Awesome Godlessness Part II: Not Being Afraid of Your Own Thoughts

If you haven’t already done so, it might be a good idea to read part I of this series before reading this article. There, I set out some important ideas that will help you understand the frame of reference I have for describing an awesomely godless existence.
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God Has Far Too Much Time On His Hands

From a very young age, I remember reading and being told that God knows everything. He knows what you’ve done, and what you will do. He even knows your thoughts. Hell, he even knows what you will think before you do.

I’ve heard Christopher Hitchens call this the “celestial surveillance camera”. How perfect. God, with all his responsibilities for creating universes and making sure everything works tickety-boo has the time and interest to spy on each and every thought we will ever have.

The evilness of this mental torture has no equal… except perhaps for the concept of eternal punishment. Children are brought up thinking that even a fleeting bad thought is being recorded, tallied and judged. As an adult, you cannot even look at the spouse of another person without the thought that God knows that you have coveted, and are therefore guilty of breaking one of his commandments. Punishing natural, human desire is a despicable concept in my books.

Spirits Among Us?

Even ‘spiritual’ people who don’t think much about God are susceptible to the idea that their most private thoughts may not solely be their own. Because so many of them badly want there to be an afterlife, they gravitate toward mind/body dualism and, from there, invoke the supernatural idea of souls.

Unfortunately, where there is one disembodied soul, there are probably going to be others (e.g. ghosts/spirits) with otherworldly abilities who carry with them a cornucopia of surveillance possibilities.

Atheism is Peace of Mind

There is no feeling of mental intrusion in a skeptical, naturalistic, atheist view of reality. In our world, consciousness is merely what trillions of brain cells do and, since a mind reading machine will not likely exist in the near future, our thoughts are purely our own so we feel safe thinking whatever we want. After all, to us, thoughts are just thoughts.

This godless gift is truly, truly awesome, and I can say without reservation that this one thing alone was worth the price of admission. Being godless brings a freedom and peace of mind I never even came close to having when I was a believer.

Highly recommended.
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May 15, 2010 · Filed Under Atheism, Awesome Godlessness

Comments

22 Responses to “Awesome Godlessness Part II: Not Being Afraid of Your Own Thoughts”

  1. vjack on May 20th, 2010 at 10:27 am

    Peace of mind is a great way to communicate it. The sense of peace that comes from living in accordance with reality sure does bring peace of mind.

  2. toadster22 on June 17th, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    I just want to say that the god that you described isn’t the god that many believers have faith in. I believe in a forgiving god. He is my father and his son, my savior. I believe in the triune God who loves me always and will always be there for me. That, my friends, is true peace. Peace to know that you aren’t alone in this world. Peace to know that you have something to look forward to after death.

    I loved your article because it gave me something to think about and disagree with. Thanks.

  3. Raithie on June 27th, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    The biblical God seems to be nothing but a tyrant: he creates human nature and hence our desires, and then supposedly punishes and judges us for giving them the mere thought.
    Not very fair.

    I love the sense of privacy I get from being an atheist.

  4. Pop on June 27th, 2010 at 9:40 pm

    If thoughts are just thoughts, aren’t you wasting a lot of time by trying to prove that the thought of a God is wrong?

  5. 40 Year Old Atheist on June 27th, 2010 at 9:43 pm

    Nope. All I am doing is letting people know that there is an alternative to belief – a way of living that is not the empty, terrible existence believers often suggest it is.

    Nice try, though.

    Whatsittoya
    October 24th, 2010 at 8:45 pm

    It really was wasn’t it?

  6. Pop on July 2nd, 2010 at 10:30 pm

    I like how you put ‘Nice try, though.’ at the end of your statement, as if you just beat me in a game of H-O-R-S-E. The biggest problem I have with this article is that you’re basing the entire argument of “not being afraid of your own thoughts” on a six year old’s view of God. I ain’t mad atcha, but it would be like me telling you what atheists believe and then arguing against what I just told you that you believe. It would never work because I don’t know fully what you believe (or I guess I should say don’t believe), only what I’ve heard from others and read about in articles. It’s probably hard not to do from your point of view though, because without the idea of a God you have no non-belief, and thus, no arguments of ‘peace of mind’ even to make.

