Atheism is not just about arguing but is connected to how the atheist sees her place in society - and what privileges and entitlements she should have.
Let’s prove it.
ATHEIST HAS THE RIGHT NOT TO BE FORCED INTO A PARTICULAR VIEW OF FREE WILL
I cannot believe I have free will. I only assume it. I could be set by nature to feel free for I wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t feel free. But feelings prove nothing. I cannot see the inner forces in my mind that cause me to act or “decide”.
Nobody really believes in free will meaning the power to intend evil, defined by religion as selfishness, or good, defined by religion as unselfishness. People say and think and feel they do believe but they do not. They feel free during their dreams and when they get loads of alcohol and they are not free then. So we do know that feeling free does not prove we are free. To deny free will is to affirm that you do not believe in God.
There is the red or green light issue. Many say that if morality is objectively true - it still does not tell us how bad or good an action is. Logically, you would only get a bare yes or no.
Free will could also be a mere on and off.
It is our psychology that reads too much into free will and objective morality.
GOD AND POTENTIAL OPPRESSION
God belief presupposes a supernatural ideal and claims that evil is whatever falls short of that ideal - a lack.
People don’t really want to believe in God for it means there is this being condemning nearly everything they do for anything imperfect is wrong. Even not sitting upright in your chair is a sin for you are not sitting properly. Not noticing means you are sinfully distracted from God for he is goodness itself.
ATHEIST SUFFERING
Atheists want rapport when they suffer - persons seeing suffering in spiritual terms breaks that rapport. Believers say that God is present in suffering. Nobody should want to say that the evil that happens is good in the sense that a good God lets it happen - and has a purpose. It is better to see evil as totally useless and hateful for the people we see come before any religious concept such as God. Therefore belief in God and love for him is against nature. We don’t really want to believe and love him but are deluded by religion and society to think that we do want to. We also know that the harm done by God and religion cannot be made to look better by saying that believers mean well for a man who murders to get money to save his child’s life means well and still we condemn his act.
SIN
Atheists are assumed to be sinners - offenders against the law of God. Assume that sin is real. We cannot really love the sinner and hate the sin. Who would believe if us we said we wished evil on the sin but not the sinner? Or that we judged the sin not the sinner? Sin is shorthand for sinner - it shows what a person is. We only have personal feelings in relation to sin – when we condemn sin its personal. Sin reveals the sinner.
Atheists can separate the evil from the person doing it if they doubt free will. If it is right to separate the evil from the person, then we may as well deny free will. This means we are Atheists at heart for free will supposedly explains why God is not to blame for evil.
TOLERANCE
Atheists reject tolerance for tolerance means putting up with something bad so
it is quite insulting and grudging. But if people believe what they are doing is
good we should encourage them to do it even if it is contrary to our principles.
But nevertheless we have to try and win others to our way of thinking because it
is the only way to certainty and joy. Can we encourage a person to commit
murder? If they believe murder is right and by encouraging them to do what they
think is right but to think more and everybody should think more we are not
encouraging murder for we are concerned only with them doing what they believe
in. If you encourage a Muslim to go to the Mosque though you do not approve of
Islam you are not being a hypocrite or intending to further Islam but you are
furthering a different and separate thing, the autonomy of the person. People do
often make logical mistakes.
ATHEISTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO HATE GOD
If God can do all things and knows all things past, present and future and lets suffering happen then he is either uncaring or malevolent. Remember that if this logic is wrong then atheists are being judgmental towards God. Being judgemental towards a perfectly good being is the limit in cynicism and nastiness. They also raise an insulting question against believers: "They are worshipping a force for evil are they? They must be surely?" Atheists are therefore very bad and are refusing to see his holy and good plan at work. They would judge believers as unable to diagnose evil correctly and thus of ruining the medicine for it. Belief in God and love for God then simply has to lead to the atheist being feared and hated. If we criticise faith for such reasons we will be accepted better and listened to. Believers will see what they are doing.
BELIEF SYSTEM?
Atheism is described as a belief system. It is not. An atheist is not a member of a group. With Christianity, you have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God to become a Christian. And to be a Christian is to join a group. Some Christians will not join any formal Church. But they still see themselves as part of God's family. So they are group-orientated in their own way. Even the most individualistic Christian claims to be united to Jesus - making a group of two. And a true atheist is open to changing her mind about there being no god if the evidence is sufficient. There is no group and no rule about what to believe and therefore no system. An atheist is just what you call a person who believes there is no God.
LAST WORD
Love is happiness and it is contagious. This is the principle which sums up Atheism. It is because we see that loving God or religion is rooted in fear that we reject them. We are all Atheists at heart.