Earth, for more info, look up the idea of humanism, the philosophy that most atheists look towards and even some theists follow.