Atheism

the problem

I don’t think there is a singular problem, but my issue is being asked to believe something without evidence

Who knows?

Is it the violence with which religions have tried (and still try) to impose their beliefs on others?

Maybe the way they treat anyone who's not in their group?

Maybe how the want you to live by their values even if you are not religious?

Perhaps the way they are about power rather than making people happy?

It could be the way some of them enable child rapists?

I guess we'll never know.

what are you specifically asking? Are you asking why athiest fight against religion? are you looking for an anti-theist to explain their position? Something this broad has many possible answers.

I think about the concept of faith. Faith is a virtue in many cultures, to believe something without evidence or in the face of contradictory evidence.

I also think about how most religions have people focusing on the afterlife, what prize they are going to get or what punishment they should avoid.

I also think about how religions misappropriates deeds both good and bad.

Ultimately it is wish thinking, it is believing something to be true because you would prefer that thing to be true. And it blinds people to the truth around them.

When there’s a disaster and neighbors come to help, many believers chalk that up to god working in the hearts. When someone survives a surgery the family will give their thanks to god. When an athlete wins a competition he will finger gun towards the lord.

As an atheist and a humanist, I think that’s a real shame. Those believers don’t see that it’s people doing good in the world. The neighbors, the doctor and all the people that raised and educated them, the athlete and their teammates and all the hundreds of parents and coaches that got them to that place.

It’s the same with bad things, chalking it up to whatever version of the devil or the lack of enough god.

And in both cases it blinds us to the real causes of good things and bad things. When blinded to those causes it can make people pursue weird and useless paths for society. If we can truly understand why bad and good things happen then we can do something about it, but as long as we can chalk it up to the mystery of religion we will be held back. Imagine if we had just gone “electricity, that’s gods blood, we should not investigate any deeper” we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.

If religion is a means to understand and navigate the world around me, it is a poor one at best. And that’s my issue with religion.

Is it the beliefs?

Can you imagine a religious organization that an atheist would find problem-free if only they had the right beliefs? Why or why not?

The dogmatism?

Since you're asking, I suppose you're positing that some forms of dogmatism are good? I would like to hear some of your thoughts on what good dogmatism looks like. Otherwise, why would you ask if dogmatism is a problem?

The epistemology?

Again, I'm confused by your question. Religions don't have a single unified epistemology. What are you asking and what do you posit or conjecture?

Trolling troll be trolling

Usually, it's the people.

Either the people at the top manipulating their followers in order to secure longevity for the religion and their bank accounts, or the people at the bottom who feel the need to push their own beliefs onto others.

We could go down the list and mention what's "wrong" with each individual religion, such as Islam and Christianity oppressing women for centuries.

I won't rule out that there could be a good religion, but I haven't really encountered one yet.

To answer my own question.

It's a tribalism enhancer. And a tool for domination. And a substitute for real growth.

But I'd rather blame the holder of the tool than the tool.