Why do we atheists bother getting out of bed in the morning?

19 04 2008

A commenter at Bruce’s asks:

No one atheist (Dawkins arguments included) can successfully explain to me why they bother to get out of bed of a morning?

I’m throwing this question open to the floor. Well, atheists: what have you got to say?

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40 responses

19 04 2008
Kieran Bennett (03:43:11) :

Often I need to go to the toilet. I get hungry. There’s a need to go to work to earn some cash to buy some food, and pay the water bill so I can continue to flush the toilet.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that I live an enjoyable, happy life, without any recourse to god or the supernatural. I take pleasure in doing good deeds for their own sake, be it door knocking for a secular charity or volunteering for a local environmental group.

In short, life is good, so why wouldn’t I get out of bed?

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27 08 2017
dean axford (01:52:47) :

but pointless if nothing but nasy brutal and short with nothing at all afterwards

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27 08 2017
dean axford (01:55:37) :

correction “nasty”

19 04 2008
arcanum (04:05:46) :

I get up every morning and kneel by my bed to give thanks to biological evolution. First, evolution endowed me with a capacity for pleasure in simply living. If humans had not inherited this capacity, then we would have died out as a species long ago. Second, heredity endowed me with the cognitive capacity not to make an argument as patently stupid as that made by the commenter. If he or she cannot enjoy life without resort to delusion, then I am very sad for him or her — please convey my condolences.

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19 04 2008
The Barefoot Bum (04:37:06) :

I usually have to pee really bad in the morning, and I get an uncomfortable rash when I pee in the bed.

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19 04 2008
Jacob (04:37:27) :

Because my rent isn’t going to pay itself?

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27 08 2017
dean axford (01:54:49) :

why pay the rent . even if you become homeless what difference will it make in a few years once become worm feed or combusted into ash? the average atheist might as well just sit still and wait til death because all else between conception and death is pointless

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19 04 2008
commander other (05:02:03) :

i get out of bed each morning just to muck about and mess with little religiously-dependent minds.

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19 04 2008
Robert (05:56:11) :

Fear that God will strike me down for the sin of sloth. That and because I’ve set my alarm on a tall shelf at the other side of my bedroom.

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27 08 2017
dean axford (01:57:28) :

why have you set the alarm at all. ultimately any strivings and efforts made in this short existence are not worthwhile unless there is something after?

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19 04 2008
xchristaox (07:12:19) :

http://www.associatedcontent.com/audio/2577/scarlet_law.html
Please listen to my song.
Afterwords, please rate it/leave a comment.

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19 04 2008
hoverfrog (07:32:39) :

Get out of bed in the morning? Pah! The all night orgy of gay and kinky sex and baby eating means that we atheists barely sleep at all.

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19 04 2008
Brian Westley (07:32:41) :

Because I have stuff to do.

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19 04 2008
Longinus (08:40:21) :

Because I have a good life and want to experience every moment of it. I also get up to study and learn because I love learning and want to know about our world. While I love this world so much, the reality is that christians work hard to peach lies and rubbish to children, so I have to get up extra early to reverse their brainwashed minds. I also get up to make breakfast because I love to cook and eat.

Hey I have a question. If christians believe god has a plan for everyone & the power of prayer, why bother going to a doctor when you’re sick (god made you sick for a purpose, don’t deny gods divine plan)?

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27 08 2017
dean axford (02:05:23) :

But… perhaps it would be more humane to leave them to their unproven unevidenced delusions because dying in a few brief years time whilst in a state of happiness even ecstacy is surely preferable to that of pointlessness and fear of just winking out like a candle?

If as you believe , that there is nothing after this current life , therefore all acts , actions, efforts, etc are pointless then a least religion can act as a sedative ?

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19 04 2008
ninglun (09:28:46) :

To check if their latest post has hit the Best of WordPress page, perhaps? Well done, Arthur. 🙂

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19 04 2008
mortelle (11:05:54) :

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I wonder ” what the hell? Am not gonna be alive someday, some mornin’?” That really bothers me at first but when I’m completely awake I remember my first and utmost motive to live: the pleasure of feeling my presence!
Now, I have asked this irrational questions from myself like hundred times! But now I’m quite sure that ,as I said, the question itself is a stupid, deviated of from the mere truth that no other creatures question their existence, they simply live it!
But, it’s good to ask questions only if you really want to know the answer! Coz eventually it leads you to the answer!

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19 04 2008
Why do we atheists bother getting out of bed in the morning? « Mortelle’s Blog (11:15:23) :

[…] Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I wonder ” what the hell? Am not gonna be alive  somed… […]

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19 04 2008
nullifidian (11:24:21) :

Because I like breakfast and it isn’t going to make and eat itself.

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19 04 2008
GWT (13:48:52) :

Because unfortunately at some point my body reminds me that I need to eat and sleep can’t quite replace hunger as an powerful urge.

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19 04 2008
Catana (13:53:12) :

This question somehow made it abundantly clear, for the first time, how useless and futile my life is. Unfortunately, I’ll have to get out of bed one last time in order to kill myself.

