Please post the pitfalls of Atheism in this thread.

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The atheist is very likely to be strongly resented, rejected in a world that is very largely made up of people of varying degrees of faith.

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True, but it's more socially acceptable to be an Atheist than a Satanist! I've learned the hard way that my religious affiliation is best kept a secret to most. When people ask about my religion in person, I usually answer "Humanist." You should see the reactions I get when I answer " Satanist."

Octavius

Not just because your beliefs aren't socially acceptable, but more like because I myself find your Satanic beliefs hard to deal with. So it is hard to put the nice man who's posts are interesting, making him seem like just any other man. When his beliefs (Satanist) are totally scary and kinda non-human feeling to me. I am sorry because I can't get over my feelings when I hear the word Satanist. It just has so much negativity in it for Christian believers. But its good that your coming onto forums and I think more Satanists ought to come onto forums as well. The more exposer y'all can get the more that people can see what y'all are like, (like anyone else), and can work through any prejudices.

When I first began getting onto forum which weren't only Christian forums, I just began to meet Atheist and I learned so much I had not known. I got a lot of the false information I'd been hearing and thinking about them, for years and years, corrected. I'm now glad I found out the truth about Atheist.

These days I kinda make it my mission to try and understand people where I can try and get over any prejudice I have. I have even visited a Satanist sites, and on one forum, trying to give myself some exposer and began the process, I did find the people there to be just like any other people and not the evil people in my minds way of thinking. They were a bit childish acting and I was way too uncomfortable anyway, and after starting a thread I got outta there. Just a few months ago someone wrote me an email to explain the question I had asked about. He actually turned out to be another Christian guy trying to get over his own prejudices as well.

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When a man sleeps in his bed, his soul leaves him to soar above, each soul according to its own way.......
The Zohar

If only more people were as tolerant and open minded as you, ShyLady. Satanism is a very DIS-organized religion in the fact that even within our own ranks you rarely find more than a few individuals who define Satanism in a similar way. Satanism is a religion of freedom, as we see it. It's not a religion or philosophical belief that has ANYTHING to do with Anti-Christianity, Anti-Muslim, Anti-Jewish, or Anti-ANYTHING. However, when our beliefs are challenged, most Satanists get very insecure and lash out. I ALWAYS welcome challenge because I'll usually learn something I didn't know before. Satanism is first and foremost a religion of personal growth and development. Too many self-described Satanists think that because the term is so easily applied, they can define it to suit their own benighted vision.

On the flip side of the coin, we do enjoy challenging and debating others of other faiths. Too many Satanists approach this in a very hostile manner under the false notion that they are somehow superior to everyone but themselves. I usually try and give these people a few other options.

Any way, Kudos, ShyLady!

Octavius

Atheists often fail to recognize that their worldview -- like probably all worldviews -- is built on a set of unverifiable beliefs: that life has meaning and value, that one has certain hopes for the future, that there are defensible ethics/morals, that knowing the truth is preferable to living in delusion, that reason is trustworthy. Buddhists will tell you that the more subtle one's delusions are, the more difficult they are to extinguish (hardly a controversial claim, I guess). Atheists run the risk of believing themselves to be rational, open-minded and sane when in fact they are liable to be as deluded and neurotic as anyone else.

Also, atheists often don't understand the psychological value of faith as an antidote to egoism and arrogance, as well as to fear. AA has a few great catch phrases -- e.g., "Let go and let God" -- which describe an approach to life free of neurotic self-absorption (not to be confused with fatalism, rejection of rational thought or an abnegation of responsibility). This is a purely psychological move, but one which may be difficult without a concept of God or a Higher Power. No doubt faith has other psychological (not to mention social) benefits as well. The problem is how to attain the internal benefits without buying into groundless beliefs about the external world. (I hope I don't need to mention that the psychological effects of faith are not necessarily all positive -- far from it. In fact, I think for many if not most believers the psychic and intellectual costs of religion outweigh the possible benefits -- original sin, Heaven and Hell, denial of the flesh, glorification of suffering, etc. can all be destructive concepts.)

I think Buddhism, particularly Zen, offers something close to the ideal of a (relatively) dogma-free faith, but for those of us raised in a Judeo-Christian culture it's perhaps a bit alien and arbitrary-seeming.

Ok let me see...

I think Atheist are easily angered by anyone of religion and they fall to ranting and name calling or being offended too often.

They put down peoples religions as ignorant, causing people to be put off by them, instead of causing people to want to listen and understand them.

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When a man sleeps in his bed, his soul leaves him to soar above, each soul according to its own way.......
The Zohar

gnosys:

Your assessment of an advantage of the Buddhist approach strikes a cord with me. At a time when my former theistic beliefs were being challenged, I found much solace in the Buddhist approach to the point that it eventually became mine. My favorite book is Batchelor's "Buddhism Without Beliefs", and I mention this because it pretty much tends to tell you where I'm mostly coming from. Fortunately, in Reform Judaism, and especially the Jewish Renewal movement, my "beliefs" (actually more of a lack of "theological" beliefs) are quite acceptable.

How long have you been involved with Buddhism and to which extent, if you don't mind?

Shalom,
Vern

If I may say, that's a rather broad generalization...I think perhaps Atheists come across this way because they themselves are apprached with hostility by those of faith when asked about their beliefs. When Jehovah's Witnesses visit my door I always invite them in. I once told them I was an Atheist and their anger/disbelief spawned a rather heated reaction and a 45 minute conversion attempt. They left very disappointed...and I never once attacked their beliefs.

Another time they visited I told them I was a Satanist and they immediately went into a litany of prayers while backing away from my door...condemning me all the way.

With experiences like this, I think that it's only natural that Atheists eventually get frustrated to the point that they can come across as hostile and offended when their own beliefs are not respected. It's all about respect. I've found that those people who are strogly grounded in their faith SOMETIMES develop a "ministry complex" where they feel compelled to not only spread their philosophy, but to convert (or "save") us heathens.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

With respect,
Octavius