The word atheist only means a person that lacks belief in god, but people have always associated that word with something else, like being angry, or negativity, or sadness, but that’s not the case. Atheist are just people like everyone else. I may not be the best example for mental health in atheists, but I’m not the common denominator.
Just like there are sad atheists, there are happy atheists, that being proof that (like I was once told) “the key to happiness is accepting a higher power” is a wrong statement. For me that statement doesn’t encourage happiness, but accepting injustice and even slavery to the so called “higher power”.
Even though I understand the argument for theists being happier than atheists because they “have” an objective purpose in life and don’t really have to accept the consequences of their actions because of the “will of god”-argument, that’s nothing more than another way of saying “happy to be a slave”.
I’m aware that for some people realizing that there is no god can be devastating, and therefore they fall into depression. This people usually go back into religion, at least in my experience. they look for ways to fool themselves into believing again, but that doesn’t mean god has become any more real than a fairy-tale.
I was once told that believing in god was better than anti-depressants. I’m sorry for people that are in that situation, but their pain has its roots in other things outside lack of believe. Again, believing in god doesn’t make god any more real, and doesn’t banish the need for actual help.
Being an atheist doesn’t mean being a negative person either. Unlike Jon Meacham, I don’t think that “the word atheist is a negative word. It means you’re against something.” (1) in fact, atheism is just the default position, it doesn’t mean you’re against anything, it just means that you, personally, don’t believe. I would even argue that it is religion that is against something, against the other religions.
Being an atheist doesn’t mean you can’t see the beauty of nature, it just means you don’t think it was created by a supreme being. Being an atheist doesn’t mean you don’t feel lucky to have this life (at least I do), it just means you don’t think it was assigned to you by god. Being an atheist doesn’t mean you don’t value this life, it means you value it more because there is no afterlife, this is it.
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