Atheism Isn't Evil
by Nate A. Lindell, created 23 Jan. 2013

As a seeker of truth, to me, evil is any erroneous belief that sews a mind's eye shut, prevents a person from realising the true nature of reality. In order to promote our existence in and improve reality, we must understand reality. As was shown by what happened to Copernicus in his time and, among other events, what happened to a spiritual, personal God (an impossibility[1]) requires the believer to sew their eyes shut and inspires them to sew others' eyes shut.

Madonna pointed that "we are living in a material world," yet believes in a spiritual God must put their faith in their immaterial God above the seeable, touchable, and potentially dangerous material world. This is ironic, given that those who believe in a perfectly good, spiritual God who created the material world and everything in it must disregard the very senses and brain they believe God endowed them with in order to believe in such a God.

"Oh my God! If God doesn't exist, all Hell's gonna break loose!" Some who've taken Pascal's wager think. Well, if God does not exist, then neither could the Devil and the Hell that a perfectly good God is supposed to have created.

Unless the Devil exists and inspired a false belief in God as the most sadistic torment ever dreamed up: teasing humanity with a false hope that God loves them and if they live a life of self-denial they can live in "Paradise" for eternity. But I'll leave this fertile thought alone... for now.

Believing in God, even if God doesn't exist, can serve the practical purpose of dissuading the Homer Simpsons of our world from pissing in their and our Kool-Aid. This is because people generally only act decent (follow the golden rule_ when they suspect someone is watching who might judge and sentence them, such as an omnipotent and omnipresent God. I suspect that all people only act decent, whether or not they consciously realise they are only acting because they hope to gain something by it (according to the finding of game-strategy researchers, as noted in The Universe and a Teacup, they will). I'm not critising us players, but believe we've be spared a lot of hypocritical angst and condemnation of others if we better understood ourselves. Sure theism can artificially civilise Homer Simpson, but it can also artificially turn him into a demon, inspiring and justifying the oppression, torture, even murder of non-popular people: assertive, independent women deemed witches, the mentally ill, those with atypical beliefs, cultures, or appearances, as well as animals and the environment, despite the believers' belief that their God created these things.

Realising that there is no spiritual God could lead a person to become hopeless, overwhelmed with despair, and thus lead to self-destructive behaviour or violence against a seemingly senselessly cruel and temporary world. That would depend upon the mental competence of the person and their sense of satisfaction of their psychological and physical needs. Donald Trump would be less likely to lash out at the world that is treating him so well than would that infamous failed painter and former corporal in the Wermacht, Adolf Hitler.

For me, realising that we only have one life and there is no spiritual, personal God, leads me to cherish the one life I have. I'm pained at knowing that I'm spending this life in prison, very oppressed; but I make the most I can of this life, taking it more seriously than I did when I accepted the teaching that God exists and cares about people. My realisation causes me to believe that we need to care about each other, rather than foolishly hope that God will make things right, hoping for a better afterlife, while letting this one go to Hell.

I can't understand how a person could not cherish every exquisite moment of the life they have and bless the lives of others, knowing this is it. Smell the lilacs! Kiss your lover! Hug your children, and prepare them well for their own lives. There's too little time for us to make each other miserable!

Nate A. Lindell #303724
Waupun Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 351
200 South Madison St.
Waupun, WI 53963-0351

Anyone may copy, reproduce and quote this anywhere they want, as long as they name me as the author and cite the URLs for the post, so that people may read it in its entirety.

F.N.1. Post #119 reveals why a spiritual God is an impossibility. A personal God is an impossibility because such a God would need 7 billion-plus personalities, one for every living human. It's more explicable that God is a psychological phenomenon, the projection of each individual's needs, beliefs, desires, etc. Thus some people believe God condemns homosexuality, while others believe God's gay, etc.