I call myself an atheist. This means that I do not see sufficient evidence to support the hypothesis of an anthro-centric god. In this segment, I answer your questions about atheism.
Josef Nix of Atlanta asks:
Given than none of us really knows and it’s all a matter of faith, be it yes or no, then why not opt for belief and be an optimist?
All other things being equal, I’m a fan of optimism. Unfortunately, belief in deity is only optimistic if you believe that the existence of deity is a good thing. Taking the Christian God as an example, if he exists, then he has an opinion on all sorts of my behavior, and if I don’t step into line, I’m going to end up burning in a lake of fire for all eternity. No thanks! From my perspective disbelief in deity is the optimistic view.
#1 by Rebecca at May 18th, 2009
I most definitely disagree that religion equates to optimism. I can understand the argument that it would be an optimistic approach to believe that there is life after death. However, there are so many negative things that are done in the name of religion. Christianity, in particular, places many limits on what is acceptable behavior. Even the promise of life after death isn’t enough to make the restrictions imposed by religion seem like an optimistic approach, in my opinion.