What does atheism offer?

[greyl]

I've been wanting to respond to the idea that atheists don't have a vision to offer theists in place of their belief in god/s because I don't think that's true a'tall. Atheists are constantly offering a vision of truthfulness relative to fantasy.
Is there a higher ethic than truthfulness?

# Atheism helps us to see reality as it actually is, without the mental filters of superstition preventing us from directly experiencing it.

# Atheism opens us to experience our selves, without the debasing idea that we are innately sinful.

# Atheism allows us to experience true interpersonal love, without any imaginary supernatural intervention.

# Atheism gives us the freedom to think for ourselves, to construct our own meanings. We each can choose what we think has value.

# Atheism shows us that we can gain meaning by seeking to make our world a better place, for ourselves and our posterity.

# Atheism teaches us to take responsibility for our behaviors in the here and now, not in an imaginary afterlife.

# Atheism lets us see that we have to make choices about our future. No big daddy god is going to protect us from bad decisions.

# Atheism teaches us to treasure this moment, this life, and this world — because we realize that it’s all we have.

http://www.godlessgeeks.com/WhyAtheism.htm

To keep it timely, I rushed this out. ;)

edit: adding this excerpt from the article as an excuse to fix my spelling error:

God and Education

In education, at the same time that we have a rise of fundamentalist religions in the U.S., the youth of America are scoring lower on scholastic tests. Now, cause and effect are obviously difficult to establish for this; but it must be harder for many of them learn to think rationally when they are taught, by their parents or religious schools, such irrational concepts as creationism and invisible, immaterial beings. Also, as I already noted, many religious leaders actively preach against rational thought and even advanced education.

Here are some disturbing statistics, partly from a 2004 CBS News Poll, a 2004 Gallup poll, and a Gallup poll of U.S. teenagers.

# 81% of U.S. teenagers think that God controlled or influenced the origin of humans. (Gallup)
# 65% of Americans think that we should teach both creationism and evolution in schools. (CBS)
# 55% believe that “God created humans in present form.” (CBS)
# 45% believe that the world is less than 10,000 years old. (Gallup)
# 37% think that we should teach just creationism in schools, including 60% of evangelical Christians. (CBS)
# 36% believe in telepathy.
# 35% say that evolution is well supported by the evidence. (Gallup)
# 35% say that evolution is not well supported by the evidence. (Gallup)
# 25% believe in astrology.
# 25% think the sun goes around the Earth.
# 13% think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.
# Only 13% of Americans accept the standard scientific account of evolution, without a god’s involvement. (CBS)

Belief in an omnipotent deity allows people to use sloppy logic. If they are faced with a difficult question about why an event occurred, all they have to say is, “God did it.” Then the reason behind the event is a mystery. This is the old “god of the gaps” answer, and it is an intellectual cop-out. It answers nothing; it predicts nothing; and it teaches nothing. To counter this we must ensure that scientific naturalism and critical thinking skills are taught in our schools. As students understand better how the world works, their personal gods of the gaps will diminish. If we want to have a strong democracy, our students and future voters must understand the basic facts of the world around us, in order to make informed decisions. If we want to continue leading the world in science and engineering, we must make sure that our students learn real science — not religious pseudoscientific nonsense.
http://www.godlessgeeks.com/WhyAtheism.htm