Enjoying the Good Life Without Gods: Gods, Religion Not Needed to Enjoy Life

By Austin Cline, About.com Guide

Living Without Gods
It's common for religious theists to be incredulous at the idea that a person could not just live, but enjoy life without believing in any gods and without following any religion. Because of this, religious theists also often make all kinds of assumptions about irreligious atheists and the sorts of lives they must lead. These assumptions are rarely, if ever, true. Religious theists must learn that neither their theism nor their religion are necessary to living a satisfying, fulfilling, and happy life. It's not merely possible to be a godless, irreligious atheist who enjoys a fulfilling, meaningful life, but common.

If We All Die, Why Bother?

A popular objection to living well without gods is the claim that since life is short, everything we do is temporary and thus pointless. This assumes that something can only have a point if it is eternal in some fashion, but does anyone really believe that? Every meal we eat must end, so is there no point in eating or enjoying a meal? Every movie ends, so is it impossible to enjoy movies? Of course not. What we do will have a point if we create one being eternal is unnecessary. Atheism Does Not Lead to Hopelessness and Despair...1

Without God, How Can there Be a Purpose to Life?

Religious theists also tell atheists that the theists' gods are necessary for life to have meaning, but this isn't true either. Things have meaning to us when we value them, and whether we value something or not and how much is dependent entirely upon us. No god, no spirits, and no humans can force us to value a book, a meal, or a relationship. This means that what we value comes from :1:

the choices we make and the presence of meaning in our lives is solely our responsibility. Gods are unnecessary and irrelevant.

Without God, How Can there Be a Meaning to Life?

Religious theists also tell atheists that the theists' gods are necessary for life to have meaning, but this isn't true either. Things have meaning to us when we value them, and whether we value something or not and how much is dependent entirely upon us. No god, no spirits, and no humans can force us to value a book, a meal, or a relationship. This means that what we value comes from the choices we make and the presence of meaning in our lives is solely our responsibility. Gods are unnecessary and irrelevant.

Your Life is Your Own

The most important, and perhaps most difficult, thing to remember about living without gods is that your life is entirely your own. This means that you must take personal responsibility for all of the choices you make and for the consequences of those choices. There are neither spirits to blame nor spirits to call upon for help it's up to you do deal with your life and this is the only chance you'll have. There are no do-overs and there is no afterlife where your losses are made up for. If you want to live, it's now or never.

Importance of Learning
We don't come into this world knowing anything that we need to know; we don't leave this world having learned a fraction of what we could use. In between, we need to spend as much time as we can learning because without knowledge and experience, we won't be able to accomplish anything. Accurate, reliable knowledge of the world around us is indispensable for adequately navigating our world not just physically, but socially and mentally as well. Learning should not stop with school; instead, it should be a lifelong endeavor.

Importance of Teaching
As social animals, our learning won't occur in complete isolation and we shouldn't try to keep what we learn from others. The :2:

process of learning should be accompanied by simultaneous teaching. We are all different, possessing different perspectives and experiences. We all have something to offer, if we can figure out how to put it together and we should definitely try, seeking to help others learn even as we ourselves are being helped.

Importance of Loving
Love is more than an emotion, it's an attitude a way of approaching those around you, the things you do, and even yourself. Love is important because it molds your approach to incorporate attitudes of caring, kindness, gentleness, and generosity. The opposite of love is not hate, for hate still implies that one cares even if in a negative way. The opposite of love is indifference an indifference towards consequences, towards results, and towards life itself.

Striving for Excellence

There's an old adage that if you are going to do something, you should do it well. The same can be said about life generally. There's a lot that a person can do to get the most out of life, but one of the most fundamental things may able to strive to do the best you can possibly achieve. Mediocre accomplishments will likely result in a mediocre life; excellence, even in the seemingly smaller things like how you conduct your relationships with others, can result in a richer and more satisfying life.

Meaning, Purpose, Value, and Morality Without Gods

Religious theists may place their religion and their belief in a god at the center of lives, but the fact that they cannot imagine living a good life without that religion and that god doesnt mean that it's impossible and that others cannot. A godless life is not one that is necessarily without meaning, joy, purpose, and love. What about weathering life's low points, though? Life comes with both its ups and downs; while we may wish for life to always be pleasant, we can't avoid incidents that will make life seem more of a burden than a joy. If religious believers can find comfort in their doctrines what are godless, irreligious atheists to do? That religion :3:

can provide comfort is undeniable, but not everything that's comforting is necessarily good for you, especially over the long term. Regardless of the "comfort" which religion may offer, it's typically based upon promises of what happens in some other plane of existence or future life. Setting aside questions about whether they even exist, it's an indisputable fact that we have to live here and now. As enticing as the promises may be, it will always be necessary to drag our gaze away from them and focus on what lies before us our lives, with all its joys and sorrows. If we don't do that, we'll never really overcome the sorrows and we certainly won't be able to appreciate the joys. Because of this, the "comfort" typically offered by religion may not be a real benefit at all. Godless, irreligious atheists should thus not look with envy upon the religious beliefs which people try to rely on. Whatever life has in store for you, you won't deal with it any better if your attention is drawn to unreal promises of an unexplainable, unknown future.

