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Can atheism be a form of wish fulfillment?

Are there reasons why some might wish that there is no God? Certainly, if there are if one sees belief in God as cramping one's lifestyle for one reason or another. The desire to live a more satisfactory lifestyle may (mistakenly) motivate one to presume that atheism is correct or to adopt atheism when the arguments for it are weak or to look only into arguments for atheism and neglect to look into arguments for theism.

That said, the fact that some may adopt atheism simply because they find it more comforting to despair of God's existence does not prove that atheism is false--not any more than the fact that some adopt theism because of the comfort that its hope offers. But it's worth pointing out that wish fulfillment is a two-way street.

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