I am an atheist myself and don’t believe in a God or the supernatural. But I wish I wasn’t an atheist because an afterlife of eternal joy would give my life the ultimate meaning and would make this one and only life more beautiful and worthwhile. If you are going to ask how having a religious belief is even supposed to make you view this life as having more value, worth and beauty, then this would all depend on if you either value a reward in the end in which you no longer have suffering and live an eternal life of joy, or that you find living such an eternal life to be boring or bad for any other reason. So it’s the people who value other things besides an eternal life of joy and value other things like hardships and suffering who find this one and only life to be of greater value, worth, and beauty than an eternal life of joy. But because I would never be bored, go insane, and find immense value towards an eternal life of joy and no suffering and that I have no value whatsoever towards suffering, this is the reason why I would be more happier and better off with my christian belief that I once had in the past (which is now gone). Religious people (just specific religious people like me who find greater value in an eternal life of joy) would certainly value those other things I just mentioned, but would only value them greater through their religious belief. Being more happy towards something in life is very likely to make you that much as happy towards other things in life. Therefore, since my greatest happiness was directed towards an eternal life of joy when I had my christian belief in the past, then I also found my greatest happiness in other things in this specific life that I was living in as well. So, in short, nothing in this one and only life really matters. It only matters if there is an eternal life of joy for these religious people to have value and happiness towards which would then also make these religious people have value and happiness towards things in this life.
But I did have a christian belief in the past and it was my christian belief that allowed me to feel hope, comfort, and be more happy/less depressed in life. Me looking forward to going to heaven and there being a God encouraged me to find more worth and purpose in this life in striving for that reward of an afterlife of eternal joy of no suffering. Since I am a hedonist, an eternal life of pleasure is the ultimate reward that not only made me feel more happy and motivated in life, but also encouraged me to strive more in doing more great things in life and such knowing that I would obtain that reward in the end.
As for what someone might bring up which is quoted below:
“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life."
― George Bernard Shaw, Androcles and the Lion
This is not true. If you or anyone else here has found other things in life of greater value than your pleasure (which would include finding greater things in life than even your own feelings of love), then you obviously have not experienced these feelings nearly as profound or meaningful as I have to know that they are truly the only good and greatest things in life. I should also include that I also value the pleasure of others just as much as I value my own.
Now it’s only your lifestyle aspects, attitude, and any negative beliefs associated with your delusional religious beliefs that determines whether your delusional religious beliefs are detrimental to you and/or anyone else. But since all of those things just stated above were perfect with my christian belief and I had no negative beliefs such as that God would send me to hell since I believed that God was much more loving and caring than that, then my christian belief would have given me a great life in which I would not harm myself and/or others.
Now if you are going to say something such as that “Delusional beliefs are detrimental in and of themselves because they cloud your mind and limit your thinking,” this would be false because as long as there is no harm done to you or anyone else and that you are truly more happy with your life, then you are just fine with your religious belief. As for me, when I had my christian belief in the past, I never did any bad deeds through my christian belief. I was just someone who helped others and played videogames and my life was just fine for me and others around me.
Finally, even some atheists can have much more depression due to their atheism and can even harm themselves/harm others and do even more bad things in their life through their atheist mindset than a religious person would. As far as I can tell, I would be this type of person no matter what and would never be able to change or even change to the point where I would be just as good or better off with my atheism than my christian belief. Although I would never harm others no matter what since I care about others. I would also never look down upon atheists if I still had my christian belief and think that they are perhaps stupid for being atheists. I would respect their atheism anyway despite me being a christian. I never did such a thing anyway when I had my christian belief in the past.
Thanks for respecting atheism. I think that is the “low bar” that all beliefs need to get to today. That includes some radical anti-theists who could do better respecting religion. Of course, religion needs to EARN that respect, so there needs to be movement in both directions, but ultimately, more respectful behavior is better all around.
As for your statement, I’m not sure you can mix hedonism and Christianity like you do. Heaven is not very well described in the Bible but your description does not fit if I know anything about it. I think heaven still involves honoring God all day, something you may not be into.
Your post made me think about when I was 18 and hanging around in my small town, driving up and down main street, smoking cigarettes and trying to not cause enough trouble to get noticed. I could have done that forever. They were carefree days. But there’s something that most of us have that makes us want more, to know more, to do more for others, to suffer a little for some greater good. I’m not going to try to convince you that I made the better choice because it’s something that seems too natural, too basic to be explainable. I think we can inspire each other to bigger things, but there has to be a spark there already.
Believing certain lies can no doubt be comforting, or in some cases even bring joy (until you figure out they are lies). A Christian’s belief of eternal reward after death, has the advantage of not being 100% refutable, and, that, since once you are dead, you will no longer have the capacity to feel disappointed about it or to complain, or report back.
People who develop beyond a need to base their life on magical thinking, are indeed beyond the comfort of the lie of eternal reward after death. But they are not beyond experiencing pleasure in helping others, or in doing other things that can bring them pleasure, while they are alive.
The problem with religions that promise an eternal joyful afterlife, is that they tend to require other controlling beliefs that can, unnecessarily, limit one’s or peoples’, in general, experiencing pleasures. E.g., some major religions would require a person of homosexual orientation to eternally repress and never act on their real sexual desires. Some interpretations of religion prohibit dancing. Some limit music. Some promote violence against other groups. Some promote the idea that suffering while in this life will better lead to an eternal reward after death. etc.
I suppose that those individuals who can believe that all that is necessary to live eternally and joyfully is to believe, for example, that Jesus is the Son of God, and who can, also, shut out any other controlling belief of Christianity or control by other religions, and can thusly do or experience whatever they wish, as long as they don’t harm others, may have an advantage in the happiness department, over atheists.
Unfortunately, the controlling aspects of religions throughout world societies do have a limiting impact, to some degree, on most individuals throughout the world to maximize our collective enjoyment of the life that we do have, even though some may allow some of us to enjoy a fictitious life after death that we don’t really have.
OTOH< Atheists can, still, and often do, enjoy fiction and fantasy for what it is, by temporarily suspending belief.