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Permalink Reply by Whitney on June 7, 2009 at 6:37pm

I don't think there are any real advantages to an atheist society because atheism is just a negative stance. I guess an advantage would be that superstitious religions would not be nearly as popular (unless Zen Buddhism took the place of theistic religions).

I think we need to promote views such as secular humanism...something that can replace the societal need religion filled without the superstition and dogma.

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Permalink Reply by noisician on June 10, 2009 at 5:02pm

i think there definitely is an advantage.

at a minimum, being atheist means there is at least one imaginary, irrational thing which is not affecting the decisions which are made. it means there is at least one point where beliefs are in line with the evidence presented by the real world.

the hope would be that this extends until all beliefs are driven by reason and evidence (though this doesn't necessarily follow).

at least an atheist society wouldn't make decisions for irrational religious reasons (though it might make other types of irrational decisions). for example, an atheist society could theoretically still believe in: racism, sexism, jingoism, slavery, etc.

certainly including humanism, skepticism, rationalism would be even better than atheism alone.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on June 11, 2009 at 11:46am

As atheism is just a lack of a belief in a god, it alone would be completely untenable to form a coherent and viable society. An actual ethical system, such as secular humanism, would have to be in place as well.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Roney on June 7, 2009 at 8:13pm

Not telling our soldiers that they're warriors of God that need to bring the word of Christ to the middle east is an advantage I'd think. Also, scientific progress would be much less complicated if religion wasn't around and people could actually give logical reasons for why they oppose a given belief. The only other major difference I can see is that atheists generally have a moral system that is self imposed rather than the result of punishments/rewards. This could be good or bad depending on the person and their upbringing.

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Permalink Reply by Laura on June 8, 2009 at 10:55am

I think there are huge advantages. If people weren't so brainwashed by religion, they would respect the scientific process, which means that when they're warned of things like global warming, they'd be much more likely to do something rather than dismiss the it as "just another scientific theory."

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on June 8, 2009 at 1:46pm

A more secular society would definitely have several advantages, if only in the reduction of religious obstruction of science. I don't foresee our achieving a totally religion-free society anytime in the near or even reasonably distant future, however, as first we'd have to overcome the human proclivity for self-deception and non-existent agency detection. Education is a key factor in this, but it can only do so much.

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