(Clearwisdom.net) Atheism is a very shallow, false principle. Gods do physically exist in other dimensions. Whether there are gods or not isn't even a question to begin with. Humans were created by gods. But after they fell into the illusion that is human society, they lost the qualification and ability to contact with and see gods directly, and gradually fell into the vicious cycle of "the less they can see, the less they believe. The less they believe, the less they can see." " 'Seeing is believing; no seeing, no believing.' This is the view of an inferior person." ("Why One Cannot See," Essentials for Further Advancement) Denying the existence of things that cannot be seen, and claiming that human beings are derived from monkeys, atheism is just such a fallacy. In fact, it is truly and completely ignorant. The emergence and spreading of atheism is based upon the ignorance of those inferior people who are most narrow-minded, ossified, shallow and simple-headed. The theory of evolution is forced upon human beings by atheists.
Atheism is a crooked principle that leads people to do evil things and commit violence, and its fatalness is that it leads people to be afraid of neither heaven nor its principles. "Society's development has also been arranged by gods." ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco," Lectures in the United States) "The development of humankind can be controlled only by higher lives at a very lofty level, and it progresses according to the law of development." (Zhuan Falun) Atheists deny the existence of gods and "gods' control," saying it's just an idea, not a fact. But they never have been (nor ever will be) able to escape from the arrangement made by gods as to how things develop. As a result, they do things against the will of heaven and create a lot of karma for themselves. Up to today, almost every single person has karma built upon karma. Humans' main spirits are surrounded by layer upon layer of acquired notions and karma, while their good thoughts have become fewer and fewer. Humans themselves have already deviated. The gods' control of humans mainly manifests at the human level as one's self-restraint through a sense of spiritual obligation (moral standards).
Atheists ideologically reject the idea of humans being controlled by gods, but intentionally or unintentionally, they have accepted the so-called "authorities" and "legal system." People are being restrained by external laws, regulations and authorities that are forcibly administered and which bind people more and more tightly into their own cocoons. Taking advantage of atheism, the evil political figures say that there is no "savior." But in fact, they arrogate to themselves heaven's "authority" and insist that all the rights that are granted to people by heaven are actually bestowed by them. They secretly and openly stage activities to create false gods (which usually leads to the worshipping of an individual). As a result, along with the spread of atheism, a strange phenomenon has appeared: the more popular atheism is in a given place, the louder the slogans of the authorities and the legal system are called out, and the more rampant is the worship of individuals. The more pervasive atheism is in a given place, the more severe instances we will see of power consolidation, dictatorship, special authorities, and ruthless evil deeds. Also, the more atheistic the place, the more the principle of "brute power is higher than the truth" is enforced and the more corrupt and vicious a society becomes.
As for those rulers who believe in gods, even if they are emperors, kings, or presidents, they do not dare to do whatever they want to do. They pay respect and worship gods and heavens, and worry if what they are doing is good enough. They treat cultivators as if they were heavenly beings. The emperors of China in the past were called "the sons of heaven." They would always show a lot of deference to the gods and respect cultivators a great deal. For those people who do not believe in gods, especially those high-ranking officials at various levels, no matter how loudly they call out the slogans of democracy and no matter how much supervision they are placed under, their powers become absolute within a certain scope. Because of this, they easily ignore the oversight of their superiors or deceive themselves that the supervision does not exist. In addition, since they themselves do not have the sense of spiritual obligation, they tend to do whatever they want to do at will. They criticize the teaching of showing respect to gods and Daos as superstitious, and even brutally suppress and violently persecute this kind of teaching. Today, the rampant misbehavior of this type of ruler has reached a peak. The ruthless and unscrupulous evil persecution against Falun Dafa and its disciples is a quintessential manifestation of this.
