Welcome.

Why wouldn't we be happy? Happiness has nothing to do with belief in an invisible friend.

I have studied Christianity as well, I have a graduate degree from a Jesuit University and went to parochial schools.

Don't know anything about atheist churches. Probably their schedule conflicts with the weekly barbeque of kittens.

I too have studied Judaism, various sects of Christianity and Islam.

You realize to be a hypocrite one needs to claim belief in the god or the Jesus and then really not believe in it. Atheists don't believe in the god and so are not hypocrites.

Paul John the Skeptic

The key to happiness is 'to be happy" ?

That is a remarkably vacuous statement, definitely worthy of someone who claims to have 'studied' Atheism. There is is no doctrine to study there, which at least makes 'Atheism' contain more truth than Christianity, which is a an accumulation of codified error. If you have 'studied' any aspect of Atheism, you are either blinded by your faith, or simply lying, to talk about simple non-belief in such terms.

I have not formally studied the various religions, although I have carefully observed, from fairly close range, probably more Muslims, Buddhists, Orthodox Christians, and miscellaneous cultures in several parts of Africa, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Russia, among others, than most people from Western society.

The three related Abrahamic faiths are so clearly conducive to peace and happiness that they have made the region of their origin, the Middle East, (which I have also visited), such a shining light for peace and harmony to the world, in such clear contrast to the constant conflict and misery of the nations of northern Europe whose lack of belief has lead them to such despair.... </irony>

Here is the difference between the believer and the atheist. The believer has to assume that there is fictional  ice cream after the meal. The atheist knows that even the meal can contain some yucky stuff, but doesn't let the yucky stuff scare them into believing that an non existent flavor of  ice cream will make reality go away.

We don't ignore the yucky stuff in life or assign it to fictional villains. And we do find ice cream(happiness, now, but not every second of our lives) without inventing a fictional afterlife and make up a utopia ice cream that does not exist.

You take a plane ride and the plane lands and the trip is over. You take a two week vacation and after two weeks it is over. You can go to old age but you will still die. Making up super heros and super villains to explain the obvious or ignore the obvious, that the ride ends, is what humanity needs to get away from, if we want to seek to extend our finite ride.

Well Jon, I would like to consider myself to be reasonably happy. Not perfectly happy but then, who really is?

I have a roof over my head, and a bunch of other stuff that I see no real point in listing out for you. The fact is that a great many people have less than I do.

Wow! I have no idea what you studied but I am fairly sure that you do not know me better than I know myself. Seriously, where did you get the idea that we have atheist churches? Could you provide the postal addresses of a few dozen of them?

See, that is one point where you are clearly in error. The fact that I don't believe in things (such as your idea of god) is about on the same order as not collecting stamps. If not collecting stamps is a hobby, then not believing in stuff that can't possibly happen is a religion.

I see. So you have decided what is the one true belief based on an admittedly incomplete understanding of the matter. Kudos to you dude! How well versed are you on religions which obtain on other planets which we have never made contact with?

Umm, Not at all?

That speaks volumes.

I am happy for you then.

Oddly enough, I also think that other people should commit to a life of study. Just not the “I have made my mind up and refuse to be confused by fact” type of study.

You write that you understand atheism real well and yet call it a religion and there are atheist churches. This means to me you have not studied it much. Could your depth in the study of Christianity have as much depth? I think you need to study both of them a lot more and so it is good for you to come here for research on both. There are quite a number of ex-Christians here including myself, a former minister. I did commit myself to a life of Study and the deeper I dug the less I believed and the larger my cognitive dissonance became. The Bible asks you to set aside your rational brain and reality and believe things that cannot be seen or proven, totally outlandish things like talking snakes, talking donkeys, fire breathing dragons, demons flying about invading animals, dead people walking around,  etc. The Bible shows god heavily involved in violence to humans, including Jesus, meek and mild, burning the mass of humanity in hell forever for only a handful of decades of not believing in him. The more you read the more you say "Sheesh is this god loving or not". And then you start reading about other religions, ancient religions that have the same type of fairy tales and you wind up saying oh this is so human, humans made up these stories. Then you let go of it and not believe in a mythical god anymore.

So I encourage you to stick around and ask questions and continue to research the Bible, church history and other religions. You may find you don't need to fear anymore and can be just another human being enjoying the wonders of just being alive.

