"RELIGIONS ARE AN ELABORATE LIE. GOD
IS MAKE-BELIEVE, MADE UP TO COMFORT HUMANS, MUCH LIKE CHILDISH BELIEFS IN
THE EASTER BUNNY OR SANTA CLAUS."
Like the claims of religion poisoning the mind, this
is an arrogant, elitist insult towards even atheism's aliied "freethinkers."
Atheists, especially militant ones, often make the claim that
humans invented belief in a divine being to quell the fear of death, in essence
wishing the divine into existence and inventing the concept of life after death—then
in an appeal to ridicule, equate the existence of God to the existence of the
Easter Bunny or Santa Claus
. Equating belief in God with "feel-good"
holiday folk traditions ignores the large amount of ontological (a field of
philosophy dealing with the possibility of existence) arguments in order
to pretend that theists have absolutely no rational basis
.
-
Belief that the universe was created by an intelligent source
has nothing to do with fear of death and hardly comforts that fear. The
Deists exemplify this, who by definition believe in a divinity, but are
skeptical of everything else.
-
Deists commonly do not hold any concept of afterlives (or
any reward for believing in a deity) to be true—they only believe because
it is a logical, rational view for them.
-
Judeo-Christian faiths underscore that there is no "reward"
for mere sacrifices and worship. As has been said by many theologians and
apologists, Jews and Christians see God as challenging the believer.
- In addition, consider that "belief" out of fear of death or eternal
punishment is merely pretending to believe and not truly earnest. Many oppose
the concept of "deathbed conversions."
-
Buddhists work to achieve a state of "Nirvana"
which is often thought of as non-existence. Clearly, the accusations of
religion being a comfort to assuage fear of death fall apart at this point.
-
To claim that all religious people (including deists or
others who have no 'promise of heaven' or 'threat of hell' for believing
the way they do) believe out of an irrational and delusional attempt to
calm one's fears shows an astounding amount of ignorance on part of the
atheist forwarding these accusations.