You decide. Watch this film.
I don’t think so.
We all need a higher calling to be happy. We all need some level of faith in something bigger than us.
This is a challenging set of films. Very tough to internalize. Click here to watch and be challenged.
Interesting discussion, but I respectfully disagree with your conclusion. I’m a happy athiest as well. I’m particularly happy beautiful weekend mornings when I can just relax and enjoy life, instead sitting on a pew and listening to some stranger lecture about fairy tails that supposedly took place thousands of years earlier. Jokes aside, the great thing about not being beholden to a particular religion is that it allows me to focus on happiness. Most religions are focused on rules aimed at maximizing happiness after we die. They are built on fear of the unknown. Personally, I would much rather focus on being happy with the people and things that I know during this life.
Speaking of which, I know a lot of people who are very happy when they are swimming, hiking, golfing, playing tennis, reading, watching movies, etc. These are the things that I happily do on Sunday mornings. Conversely, I do not know a lot of people who are happy to sit in church or temple. Most people attend religious services out of obligation, not because they want to do it. To me, that’s not happiness.
I had already watched these on snag, but a pleasure to view again. I disagree with you ted, once you learn enough and are able to accept that there probably is no god it is a great relief (for me personally) Richard Dawkins seems happy to me
http://www.hulu.com/watch/108633/foratv-science-richard-dawkins-the-evidence-for-evolution
p.s using groupon & loving it so far
I’m not an Atheist. I am Taoist. I do, however, have a father who is atheist, and who at least claims to have led a very happy life. I agree that we all need a higher calling. My question is whether you need to place your faith in an omnipotent being, or whether you can place your faith in friends, family, love, etc.
Really, that’s no different than God, is it? One of the basic concepts of most religions is that God is in every person, every object, every emotion. We all call it something different. I call it the Tao. My father doesn’t call it anything. But he knows it’s there.
I’m not saying that all atheists are happy. I only want to suggest that there is a way to call yourself atheist and still satisfy one of the requirements for happiness.
I’m an atheist and I’m extremely happy. Though I am saddened by judgments others make about me when they hear I am an atheist.
P.S. Oh and just to clarify, I still know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. So much so that I’ve been fighting for human rights all my life.
“I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
~Stephen F Roberts
Thanks for calling attention to this fascinating discussion, although I don’t see how it leads to your conclusion that Atheists are unhappy. The implication that everyone in a group is or is not something, has led to the worst elements of prejudice in the history of the world. Maybe some are, maybe most are, but you know there will be exceptions. And as a card carrying Atheiest – married almost 45 years to the same woman, father of two wonderfully normal children, a skeptic about religion who can’t get past the presence of evil in the world regardless of the original gift, I am still decidedly happy to be alive.