Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by World Walker on January 5, 2009 at 1:17pm

That's awesome. I am as well. But I have noticed a timid subset of the visible atheist population. I feel like if people realized how liberating being an atheist is, then we would have one additional positive attribute for our friends who aren't atheists and aren't actually sure how much fun that can be.

Permalink Reply by Timothy on January 26, 2009 at 8:25pm

well put.

Permalink Reply by Kevin on January 5, 2009 at 9:13pm

Well I know when I became an atheist I haven't had a drink and I don't go to AA but I am thinking of strangling some theists that I know baaaaahahhahahhahahah.

I am having fun though so that's good.

Permalink Reply by Jennie on February 10, 2009 at 10:30pm

Haha! Let's start a new group: Atheist Hitmen

Permalink Reply by Rikka on January 10, 2009 at 2:07pm

I'd say I'm having a good bit of fun. Some of it would be seen as sinful, a good bit of it wouldn't be. I do what I enjoy and quite a lot of that is not socially acceptable. That being said, I'll try to remember to invite you next time there's some debauchery going down ;)

Permalink Reply by Polymath on February 8, 2009 at 8:53am

There are other moral systems than theistic and hedonistic. The point is that we are a social species and create systems of conduct to strengthen the social bond. That does not necessarily mean that we agree with the *prevailing* social rules, but it does mean that we typically choose *some* social rules to live by.

Another point is that hedonistic debauchery doesn't necessarily lead to happiness (the hedonist goal). Orgies can leave a person feeling more lonely even if you can find a group of willing partners and even if the disease aspect is taken care of. This isn't a 'moral code' so much as knowing oneself and what will actually produce long term happiness. Other excesses can also lead to longer term unhappiness: heart disease and diabetes, for example.

That said, I *do* have a lot of fun in life. More than what I see most theists having.

Permalink Reply by World Walker on February 8, 2009 at 9:03am

Awesome reply. I've been speculating that it has something to do with our value of the individual. On the surface hedonistic debauchery sounds like more fun but then all the sudden you're in a hodgepodge of people and parts and what if everybody focuses on that hot guy or that hot girl and I'm left out? Or what if it feels more like an assembly line than a passionate process.

However, if there were a way to have awesome responsible hedonistic debauchery, I would expect atheists to be able to find it.

Permalink Reply by Jennie on February 10, 2009 at 10:29pm

You want to have a big atheist orgy???

My life is full of fun. I do what I wanna do. :) FREE YOUR MIND.

Permalink Reply by World Walker on February 11, 2009 at 8:18am

Basically yeah. Who doesn't? I mean don't you ever wanna know where the right place to go to do something a little crazy and yet do it safely. I figured atheists would be all over that. And if they aren't already maybe they should be.

It's not a really big issue in my life or anything. I've just wondered if atheists might have more fun by virtue of having more developed intelligence minus the puritan standards.

Permalink Reply by mxyzptlk on May 10, 2009 at 12:04pm

Yeah, but it seems that breaking rules and having that kind of transgressive fun is only really hedonistic if you have some sort of big daddy moral code to tell you how wrong it is. The fun is proportional to the "evil" you're committing. If you don't have any transcendent watchmen waiting to smite you if you're caught, where's the thrill?

Why rob a bank if they'll give you the money for free? Why break into a junkyard and steal a car part if the dog is friendly and the owner left the parts out for you to take? Why violate yourself in completely obscene ways if you don't have to confess it to a stranger through a dark screen? Why give in to deep-seated sexual desires if there's no one there to think of you as a moral cretin if you're caught? Sure, you can still do these things as an atheist, but they don't seem to pack the transgressive thrill that doing them as a a religious person would.

Also, if you're an atheist and you do those things, you also lose all the work you have to do to be accepted back into the community of prayer-givers and marshmallow-jello-salads once you are caught -- so there goes the quest aspect.

Seems to me if you really want to be a hedonist, at least today, you have to be religious. If you're an atheist, you really only have yourself to answer to (if your actions are within legal limits). For many people, that's far more terrifying than having a religious confessional community to answer to; you can't lay any feelings, thoughts, or desires you have on some imaginary friend, a demon, a lack of faith, or any external stimuli. It all comes down to you, and you have to face yourself by yourself and come to terms with yourself.

Permalink Reply by James Allen Peacock III on June 29, 2009 at 9:56pm

Well at to the original question . There would be more atheists then theists that were hedonist by laws of sin acorse thats mostlly in the major dominating relegions not including the smaller cults , cultures , and pagan belief systems that a time did revolve around sex . As far atheists goes however it would not be true to say the majority of us would flock to just cause were unbown from the idea of sin . Beacause athiest tend to pride themselves on freedom of thought and reasoning it takes to escape social strangle hold of theism. Hedonism simply isnt that deep . It centralises specificlly on pleasure and not so much love. While we understand we are free to get all the pleasure we want from orgies we understand and see outside of pleasure singurlly cause it does not do ultimate good. While it would be or could be more pleasure to act in orgies as a christain because of the dogma of it wouldnt take away from a true thinking athiest get out of it if he controled the situation in order to where it was more then pleasure .social love

Permalink Reply by World Walker on June 30, 2009 at 10:08am

Good answer. Apparently Hedonists and Atheists do not overlap all that much for the reasons you have provided.

Let me push against a more specific institution, Two party heterosexual marriage. How come with a rise of atheism these institutions aren't feeling more pain to justify themselves? I'm all for married folk being happily married. But are we really saying it stands to reason that all marriages of worth are between two people? I will assume for the sake of this question that homosexuals can indeed also be married in pairs and this way we can focus against the policy of one on one relationships.

Aren't most points of evidence arguing for monogamous relationships also applicable to faithful pluralist relationships? Is a rationalist really going to promise "till death do us part" when the fact of the matter is there are lots of nonfatal ways to revoke that promise?

I just get a sense that we are still playing the religionists' game by accepting their traditional social structures. I'll concede Hedonists seem thoughtless, but I think atheists should be in a better position to more enjoy their moments of thought and their moments of thoughtlessness than our Puritanical counterparts.

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