  7. YNOT on July 3rd, 2010 at 10:03 am

    do you know what sin is?
    You have broken the law!
    you can not save yourself!
    Repent!!! Turn away from sin!!!
    Jesus Christ Died and shed His blood for you sinners!!!!
    So that all who believe in Him will be save!!!!
    Pray to Jesus Christ that your sins are forgiven!!!
    Now that I have told you about Jesus Christ, YOUR DEATH WILL NOT BE ON MY HANDS!!

    Whatsittoya
    October 24th, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    Oh god here comes another one of THOSE!

  8. 40 Year Old Atheist on July 4th, 2010 at 9:35 am

    Pops, the tone you’ve read that comment in was not present when I wrote it.

    As far as your comment goes, do you think your view of belief is the only one? There are millions of Christians who have a different view. This post is for them – not you. Perhaps a day will come when I write a post that is closer to your beliefs.

  9. Movies to Watch on July 6th, 2010 at 9:25 pm

    “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
    – Mahatma Gandhi

  10. Alter Polus on July 8th, 2010 at 10:25 am

    Great post, based on the assumption that Christians are living unhappily under the gaze of the Great Eye. Which is akward, really, as it has been consistently shown that believers are the happier, more carefree bunch.http://pewresearch.org/pubs/301/are-we-happy-yet

    So really, you should get an Eye of your own.

    But honestly, your “surveillance camera” god is absurd, given what Christians actually believe about God: God is outside of time. (Time being relative to Things, God creating Things, therefore God outside of time) If this true, that God is infinite, the idea of a god tallying up our wrongs, holding his breath to see what we’ll do next, is wrong. To Him, our lives have already been. It’s a tough concept, but better not to ignore it and pretend thatChristians are creationists.

    Finally, isn’t the Atheist Brotherhood still in the buisnesss of having morality without God? Because if you live under moral obligation, if you don’t kill someone because you ‘know’ it’s wrong; you might as well be living under surveillance, huh?

  11. 40 Year Old Atheist on July 8th, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    @Polus

    You’re new here, so you likely don’t know who I write for. I’m not here to convince *you* of anything. I am here for Christians who are already doubting their faith. I’m here to provide them with an alternative to what they’ve been told their entire lives. If what you read here doesn’t jive with your view of Christianity, that’s fine – it wasn’t written to address every version of your religion.

    Which brings me to your point about “what Christians actually believe”. You can’t *seriously* profess to speak for what *all* Christians believe, can you? With too many versions of Christianity to count, and the stupendous variety of beliefs, your point is meaningless.

    On to your point about morality… There is a big, big difference between using reason and listening to one’s own morality compared to believing there is some one/thing “up there” who has laid the law down, and who is concerned with the degree to which you follow it. Your comment completely misses the point of this post.

  12. Pop on July 8th, 2010 at 3:47 pm

    Actually, I’m pretty sure all Christians do believe that God is eternal, which is what I think Polus was referring to. The biggest discrepancy in all of this is what each side refers to as ‘Christians.’ The latest poll I saw (which was 2008) stated that 77% of Americans considered themselves to be of the Christian faith. I think that you would agree that that statistic is probably inaccurate. Many people claim to be Christians but only attend church about 4 times a year. You probably consider someone a Christian just because they say they are one, but the Bible teaches that someone who is committed to Christ will ‘bear fruits’ (which are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). Lots of folks claim Christianity because it seems novel to think that you can just say you believe in Jesus and get to heaven – but they bear no fruits of the Christian faith…which makes me think that they probably aren’t living by the Bible – and that is what Christians are supposed to live by.

    Just my two cents…keep the change.

    IndyDina
    July 13th, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    So, Pops, you believe the Bible, including Matthew 7:1, but you have the authority to judge who is a Christian and who is not?

    A God-imposed eternal standard of right and wrong is the same as a celestial surveillance camera. Someone always watches; someone always knows. Christians think and act based upon how God (and you, apparently) will judge. I, think and behave based on this existence is it (as far as I know), and I want to to do my best. I’m the only one who is surveilling me.

    If I’ve read all of the post correctly, thoughts exist only for the thinker, and the only result of thinking is action taken based on the thought. It’s logical, not evil. (btw, 40YOA, you also make a great case against the law of attraction.)

