Athiesm and morality

I have been thinking for a while now about the morality of atheistic
discussion. As an atheist, I face this constant decision when talking to
people with a theistic belief system. Often people tell me they get comfort
from a belief that a dead friend or relative has a soul that exists in some
other realm, in fact they go so far as to tell me not to worry about my own
dead relatives - I will meet them again sometime.

I am faced with the constant dilemma; do I smash their illusion or do I just
accept others have different beliefs to myself and be on my way.

For the most part the above is obvious, just let people have their own
beliefs.

My real dilemma comes when people ask me what religion I am. I have no
problem in telling them that I don't believe in magic and/or fairy tales,
however, the comfort question often comes out after my rather callous
remark. One person even told me, their life is hanging by a string, the only
the thing that keeps them going is their belief in God. And I found myself
standing there with a pair of scissors in my hand.

As I sit here I find myself starting to think that maybe the populace having
some sort of theistic belief system is actually a good thing. To some
extent, I want my neighbour thinking that they will go to hell if they pick
up an axe and start murdering people.

On the other hand, I turn on the television and am left in no doubt about
the power of religion to seduce people to murder.

So I am left in this moral quandary..

What most people don't seem to get is that I believe in life (I don't think
there is anything else), therefore I value life and am a pacifist. Will
telling a deeply religious person there is no afterlife turn them into a
pacifist or incite them to murder?

Any thoughts?

Nick


--

"The young specialist in English Lit, ...lectured me severely on the fact
that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at
last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the
one thing we can say about our modern 'knowledge' is that it is wrong."
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)

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