Understanding Atheism

Atheism is the belief that gods, angels, devils, heaven, hell, nirvana and all supernatural things do not exist. As such atheism does not qualify as a religion, but rather is a philosophy with respect to life.

The idea is relatively simple: Everything that is from mythology or religion is just an elaborate guessing game as to the nature of the universe, its origins and the supposed afterlife.

Atheists also believe that it is immoral to force other people to follow a specific religion, to kill each other in the name of god and to pronounce judgement on people just because the Bible or Quran says so.

Life and Death

To a non-atheist the idea of dying and ceasing to exist is sad and scary. People are comforted by the idea of an afterlife and some people even prefer the concept of hell over ceasing to exist.

The concept of hell and punishment, or reincarnation as a cockroach, may also be comforting to some people who wish bad things on others. But how is that a good thing? If you spend your life wishing bad things to happen to other people that seems like a pretty miserable existence too.

For atheists however there is no afterlife and they believe that people should live their lives to the fullest. Some atheists believe in the possibility of alternate universes, wherein you repeat your life's trials and mistakes and hopefully try to do better than you did last time. Regardless the idea is still life affirming and pushes the idea of living well and helping others around you to live well.

Life and your time spent living is therefore precious to atheists. You only have one life so don't waste it worrying about death or thinking mean things. We all have regrets, but we should try to make the most of what life offers us.

"Trying to convert an atheist to a religion is like trying to turn water into wine. It isn't going to happen so don't waste your time." - Charles Moffat.