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19 04 2008
splendidelles (14:09:34) :

I bother getting out of the bed in the morning to read updates on Atheist blogs!

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19 04 2008
HumanistDad (14:50:59) :

Well, it certainly isn’t to play with my invisible friend….

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19 04 2008
bmanhappy (14:54:24) :

I get out of bed because I work in a hospital, and help people everyday. My lack of beliefs in a god didn’t make me immoral. My atheistic attitude, is what drives me everyday, knowing that i make a difference in this world, because i want to. Not because I am afraid of hell.

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19 04 2008
Justin Gawronski (16:04:15) :

I get out of bed for the same reason most people get out of bed. I’m sick of laying there.

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19 04 2008
Frederik Cordes (17:47:17) :

Because – as an atheist – I’m in a hurry to get as much out of this single life we have been given – by our parents.

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19 04 2008
katedensmore (19:29:11) :

I get out of bed every morning to enjoy my life – my work, my friends, the outdoors. Especially the outdoors. And after getting up out of bed, when I am on a run in the beautiful spring sunshine, I don’t thank some supernatural being for my experience. I wouldn’t cheapen nature that way.

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19 04 2008
salient (19:29:58) :

Ach, that tired old puerile theistic argument. Because theists are arguing for something that doesn’t exist, and perhaps because of personal limitations, they must regurgitate long-refuted pathetic arguments. (I’m too polite to say exactly what the question demonstrates about the cognitive functioning of too many theists.)

Theists hope that this question will put the onus back on atheists = prove that you can be happy without belief in God, because we don’t believe that you infidels could possibly be happy! This may demonstrate that theists experience a deep sense of emptiness, but it probably mostly indicates excessive conformity stemming from failure to apply logic.

Back to the rhetorical challenge: First, since atheists are merely rejecting theistic claims, there is no onus on atheists to prove anything. Second, the mode of questioning itself is a fallacy of logic. The question fails because it hinges upon the false-dichotomy implication that only belief in SkyDaddy and associated mythocrap will bring happiness — and that requires positive demonstration, not negative challenges. Even if none of we atheists had any reason other than full bladders for which to rise in the morning, this does not prove that delusional beliefs in the supernatural make one happy.

Having risen to obey a call of nature, I stay up because this one life, which is all we organisms will ever have, is precious and enjoyable. There is only one good reason for staying in bed long after awakening — and religious nutters don’t approve of that!

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19 04 2008
noahthegreat (20:18:26) :

I get out of bed for two reasons. One is to be able to see the one I care about and the other is to write poems for her. I don’t see why there really needs to be a reason, though, because I do a lot of things that don’t really have anything worth doing (such as school.) Just knowing that I’ll get to see her is reason enough for me to live. When I was Christian I wasn’t any happier than I am now. I was actually less happy.

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19 04 2008
VoteNader (22:31:23) :

Because if I stay in bed, the religious weirdos win!

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20 04 2008
AV (01:00:54) :

Even if none of we atheists had any reason other than full bladders for which to rise in the morning, this does not prove that delusional beliefs in the supernatural make one happy.

Slightly OT: is there any clearer demonstration of unintelligent design than the gymnastics we males of the species must undergo when we perform our morning ablutions, given the unfortunate location of the urethra and the even more unfortunate coincidence of full bladders with penile arousal?

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20 04 2008
ozatheist (07:37:26) :

why bother to get out of bed?

why bother to get in in the first place?

I’ve got nothing to live for, except my life.

and my life, on a whole, is pretty OK, it certainly won’t be improved by believing in any sky-gods.

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20 04 2008
Matt (07:44:30) :

I get out of bed so I can find god.
And punch him in the face for doing such a piss poor job at creation and generally running the universe. But I guess he’s hiding so far and the trail has gone cold.

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26 04 2008
effay (05:02:40) :

“Categories : …Morons…”

This gave me quite a laugh.

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30 04 2008
ylooshi (13:38:33) :

There’s only one deity worth rising out of bed for in the morning: coffee.

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30 04 2008
AV (13:55:18) :

Amen, brother.

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20 09 2008
toadaly (14:03:15) :

Well, I get out of bed each morning, motivated by the thought of all those delicious babies I plan to eat. Mmmm. Babies.

But on the days I’m kind of hung over from eating too many babies the night before, I get out of bed because I’m not tired anymore. And on the days I’m just plain hung over, I don’t get out of bed.

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26 02 2009
Ben (16:38:04) :

To spread my hate

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7 04 2010
fulvio (19:18:52) :

why do religious people bother getting out of bed too?

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23 03 2013
Jack Swardson (15:54:50) :

We live in the most exciting age of human history to date.
Perhaps there could be some great architect that manufactured this universe and possibly a million others, I have no theistic beliefs but who knows what we will learn in the coming years?
For the time being I have no room for this dogmatic hierarchy nor it’s ignorant morals and narrow minded view of the universe.
I’m content for humanity to keep forging ahead and building a better tomorrow.

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