Hopelessness of atheism

The Rev. Dr. Robert Stuart MacArthur was an early proponent of atheism being a causal factor for suicide. See: Atheism and suicide

On March 8, 2013, Damon Linker wrote in The Week:

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If atheism is true, it is far from being good news. Learning that we're alone in the universe, that no one hears or answers our prayers, that humanity is entirely the product of random events, that we have no more intrinsic dignity than non-human and even non-animate clumps of matter, that we face certain annihilation in death, that our sufferings are ultimately pointless, that our lives and loves do not at all matter in a larger sense, that those who commit horrific evils and elude human punishment get away with their crimes scot free — all of this (and much more) is utterly tragic.

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Although Bertrand Russell was an agnostic, he had favorable views of atheism. Bertrand Russell wrote in 1903 about entropy and the universe:

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That man is the product of causes that had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins- all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. "Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding dispair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built."

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In a letter to Lowes Dickinson, Bertrand Russell wrote:

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We stand on the shores of an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness; sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness. But it is a voice of one drowning; and in a moment the silence returns” (Bertrand Russell, Autobiography, p. 287 as quoted by Leroy Koopman, “Famous Atheists Give Their Testimonies,” Moody Monthly, Nov. 1975, p. 124.)

”

For more information please see: Atheism and suicide and Atheism and depression and Atheism and alcohol abuse

Atheist infighting making the atheist community unappealing to many

See also: Atheist factions

The significant amount of unpleasant personalities within atheism and the resulting amount of atheist infighting has made atheist community unattractive to people who are looking for a sense of community and/or a common cause (see: Atheist factions and Views on atheists).

Atheism contrasted with Christianity

See also: Unattractiveness of atheism

The American Christian Todd Strandberg said of atheism: "The ranks of atheists have always been small... The key problem with atheism is that it lacks a strong 'selling point'". Christians maintain that the benefits of Christianity totally outweigh the benefits of atheism. For example, Bible believing Christians point out that the atheist population is more depressed than the Christian population and that atheists will ultimately wind up in hell.

Unlike atheism which merely offers vanity and unrelenting despair, Christianity offers an accurate view of the universe and man's place in it. For more information, please see: Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian and Christian joy, atheist despair and the good news of Christianity and Evidence for Christianity

See also

• Unattractiveness of atheism
• Atheism and morality
• Atheism and deception
• Ex-Christians, self-esteem and suicide

Other:

• Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian
• Evidence for Christianity

External links

• A suicidal atheist converts to Christ
• Atheism and Death: Why the atheist must face death with despair By Dustin Shramek
• Atheism: A philosophy without hope
• And the benefits of atheism are what again? - video

Atheism and despair:

• Atheism: Unyielding Despair - video