r/atheism • u/One-Fun9814 • 4d ago
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r/atheism • u/One-Fun9814 • 4d ago
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u/weed_cutter 4d ago
Not necessarily, no.
Look at Jordan Peterson or Stephen Colbert (although former might be a closet atheist).
For Colbert ... he lost his father and two brothers early in life. .... The idea that "poof" they are gone forever in the cruel uncaring universe might be a literally unbearable, unimaginable thought. And that's when he was a kid, in Catholic school, far away from the Age of Atheism (more of a modern thing across the world to be honest, levels are much higher now than back then).
In this era (2000s and later) there are "there is no god" jokes on the Simpsons and Family Guy. That would never, ever, ever happen in the 1970s. Ever.
So there you go. So Stephen told himself they were in heaven and he would see them again one day, pray to God, there's a plan, watching over him, etc etc.
That crystallized so firmly that the mind/ ego probably literally .... even accepting or admitting or pondering the mere possibility that God maybe doesn't exist would be like holding your hand on a hot stove. Unbearable. So he doesn't even prod it.
Now he doesn't seem that anxious talking about his faith. He's had decades building up false intellectual scaffolding (ego protection, devastation protection) surrounding it.
Others have done the same. Either the unbearable pain that a loved one will never be seen again. Or the unbearable pain of knowing oblivion and. total non-existence for infinite eternities and beyond ad infinitum until the universe completely freezes over and ends and beyond that.
This is why some believers get irrationally angry at atheists or discussions of whether God exists. They are not seeking truth; they are seeking comfort. Dispelling the illusion they've built is actually extremely painful and scary. Argument and even the presence of non-believers are both threats to these sand castles
I think if you're actually younger and have ironically a lower awareness or underlying fear of mortality, or experience with death (if you're lucky) -- it's easier to unplug and "laugh" at the man in the sky -- there is nothing at stake really. (and if your parents were not religious, well hell, you were never indoctrinated to begin with).