/lit/ - Literature

>Is atheism necessarily a slippery slope into nihilism?
No, religion is. Anyone embracing religion who wasn't a complete moron would immediately see that the odds of their having been born into the "correct" faith and sect, added to the odds of them dying in a proper state of grace to go to their heaven, are astronomical. Even if they were (idiotically) sure they were going to heaven, it turns this life into a mostly meaningless mandatory class you have to pass so you can get to the good stuff, rather than the proper focus of our hearts and minds. It focuses you on your own personal salvation and the supposed afterlife, rather than having a realistic perspective on this planet and our relationship to it. Monotheism and religion in general contribute to the "fuck this planet, I'm leaving soon" attitude that is destroying our ecosystems. A sensible atheist knows that they have a strictly limited time to do anything: whether it's personally gratifying or altruistic. They are more likely to hold the planet in proper reverence or at least respect, because they don't have some Sky-Father's "wrath" and "love" to worry about. Only a deranged lunatic would care about somebody's "soul" or "salvation" more than their current dire straits, but billions of religious people do so. Worse, if they think they have transgressed to an irredeemable point (remembering that this fictitious lunatic sadist judges you for your thoughts as well as your deeds) and are damned, they lose all hope, as if the world, love, beauty, art, nature, and hope were somehow nullified because they had lost sight of some fluffy afterlife.