Do atheists worship anything? That is the question I attempt
to answer in today's issue.
Worship in atheism: From what I have seen/heard,
despite atheists not having a God or religion, they seem to be divided in my
observation in beliefs on spirits, otherworldly beings and even ghosts.
Some simply just worship nature itself and can be considered spiritual
and they try to attune themselves to the worlds and universes natural order.
However, this group may go further and believe in spirits and even
sometimes demons and ghosts. Now if you abide by creation myths, spirits
and potentially demons are all created by God or a set of gods. So it
seems counter intuitive. However, I think some simply want to believe in
something more. They wish to see beyond as atheists generally believe
that aliens can exist, so why not creatures that we generally cannot see.
How does this help them in any way however? Does it reinforce
values or morals? Depending on what is worshipped and how, it can.
For instance, Chinese atheism which seems to have eaten Buddhism, Taoism
and Confucianism believes in ancestor worship. In this, they believe the
dead watch over them, and that if they fail in life then they will be forgotten
by the family due to their failures. Basically, if you are not worth
remembering, you will be ignored as you did not leave the family anything of
note to remember you by. This concept has the individuals trying to improve
themselves and be successful while asking their ancestors for guidance, hence
maintaining a productive society and a moralistic one at that (families do not
want to be stained with the disgrace of a thief or murderer in their families).
Likewise, some atheists believe in karma (with good deeds giving positive
energy and bad negative), and additionally reincarnation. In this, the
individuals do not want to be reincarnated as something like a slug. Of
course there are other atheists who I have met that simply believe in nothing.
They do not have spiritualism, or worship nature, and thus go along with
society and its whims. This last category of atheist I perceive as
potentially dangerous as they may be in my opinion more prone to groupthink and
thus mob mentality.
Conclusion: I will not say that atheists are
more dangerous than people with religious beliefs. In fact, I would say
in general that believers and non-believers alike are equally dangerous due to
ideology, beliefs and mob mentality. However, believing in nothing or not
having a bedrock of ground rules to support morality and strong character poses
dangers for future generations. I have a few atheists say that simply
feeling bad (a consciousness) is enough, but a conscience is developed and
fostered through life experiences and the people around you. So if the
people around you teach you it is ok to kill, then you would not feel bad about
it (extreme example, but you get the point). To me, atheists need to
organize to create a set of bedrock principles, a foundation if you will so as
to prevent total non-believers and similar from losing the basic morals and
character lessons needed to maintain a society.
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