Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of
The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life, of
Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, of
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, of
Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of
Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and many of her talks can be seen on YouTube. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and numerous anthologies, including
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of
Best American Erotica. (Any views she expresses in this blog are solely hers, and do not necessarily represent this organizations.) She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. You can email her at gretachristina (at) gmail (dot) com, or follow her on
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by “comforting” I think the average theist, and especially Christian, means “makes me think I know a secret and that makes me feel special and cared for”. I certainly don’t find anything “comforting” about a genocidal snotty brat that has evidently done all it can to cause hatred and misery on earth. Take Babel for instance, this pitiful deity was so suprised and fearful of its creations that it made sure that they would have trouble communicating and thus intentionally causing much heartache.
People find not going to Hell comforting too.
I find not going to Heaven just about as comforting – I don’t see how anyone would want to spend eternity singing the praises to Jesus/God in a “perfect” body 24/7 without need for sleep/potty break/eating/fucking with other “souls” doing the same?
Death is one area where religion actually produces more frightful doubt than atheism â namely, the fear that perhaps, after a person dies, they will experience some sort of suffering for ever and ever. Even the most pious have that little grain of trembling doubt in their minds; not suprising, if one thinks that God is already capricious enough to consign most people there anyway. It’s tragic.
(That’s my favorite answer to Pascal’s Wager â if God is so fond of punishment that he punishes all non-believers, how do you know he isn’t sadistic enough to punish you, as well? Why make any deal with a mafioso? You’ll only get stabbed in the back.)
I’d add “don’t you care about the universe he supposedly created for you“.
Someone put this principle to music, creating the song “The Word of God“. (mp3 here.)
I have found religion comforting, and there’s a specific incident I have in mind. My mother was killed when I was nine, and the next morning, my father had to explain it.
He said, “Mummy’s gone to Jesus.”
It was, insofar as it could be, comforting to think of Mummy being with Jesus.
However. I was NINE. If anyone says the same thing to me now, it isn’t comforting at all, it’s just… silly. When my grandmother died, when my father died, I had to deal with the loss without any belief that I would see them again, or that they were ‘with Jesus’, and you know, I did.
It may well be comforting to believe that death doesn’t have to mean “The End”. But it looks as though does hanging on to religious belief means human beings remain perpetual children. I’m glad to have grown up.