Are atheists afraid of hell / punishment for the wicked after death?

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There is no motive behind disbelief. Either you believe or you don't. I actually wish I was religious. It would give me something to lean on during shitty times. Unfortunately, I can't force my mind to believe that there's a giant bearded man in the sky watching while I masturbate.
 
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From my understandings/personal experiences, most atheists grow from hatred of being forced to go to church growing up and are like "fuck you Dad." Later on as they grow older than are able to justify the leap to disbelief in G-d/s via learning of church/religion doing fucked up shit or taking a Philosophy 101 course in community college. Usually when asked about some morality it ends up being some psuedo-religious doctrine that isn't religion, but still says you should be good for the betterment of man because of 'reasons'.
 
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StraightShooter2 said:
That's actually a non-sequitur. Believing in a "God" doesn't necessitate a belief in "hell" - just as belief in hell doesn't necessitate a belief in a "God"":

www.cnet.com

Scientist: Quantum physics can prove there's an afterlife

Professor Robert Lanza is sure there's something beyond this mortal coil. He believes the science is there to prove it.
www.cnet.com www.cnet.com
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Why is there a hell if there is no god? I genuinely don't understand how an atheist could believe hell exists, but god doesn't? The existence of hell is proof of a gods existence because some being has to create rules by which someone enters hell.

Also: "Professor Robert Lanza is sure there's something beyond this mortal coil. He BELIEVES the science is there to prove it."

Its in the subtitle. I still read it, but its all just theories and there is nothing conclusive.

We of course are not arguing the existence of an after life. We are arguing if atheist's believe there is a hell which, as I said above, is very different from there just being an afterlife.
 
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Bins said:
From my understandings/personal experiences, most atheists grow from hatred of being forced to go to church growing up and are like "fuck you Dad." Later on as they grow older than are able to justify the leap to disbelief in G-d/s via learning of church/religion doing fucked up shit or taking a Philosophy 101 course in community college. Usually when asked about some morality it ends up being some psuedo-religious doctrine that isn't religion, but still says you should be good for the betterment of man because of 'reasons'.
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I have no bitter feelings towards the religious and was not raised religious. I think the values of most religious are good but I just can't force myself to believe in all of the mysticism. I don't speak for all nonbelievers but I can't be the only one like this.
 
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I'd assume those who feel that way at worst assume "i'll cross that bridge when I get there," or at least I did when I left religion after my childhood. I'm agnostic, but leading questions still are leading questions my dude.
 
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Chilson said:
Why is there a hell if there is no god? I genuinely don't understand how an atheist could believe hell exists, but god doesn't? The existence of hell is proof of a gods existence because some being has to create rules by which someone enters hell.
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Nope, nontheistic religious (e.x. forms of Buddhism, Taoism, etc) have a hell equivalent, but no one "decides" that a person goes there, it's akin to a state of consciousness.
 
Cuck Shack said:
There is no motive behind disbelief. Either you believe or you don't. I actually wish I was religious. It would give me something to lean on during shitty times. Unfortunately, I can't force my mind to believe that there's a giant bearded man in the sky watching while I masturbate.
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Bins said:
From my understandings/personal experiences, most atheists grow from hatred of being forced to go to church growing up and are like "fuck you Dad." Later on as they grow older than are able to justify the leap to disbelief in G-d/s via learning of church/religion doing fucked up shit or taking a Philosophy 101 course in community college. Usually when asked about some morality it ends up being some psuedo-religious doctrine that isn't religion, but still says you should be good for the betterment of man because of 'reasons'.
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I think this also arises from people in the west thinking that Christianity is the only religion that exists or that every other religion is just Christianity except with a different Jesus, not realizing exactly how diverse and radically different in philosophy they get.
You can tell just from how fedora atheists act that they're basically just trying to say "screw you dad", it's less about the very concept of a religion and more about really disliking being forced and threatened into one, totally oblivious to how other religions don't really do that to the extent that the abrehamic ones do.

Cuck Shack said:
I have no bitter feelings towards the religious and was not raised religious. I think the values of most religious are good but I just can't force myself to believe in all of the mysticism. I don't speak for all nonbelievers but I can't be the only one like this.
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You could try Buddhism. It pretty much outright says that all the mysticism stuff is sort of bullshit and it's just there to help you get into a better state of mind.
 
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StraightShooter2 said:
That's actually a non-sequitur. Believing in a "God" doesn't necessitate a belief in "hell" - just as belief in hell doesn't necessitate a belief in a "God"":
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If you're going by the strict definition of "atheist" then no. It would imply a total lack belief in any religion.

If someone said they don't believe in God, but feared an afterlife then that would just be agnosticism. They're pretty sure they're right about God not existing but not totally sure what happens after death. If you didn't believe in any established religion but believed in life after death than that's just a form of spiritualism.

For example, I don't think we would classify someone who doesn't believe in a Judeo-Christian God but does believe in reincarnation as an atheist.

But it's a nuanced argument that requires defining what the terms strictly mean or the argument becomes a philosophical circle jerk.
 
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murdered meat bag said:
if he has a hard time praying, buddhism isnt going to be any different. you still have to pray the mantras.
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Not unless you're a monk.
You don't have to pray or worship anything, that has nothing to do with attaining enlightenment. Gautama himself said this, the Unanswerable Questions are meant to stay that way, they're just a distraction.
 
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StraightShooter2 said:
Nope, nontheistic religious (e.x. forms of Buddhism, Taoism, etc) have a hell equivalent, but no one "decides" that a person goes there, it's akin to a state of consciousness.
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Well they don't believe in hell either, so your just wrong.

SOME Buddhist sects believe in karmic cycles of rebirth. Some of those sects even believe that the worst fate someone could face is oblivion of the spirit or nothingness (which is not hell). The goal of Buddhism though is, in the most simplified way I can describe it, to find the buddha within oneself and therefore free oneself from earthly bonds of suffering and achieving true enlightenment. Some sects believe this will lead you to the last cycle of rebirth, other sects of Buddhism believe nothing happens if you die either way.

Taoists focus on enhancing the life you have and don't focus on the afterlife. People becoming "spirits" when they die is never really explained and exists more to comply with Chinese cultural norms and customs. Much like quite a few Buddhist sects, Taoists hold very little value in an afterlife.

Again, you seem to not understand what "Hell" means. Its a place of punishment for breaking rules set about by a higher being, AKA god. If you don't believe in god, you don't believe in hell.
 
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Atheism here would be a broad term, but if we're talking about modern day ones in the west I'm gonna say that most consider God and Hell to be linked and that leads to the disbelief in both if disbelief in one is held.

There's also several religions where 'the wicked' don't even really get punished (or get off easy) in the manner you see in Christian/Abrahamic versions of Hell. People have mentioned religions with reincarnation above and then there's shit like the Mesoamericans only really giving you a dog in the afterlife and that dog decides how easy your time is actually arriving in hell. You could be the shittiest person in their society and you're still gonna end up in the Hell decided by your manner of death, not your manner of life.

It's pretty interesting though looking at various religions and how the cultural effects it has on people's perceptions not just of punishment but of reward and when they get that reward.

From your statements though it seems you think people are choosing purposefully to dispose of god so that they can dispose of the punishment aspect of religion in an attempt to save their own piece of mind, which is also an interesting take, but not one I would subscribe to.
 
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