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re: Prayers from an atheist are even more worthless than those from a believer.
azstrummer — (archived)

Now that's strange because other atheists that I know seem to hold more value of human life than their religious counterparts. When you believe in no afterlife it puts this huge finality on things. If you take a life or wish for someone's life to end, you are wishing them to no longer exist even on a spiritual level. That's it. It's all there is so it's this huge step to take.

Now, in the case of a serial killer or someone threatening my well-being or that of loved ones, I wouldn't hesitate but the thought of ending it all for someone because they piss me off politically is a bit absurd. Whether religious people want to admit it or not, the Golden Rule is simply a survival tactic settled on after thousands of years of observation of human interaction and not some divinely inspired edict. If one goes around ending lives, basic observation skills tell us that it's much more likely others will want to do us in in retaliation.

Let's see who I'd rather have holding my life in their hands, a religious fundamentalist that gets to pass off responsibility for my "soul" to some omnipotent being or an atheist that knows my demise means there's nothing left afterwards.

Art Martin

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