:4:

Myth: Atheism Leads to Hopelessness and Despair, Atheism is Depressing

(Do Atheists Have No Hope, Nothing to Look Forward To Without God?)

By Austin Cline, About.com Guide Myth:

Without God in your life, you have nothing to look forward to. Atheism leads to hopelessness and despair.

Response:
For many people, their religion teaches that their god gives them purpose in life and offers them something to look forward to after they die something that is important because, so often, these religions teach adherents that their actual lives right now aren't of much value. Therefore, anyone who doesn't follow this religion and who doesn't believe in their god must not have purpose in life and must not have anything to look forward to. All of this is wrong, not to mention arrogant. The belief may follow logically from the premises which believers use, but there is a problem: the people who are reaching these conclusions are relying upon assumptions about and stereotypes of atheists, not any interactions with real atheists. This myth is often repeated by someone who "sees what they want to believe." You don't find any real interest in learning about atheists and agnostics because they assume they already understand all about atheists and agnostics not through personal research, but because of their own religious assumptions. As a consequence, even when real information about real atheists is encountered, it often isn't believed or accepted at face value. Prejudices and assumptions are given a preferential position over and above disconfirming facts and evidence. I receive quite a lot of email along these lines: someone feels sorry for me, assumes that I dont have anything to live fo r, insists on letting me know that :5:

Ill be prayed for, please accept Jesus into your heart, etc., etc., etc. None of it is very original, but all of it can be quite arrogant. To start with, it is arrogant as well as mistaken to assume that, without a belief in their god, then I must have nothing to hope for. Granted, I cant hope for their particular idea about an afterlife, but that hardly warrants the conclusion that I have nothing to hope for or to look forward to in the future. What do I have to look forward to? Life an enjoyable life doing the things I love and being with the people I love. Why do I live? Because of the people I love and the things I love basically, because I enjoy life. Does it matter that, eventually, I am going to die and the life I enjoy will end? I admit that that will be unfortunate, but it doesn't mean that doing what I enjoy now is therefore worthless. After all, every individual action I am doing will end every good meal end, every trip to an amusement park ends, every good book ends. The same is true for religious theists and Christians, but I don't see many of them eschewing experiences that must necessarily end on the basis of the belief that non-eternal experiences aren't worth having. Since these religious theists don't actually behave as though they believe this principle is true, it's difficult to accept that really believe this myth or the argument that atheism should be rejected because it leads to hopelessness. Does the fact that every moment ends and cannot be recaptured mean that, therefore, it was worthless and meaningless to experience and enjoy that moment? Not at all. There is absolutely no reason to think that the temporary nature of any particular moment or experience forces us to de-value that moment or experience and, therefore, to also de-value all of life. Although it's rare to find any theists eschewing non-eternal experiences, it isn't unusual to find them devaluing life and our experiences in life as compared to the "eternal" existence they anticipate having after their physical deaths. Because this life is temporary and the assumed afterlife is eternal, only the afterlife is truly valued while this life is de-valued. At most, this life is given value as preparation for reaching the preferred afterlife. It is not,

:6:

however, valued in and of itself. This life is not valued for what it is and for the experiences it offers. Because of this, the questions these theists ask atheists should really be turned around: if this life with all of its temporary experiences is of so little importance while the afterlife with all of its eternalness is the real prize, why do they bother to go on living this life? Why would they want to be here eating, drinking, reading, and sleeping when all of that must necessarily end when they die? It makes much more sense to hasten their journey to their real goal: the eternal afterlife, where everything has value because it is eternal rather than temporary. It is interesting to note that this myth about atheists contradicts another popular myth, namely that atheists are only interested in sex and other forms of physical, material pleasure. On the one hand the absence of god and religion supposedly causes atheists to have no reason to care about living; on the other hand, the absence of god and religion also supposedly causes atheists to spend too much time enjoying themselves with worldly pleasures. Which is it? I have no need for an afterlife, a heaven, a god, or any supernatural beliefs in order to appreciate living and take joy out of my life. For many religious theists, and for Christians in particular, it is unacceptable to think that life on earth is all that we have. To me, that sounds like someone who doesnt take much joy out of their life. A person who truly enjoys and appreciates their life will take pleasure in it and enjoy it regardless of whether any sort of afterlife exists. They might believe in an afterlife and even in some sort of wonderful heaven, but they wont depend upon the existence of such a heaven in order for their lives to have meaning or purpose. The disagreement here is thus not between theists who believe in an afterlife and atheists who do not, but rather between theists who are unable to find value in this life and everyone else atheists as well as theists who can.

:7: