Continuing now with the final section of the case against God which I outlined here:

6) Belief in the “God” concept is worse than merely wrong or illogical. It inspires patterns of thinking and behavior which negatively affect us all. Whatever good this belief may have inspired owes nothing to its basic, dangerous irrationality and will survive our rejection of that irrationality.

Although belief in “God” is alleged to bring all sorts of benefits, I have not found that to be the case. The more research I do, the more news stories I watch unfold, the more theists I encounter in real life, and the more I think about all this, the more I am led to the conclusion that belief in “God” is actually a very counter-productive thing to have.

And it seems to be very counter-productive at whatever level one cares to look at it from: Personal, familial, social, cultural, national, international, or historical.

A) Consider the effects belief in “God” has at the personal level:

Although belief in “God” is often alleged to provide comfort, solace, and meaning, it cannot do so unless coupled with many other beliefs. A demonic or indifferent “God” makes at least as much sense as a good or loving “God,” and it is very difficult to see how comfort, solace, or meaning might be obtained from belief in such a being. Many atheists, on the other hand, manage to live happy, meaningful lives without belief in any kind of “God” at all. Clearly, belief in “God” is neither necessary nor sufficient for happiness or meaning.

Are people who believe in a loving “God” happier than atheists? It’s not the easiest question in the world to answer – and the significance so often attached to this question seems terribly misplaced in any case. Those inclined to say “Yes! Of course belief in a loving God makes one happy!” have a lot of explaining to do before we can take them seriously.

Like all subjective feelings, “happiness” is a rather hard thing to study (as this attempt to understand what makes Finns happy indicates). Even if a correlation could be established between belief in a loving “God” and happiness, it might well be the case that happiness prompts belief in a loving “God” rather than vice versa. It might be that people who believe in a loving “God” are more likely to socialize with like-minded people at church functions and that it is this socializing which inspires happiness rather than the belief in a loving “God” itself. If American atheists are less happy than American theists, it might well be because they hold a minority point of view and have fewer opportunities to socialize with other atheists rather than because there is anything inherently depressing about atheism. Some studies suggest that happiness is more or less genetically determined and that neither changing our beliefs nor our environment changes our degree of happiness all that much. Studies of both lottery winners and victims of tragic accidents such as that which left actor Christopher Reeve paralyzed seem to indicate that people revert to their natural level of happiness within about a year of experiencing an extraordinary good or bad event.

If belief in a “God” who loves us does indeed inspire happiness, that is still not necessarily a good thing or a good reason to believe in a loving “God.” Over the centuries, many theists themselves have denied that happiness is a worthy goal for humanity to pursue. Some studies indicate people do their best work while unhappy. Happiness which springs from belief in a “God” which expresses His/Her/Their/Its love for us by consigning the vast majority of others to hell or whispers in our ear to kill all those who do not love Him/Her/Them/It back is not the sort of happiness I, for one, want to see praised or promoted.

When I encounter a theist who claims or implies that theism is right because it leads to happiness, I always take the argument to its logical conclusion by asking that theist if he or she chose to become a member of whatever church he or she belongs to after studying the relative happiness of the members of various denominations. According to the figures I have, Episcopalians seem to be happier than Baptists (and to have less often felt like they were going to have a nervous breakdown as well). Should all Baptists therefore become Episcopalians? If Buddhist monks are found to be happiest of all, does that mean we should all become Buddhist monks? Unless one is prepared to say “Yes! Of course!” it is hard to see how one can say that atheists ought to abandon atheism even if it makes them unhappy.

In my own experience, I’ve met too many happy atheists – and too many guilt-plagued Catholics and hell-haunted Christian fundamentalists – to believe that theists actually are happier than atheists. Regardless, there are larger issues at stake here, as George Bernard Shaw indicated when he said “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.”

The immediate effect a belief has on us is less important than its truth. Believing something merely because it makes us happy, or popular, or rich is an inherently dangerous practice. Whenever belief is separated from evidence and logic, the odds of very bad things happening seem to dramatically increase. Separating belief from evidence and logic in the matter of our personal religious views seems almost certain to lead to a similar separation in other areas of life. The groundwork for the development of a very bad habit has been laid.

Truth matters. Knowing what the truth is – regardless of how it makes us feel – matters, too. Valuing how we feel above knowing the truth is an extremely short-sighted, self-centered act which seems to increase our unhappiness in the long-run.

Go to Part 6B-C