Please read this article in wiki on cognitive dissonance. It was my experience in making myself believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

That's like asking someone who ignores astrology if they're 'happy'.

It's not a relevant question...

Give us the names and locations of 3 Atheist 'churches'.

Actually, it's at the 'Non Laundry Mat', where we don't bring any clean clothes...

I think you're confusing your limited understanding of atheists, as a way to distinguish yourself favourably.

Unfortunately, the distinction between most atheists and you, is in your ignorance.

If you're a monotheist, then you're also an atheist, since you don't believe in Zeus, Apollo, Thor, etc, ad nauseum...

What were your struggles prior to studying?...

Because of your personal opinion?

That actually makes no sense...

About the same as your anti-faith in other supernatural claims...

Did you coin these phrases on your own?

That's about as profound as "The Key to sleeping is to sleep..."

Again, doesn't make sense...

This is a great question, although it does make some pretty big assumptions. To simply answer the question, I would say that my happiness goes up and down, depending on various things in life, such as who I am with, what I have done, what others have done for or with me.  In short, my happiness is generally unrelated to my beliefs.  However, when thinking about religion at all, I feel a great peace of mind because of my atheism.  Rather than filling my head with stories of unproveable claims, it is only full of things which I know are.  I know that I gain great satisfaction from helping others.  I look at the beauty of nature and like to think about all the amazing processes that have gone into the creation of that tree or animal.  Simply attributing that to God, for me, diminishes that beauty.

I don't know of any Atheist churches in my local area, although I do know they exist elsewhere.  I actually go to a Christian church.  I adore the architecture, music and the sense of tradition.  I often disagree with the preaching, but it often raises interesting questions in my mind, and is thus beneficial to me in this sense.  Whether I agree with the other attendees' beliefs or not, they are a great community of people, and are generous, kind and warm-hearted.

I kind of wish there was an atheist church that could do the same thing.  If I did go to an atheist church, I wouldn't be very impressed if it was all about "anti-faith in God" because that's a very negative thing, and is not what atheism is about.  That's like going to a political rally for one party just because you hate the other party - it's not productive, and not positive.  Whereas a good Atheist church would be much the same as a Christian church, where you discuss the morality of decisions in life, what life means for us as individuals, and as communities, and how we can improve our own and other people's lives. For the purposes of illustration, reference could be made to sources of the insights.  These could be books, philosophical texts, research studies or whatever, and may well include the bible, afterall, the bible has some great insights into the understanding of human nature, and atheists should read the bible to gain those insights as much as any Christian.  The difference between an atheist reading the bible and a Christian, however, is that we don't simply accept is as the truth, but simply what it is - a book.

I study many things, and I read of many religions and find them all fascinating.  I also read science fiction novels, fantasy novels.  I watch films such as Avatar and Lord of the Rings.  All of these have wonderful ideas and illuminate aspects of my life.  Avatar raises the question of how we can live more in tune with nature, Plato's Republic raises the question of how we can make a better society.  The bible raises the question of how we should treat others, and what we should prioritise in our lives.  However, all of these are only questions.  The answers only come from your head, from thinking about it, and drawing your own conclusions.

I can't make a case for "anti-faith in God", but I can make a case for just thinking about it, and not believing anything unless you have thought about it personally, and come to that conclusion yourself, looking at ALL the facts.  And if you truly do this, you will come to your own conclusion that God does not exist, as many other have done before you, simply because there is just no irrefutable evidence of His existence.

Jesus is Lord! (if "Lord" is taken as a symbolic metaphor of a good moral leader)

Take care,

Aristocrates

I am relatively happy considering everything that is happening in the world right now.

One of my closest friends is a preacher and he seems happy as well. Even though we are polar opposites on the religious spectrum we are still seemingly equally happy because we are both humans, and happiness is a human emotion.

Happiness is a situational response. Whether it comes from religion, drugs or eating some really good cookies is irrelevant.

What do you mean by happy? Am I satisfied with my life? Do I feel that I am loved by others? That I have all materials that I could want? That I have substantial money? That I have an education? What do you mean? You asked if I was happy then went on a rant about how great Christianity, telling us all the work that you supposedly have done to verify Jesus against all other religions?

Could you please be more specific about happiness?