    I could go on, but it’s not my blog. Thanks, 40YOA, for a great post! I look forward to the next part of the series. :)

    Pop
    July 14th, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    To your opening question, the answer is yes. But, I would reword it to say, “So, Pops, you believe the Bible, including Matthew 7:1, AND you have the authority to judge who is a Christian and who is not?”

    But probably not the type of judgment you’re thinking – I would call it more like ‘fruit inspecting’. Final judgement is handled by God, but I wasn’t even close to referring to that in my comment.

    If you want to take Matthew 7:1 completely out of context and look at it as its own sentence, then no, I shouldn’t judge. But that would be like me taking the words “God knows everything” out of the first sentence of this article and using it to prove that 40YA believes in God because he said it himself, that “God knows everything.”

    However, if you’re interested in what the Bible says, read Luke 6:43-45. I know that an apple tree is an apple tree because I can pick apples off of it…

  13. Forever In Hell: Bathroom Signs: You Must Obey « Feed on July 23rd, 2010 at 8:18 am

    [...] 40 Year Old Atheist Awesome Godlessness Part II: Not Being Afraid of Your Own Thoughts [...]

  14. Kane Augustus on July 29th, 2010 at 1:11 pm

    “But honestly, your “surveillance camera” god is absurd, given what Christians actually believe about God: God is outside of time.”

    This is an impossible comment to demonstrate. Point to anything — anything — that is “outside of time” and that can be rationally known. Everything you come up with will be based on analogy, and not demonstrable.

  15. Phoebe on October 15th, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    Great article! I personally know Christians who have nightmares about going to Hell because they are terrified they aren’t “doing it right”. There are plenty of believers who think exactly as you described.

    They would be much better off if they could just realize what the real truth is, which is that nobody knows how or why the Universe and all that’s in it came about.

    I have seen educated Christians (and people of other religions/superstitions) suffer from the cognitive dissonance of trying so hard to believe in something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. They need more people like you to speak up and let them know it’s OK to abandon faith and embrace reality.

  16. Marylynne on November 24th, 2010 at 3:34 am

    There was an interesting discussion at a family dinner. My brother and I are atheists, my sister and her boyfriend are cultural Catholic (call themselves so but really worry about it) and my other sister and her hubby are born-again.

    We were somehow discussing having integrity and doing the right thing. Brother in law said, “I just think, ‘Would this make God smile?’ and then I know what to do.” The conversation stopped dead and the rest of us looked at each other. “Uh, great.” A 45 year old man can’t see for himself what is the right thing to do? It struck the rest of us as very childish, dependent on some outside authority instead of a mature internalized moral compass. I think one of the costs of religion is that is does keep you in an immature state of moral development.

  17. Paul on December 30th, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    Hi 40YOA!
    The fracturing of the Christian Church is indeed a great thing for all who call themselves Christian to mourn. Historically speaking the novel sola scriptura (scripture alone) axiom of Luther and the rebellious Roman mindset he inherited, that produced it, is mainly to blame. (That bible says that it’s the church that is the pillar and foundation of truth not the bible)

    The early church promoted monogamy as the norm precisely to embody the fact that Christ has only one bride. Who was to be as harmoniously united as the three persons of the Trinity. (see Jn. ch.17) As soon as you think that you are the center of things and can run off and create God in your own image you have effectively left that church no matter how many agree with you, nor what you label yourself.

    It’s no wonder atheists have a hard time with Christianity when most of the Christians have never gone back to figure out the truth in their own faith and to become part of that one church that Christ founded, but rather continue blindly reading their bibles (often not even that) and imposing their own understanding on it.

    Many are Atheists precisely because so many well meaning albeit ignorant Christians who read their bibles with Neo-Platonic presumptions believe in and portray a god who is our enemy. (God is offended at our upsetting the universe with our sin and to set things right has to kill or punish us but didn’t want to be a bad guy so killed himself so if we say the prayer we can get a free pass)

    I suggest the following article that portrays a much more authentic original understanding of God. It should be good food for thought to those of any worldview or belief (even if your belief is an unbelief :-) ). http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/the-river-of-fire-kalomiros/

  18. Harmonika Savingsbonds on December 31st, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    Be wary of moderation in the movement, though. I just got kicked off of Exchristian.net for being too unapologetyic. Their motto should be:

    WE WANT OUR RIGHTS
    IF IT’S NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE FOR YOU.

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