In this blog I will explore the theory of athiesm this of course is the theory that god does not exist. Myself I do believe in god. However I will come to the conclusion that athiests are not necessary any worse as individual people and in fact there have been many evil acts carried out in the name of religion.
The most famous statement perhaps regarding a non believe in god is in Dostoevskys novel Brother Karamazov, if god does not exist then anything is permitted’. The view being that mankind can carry out any evil deed as there is no fear of punishment in the afterlife if god does not exist. Non athiests would of course use this to explain the evil acts carried out by Hitler and Stalin as both men were athiests.
However this view does not hold up as most athiests are of course decent people and as I have stated as a person who does believe in god, there have been many atrocities carried out in the name of religion and god.
I will now look at some of the theories of some of historys leading athiest thinkers.
Albert Camus who I greatly admire was of the opinion that if god is all powerfull then god must be held criminally responsible for all of the injustice against mankind and all of the evil in the world.
Jean Paul Sartre for most of his life felt that there was no god and mankind was condemned to be free. However in the last years of his life Sartre changed his mind and came to the opinion that god might exist after all.
Alfred Ayre the world famous English philosopher who was a life long athiest had a near death experience in his old age which totally changed his view on a divine being.
The three people mentioned above are in my opinion examples of well meaning athiests.However there are in my opinion some present day examples of athiests who have a nasty side. For instance the American neo conservative athiest Sam Harris supports the use of torture ‘in the war against terrorism’. He supports the American present day imperialist wars. The English athiest Richard Dawkins similarly has in my opinion a nasty attitude. His book the selfish gene tends in my opinion to promote the survival of the fittest
However turning to believers in god we must not assume the just because one believes in god that it makes one a good person.There have as I have already stated been many evil acts carried out in the name of god. Catholics against protestants and protestants against catholics and violent acts between different islamic groups and other rival religions.
So in conclusion I believe that going through life with a believe in god is more comforting and near death experiences confirm the existence of god.However I have a personal opinion that in the end the good merciful god will save both athiests and believers in god both good and bad.
kevinclarion 