"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."

[vivster]

o_O.Q said:

vivster said:

People have always only been driven by selfish desires, long before there was money. Because what is money if not something you exchange for happiness. Believing in a religion itself is for completely selfish reasons because it gives you closure. You also have to eat less because you don't waste energy on critical thinking.

Religion is a logical conclusion to human's and all organisms' primitive desires. Just one more way to achieve happiness and bliss. You could say that atheists are behaving irrationally because they're depriving themselves from easy additional happiness but they do get their fix somewhere else, so it's fine. What I'm saying money and religion serve the exact same purpose, just like smug atheists going on forums and lecturing believers is for their selfish self fulfillment.

The problem with religion though is that it holds back progress and as such advancements that could make our lives even better and be more efficient at producing happiness.

" You could say that atheists are behaving irrationally because they're depriving themselves from easy additional happiness but they do get their fix somewhere else, so it's fine"

which implies that atheists don't get an ego boost and validation from laughing at religious people and calling them stupid, which i personally think is the main reason for holding that position to begin with... 

No, it implies exactly that. We atheists do get an enormous amount of satisfaction from the fact that we're not complete morons and are in fact able to employ critical thinking. It's one of the very few things that helps to hold the balance against all the negative things we do receive because of our belief. It's not the main reason to "hold that position", it's one of the few things that helps us cope. Also, atheism isn't a position that you can hold. It's a mere byproduct of using the scientific method.