We often hear, as an attack on both, the issue of 'comfort' being discussed in regards to atheism and theism.
There are many variations, but most of the strawmans I hear go something like this:
Atheist strawman: a theist likes the comfort of knowing that he'll live forever
Theist strawman: an atheist likes the comfort of knowing that he has no responsibilities
However, when I talk to atheists and theists, it seems the real situation is a little different. I hear that:
A theist understands that for the universe to have a definite beginning it may imply it has a definite end. At the very least knowing that you are a creation implies that you can be uncreated. This is not too comforting, as people do love living life even if there happens to be an afterlife.
An atheist believes that it is impossible for something to come from nothing, and that matter/energy cannot be created nor destroyed. From both of these things, they are forced to believe the universe is enternal. This type of eternal existance can be said to give the atheist comfort.
Of course, I don't think the comfort-arguments are good at all. But people use them all the time to hint that if it comforts you, you like it because of the comfort and not because of what is providing the comfort. Like if your bed is comfortable, you just like the comfort it provides and you don't really care about the bed itself.
There are many variations, but most of the strawmans I hear go something like this:
Atheist strawman: a theist likes the comfort of knowing that he'll live forever
Theist strawman: an atheist likes the comfort of knowing that he has no responsibilities
However, when I talk to atheists and theists, it seems the real situation is a little different. I hear that:
A theist understands that for the universe to have a definite beginning it may imply it has a definite end. At the very least knowing that you are a creation implies that you can be uncreated. This is not too comforting, as people do love living life even if there happens to be an afterlife.
An atheist believes that it is impossible for something to come from nothing, and that matter/energy cannot be created nor destroyed. From both of these things, they are forced to believe the universe is enternal. This type of eternal existance can be said to give the atheist comfort.
Of course, I don't think the comfort-arguments are good at all. But people use them all the time to hint that if it comforts you, you like it because of the comfort and not because of what is providing the comfort. Like if your bed is comfortable, you just like the comfort it provides and you don't really care about the bed itself.
