“An atheist is very often an atheist because he cannot stand the idea that God is watching him all the time, that there is this constant all-seeing eye prying on your most private life and that there's this—you know how when you're a child in school and you’re writing something or doing arithmetic and the teacher walks around the class and looks over your shoulder? Nobody wants to be watched like that, even someone who's good at writing or at arithmetic doesn't want somebody looking over their shoulder while they're doing it. It puts you off. It bugs you. So the idea of the Lord God who is watching us all the time, who is judging everything that we do, puts people off and they can't stand it. So better be an atheist to get rid of teacher.”

— Alan Watts, Buddhism As Dialogue

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"The atheist is mostly angry because he didn't like being told what to do as he was raised. Now that he is up, walking around with free will he thinks, 'Now I am king and I don't need anyone.' When he is old and humbled by the inability to take care of himself he will once again need his diapers changed." -- The Velvet Reverend Al, WHY SALESMAN ARE HIGHER THAN PRIESTS.

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An atheist is often an atheist because they - DON'T TRUST, VERIFY.

Religious people are often religious because they fear the unknown, so they attribute it to God's work, easy life.

There is some truth in what you say. As a former atheist, I used to think this way as well. Then I verified God’s existence by looking inward, by seeking to find the thinker of thoughts, the doer of deeds. This is the core insight of Buddhism: That you needn’t trust anything, you can verify God’s existence / the lack of the isolated ego yourself.

No “trust” needed for theism.

How to verify:

Sincerely pray for god to reveal himself to you.

If that doesn't work, then you must have been right!

This is the heart of the matter, isn't it? It's not that there's no evidence for God, it's that the evidence is that if you don't live your life in accordance with God's eternal will, you will self-destruct. People hate this idea.

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Weird that all those Catholic priests and their Bishop bosses hid their actions from parents, but didn't care about hiding from god enough to stop abusing kids for centuries. Maybe the whole repent on your death bed to get into heaven parts they learned at seminary made it OK?

Organized religion is fiat with similar cantillion power perks plus the eternal damnation bullshit tossed in to keep people in a "flock"...

Be good for goodness sake. If you are only good because the "teacher or god" is watching, you are not really good. You are Larping.