Immanuel Can wrote:I cannot grasp what "consolation" can come from the non-belief in any values at all. ...
Whoa! There. Where does it say the Atheist has no belief in any values?
For as earlier commenters have said, that is what Atheism entails: nothing but the statement, "There is no God." And from that statement, of course, you can also draw "There is no afterlife," "There is no Creator," ...
True.
"There is no objective purpose or meaning,"
False, as you are conflating objective with external, we can have the objective goal of making this world a more comfortable place for those who agree that this would be a better thing fo reach of us.
"There is no right or wrong,"
Not so, there is no external being telling you what is right or wrong, you have to decide for yourself and it will be tested by others.
and "There is no value except contingent, temporary, personal advantage; and this slim advantage itself is soon to be doomed by death." You die, you're forgotten, and the one fine day your family, your friends, your descendants, your dreams, your contributions, your plans, your values and your aspirations are all consumed, as the universe goes into eternal heat death.
Well apparently cosmologists may be changing their minds about this and it look like the big-crunch and bounce may be back on the cards so Nietzsche and the Hindus and reincarnationists may win the game. But let's say they don't, then as an atheist you do it for your living family and friends and you have descendants so they can do it for theirs, your dreams are for now, as are your contributions, plans and values, not for some posited 'afterlife' not the threat of punishment or reward by some 'God'.
Lovely.
You want it all?
Now, in all that, do you see any light? If you ever "understand the consolation," as you say, then please hasten to explain.
Freedom from a tyrannical parent.
The Atheist world will have great cause for rejoicing, since it would seem it thinks it is presently dying in the dark.
That's because, in the main, you are talking to ex-theists, a very bitter and angry bunch, not atheists. I think we are living in the light.
But in my experience, it does not face that. Instead, it routinely takes false consolation. It tells itself things it "knows" to be lies. For on the one hand, it claims that the universe is big accident headed to nowhere; and then on the other hand, it's proponents talk of "leaving a legacy," or of "being authentic" or "making the world a better place," as if these things had some sort of objective reality with the Atheistic conception of the universe.
But they do, the objective reality of living others and one's descendants. Whereas the godbotherer lives for the dream of eternal servitude based upon adherence to the whims of a tyrannical patriarch.
Now, seeing that, then, can you wonder that Theists remain unimpressed by the posture of "hard-nosed rationality" that Atheists put on, when the Atheists themselves act so inconsistently? Yet if rationality has value, do we not suppose it has value for everyone? Do not Atheists owe themselves to believe consistently, rationally, in keeping with the ontological premise of Atheism itself, and not to steal false hope from others, or don't they? If they don't, what's "rational" about their Atheism?
Upon the whole I think those atheists you describe are in America where they have to face the more lunatic of the christian godbotherers or they are talking to ex-theists who are bitter about their indoctrination but cannot free themselves from it as its implanted before reason arises. Me I think nothing about 'God' or religion until the theist raises 'it' as a fact or tells me what the atheist believes.
