I am not religious nor spiritual mainly for three reasons. One, I do not feel faith, which from what I understand is something to be felt intrinsically. Two, I do not feel the need for one or more gods, or some sort of world spirit, which prevents me from looking for faith. Three, even if one or more gods existed, faith in them seems to make no difference in how human lives play out, so praying to them would be pointless. And if they existed and were in some way, understandable to us, conscious, then their constant harm to humans, either willful or through inaction, certainly would make praying to them inexcusable. One is the most important though, to be honest
On top of all that, knowing or believing that everything in the universe has been created purposefully by something would somehow diminish its beauty in my eyes. It's irrational but there it is. Things would stop existing as they are, which is the most beautiful thing that could be, and instead have some sort of nebulous purpose. I don't believe the universe exists with purpose, rather it simply exists in and of itself, and it is a wonderful thing to behold. It being purposeless only adds to its beauty. I'm constantly overwhelmed and moved by the beauty and vastness that surrounds us, and I cannot fathom how a meaning through religion would be needed to appreciate it. In a way I'm a follower of the Kantian sublime, for what little of that concept I remember from high school, in that it brings me peace and joy whenever I'm faced with it and so I look for it, for the beauty in all things, even horrible ones. Burning curiosity to know everything and joy at the knowledge that we probably never will, but still we will always be discovering new things and understanding old things better, or in a different way
hello dear, thank you for replying β‘ these are very interesting and serious arguments. i think the ability (and/or choice) to appreciate the world in itself, by contemplating its vastness and beauty in relationship to the possibilities of human knowledge and not necessarily through a narrative of (religious) purpose is a serious merit of an atheistic worldview. it's a feeling i honestly really value and share, in the sense that i think it's important to be able to feel this kind of sublime even if the person then goes on to develop a religious worldview. because among other things, it gives you a strong feeling of the value of the specifically human traits of reason and emotion, which a lot of religious people and especially insitutions end up stifling out of an excessive shift towards an abstract trascendance (applied without imo the correct timing and discipline and inner experience), often purely in terms of an empty tradition.
(then, i feel like this feeling isn't incompatible with a certain narrative of purpose in an extremely vaguely spiritual context, since a god might have perfectly well created a world like this for humans to feel marvel at and get to know without forcing them into a framework of religion, without the explicit need or forceful command to get to know the deity and leaving humans live by developing our fully human traits, since that would be our value as creatures and since humans would've been created with the free will to pursue an atheistic lifepath, since it's compatible with the structure of the material world. but this is purely my conjecture that was inspired on the spot by your argument).
the arguments of not feeling faith and not feeling the need for a god are self-explanatory and i feel there's no need for further comment there.
the argument that it would be immoral to pray to a god/gods if they existed because of their constant direct or indirect harm to creatures is interesting, i also have a lot of familiarity with this argument (we're fellow dostoevsky appreciators after all), it's certainly difficult to conceptualize a moral deity if it's to be held responsible for the suffering of creatures and it's very valuable not to dismiss this problem by citing a kind of vile divine tyrannical omnipotence on the deity's part that would justify anything it chooses by virtue of its own power and mysterious reasons, as many religious people try to do (and i personally deeply despise as an idea). the closest to a personal feeling about this is from one quote that i think i heard in a move i really love, 'l'oeuvre au noir', where they say something along the lines of god is hidden, humans are the farthest god's hand can reach to try to help the world, meaning -> humans as a whole have the duty and power to try solve suffering. but this is just my personal somehow vague feelings about this.
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