The real victims of atheism are not gods, since it cannot damage gods at all, but humans. An everyday person normally has three possible destinies at the end of his life: attaining the Dao, undergoing reincarnation, or being annihilated. "One should return to one's original, true self; this is the real purpose of being human." (Zhuan Falun) Returning to one's original, true self is to attain the Dao and attain the Fa, and complete cultivation from the maze with righteous enlightenment and righteous faith. When humans believe in gods, they will think of the eternity of their lives and emphasize virtue. Atheism leads people to pay attention only to the self-interest of this lifetime and this very moment. It causes the suppression of humans' Buddha nature and the indulgence of their demon nature. It teaches people to abandon the idea of obtaining the Dao and obtaining the Fa and the hope for their next life. It makes people attach little weight to morality, which destroys humankind at its very root and causes humankind go down the path of annihilation.
If someone does anything that should remain secret, those who believe in gods talk about "Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know, and I know." They believe that good is rewarded with good, and evil is met with evil, and thus, think about the possible consequences of their actions and more or less have scruples in mind. If they commit wrongdoings, they also know that they will be able to hide what they have done from people for just a short while. When they hide things from others, they will show some self-restraint because of their sense of spiritual obligations, and they will have guilty consciences. This is a fundamental reason that human society has been able to survive and exist until today. But the atheists only talk about "you know and I know" and have no self-constraint from their sense of spiritual obligations. Once they start doing bad things, they do not think about the consequences because they have no scruples. At most they will try to come up with some "clever" ideas that might protect them from receiving public condemnation or punishment according to the law. This has made people become deviated today. Humans have sunk to the extremely dangerous level where people do whatever they want to do to satisfy their endless desires, no longer placing any distinction between righteousness and evil, and doing bad things without limit. However, the gods will never allow humans to continue decaying this way.
"If humankind does not do something about it, heaven will." (Zhuan Falun) Atheists deny the existence of gods and have abandoned their belief in the gods. However, Gods have not deserted humans; they still protect and offer salvation to them through teaching the Fa and Dao. Gods also use disasters as warnings. Offering protection and sounding warnings are the mercy of gods toward humans. However, atheism teaches people to deny all this and treats all kinds of talk about warnings from the gods as "superstition" or explains them away as "natural phenomena" or "accidents," to the point that the atheist still does not know what is going on while a huge catastrophe is just one step away. Atheists even blaspheme the heavenly laws and persecute the enlightened beings who offer salvation and the cultivators of the righteous Fa. The sad thing about an atheist is that he is actually the one that is most lost in illusion, yet he thinks that he is the most clear-headed and informed person, and that the belief in gods is "superstition." Despite this, even today they are still being given the chance to be saved. "I can tell you, all of the natural and man-made disasters that have been happening in Mainland China are already warnings for the sins the beings there have committed against Dafa. If they don't come to realize it, then the real catastrophe(s) will begin" ("Dafa is Indestructible").
The surface reason why atheism is allowed to exist and do damage is that certain political figures use it to dull their own senses and deceive people in the name of "looking out for the best interests of the people." Looking at it from a deeper level, the situation is even more tragic: all of humankind has fallen into the hands of aliens. In order to achieve their unspeakable ulterior motives, aliens have replaced traditional religion with science and forced it upon human beings. They have replaced the sense of spiritual obligation that gods bestow upon humans with materialistic desires. As a result, people are no longer content with their fate, or law-abiding or god-fearing. Instead, they have become extremely self-centered, conceited, and do whatever they please.
The evil ones have lost all of their good thoughts and human nature. Their brutal persecution of Dafa and Dafa disciples is even to the point of insanity, and thus they have reached the point of being unpardonable. Some people cannot see just how evil the evil forces are and cannot see the power of kindness (Shan). They do not believe in the heavenly principle that "Good is rewarded with good, and evil is met with evil." They refuse to believe in the Fa principles of Dafa, and choose to believe in the propaganda that the evil ones use to deceive people. They do not dare to face the objective reality, and do not dare or even want to read Dafa truth-clarifying material. Some even consider taking part in the persecution of Dafa and Dafa disciples--committing evil deeds that are against the principles of both heaven and the human world--as a means to "put food on the table."
This is just my shallow understanding. I ask my benevolent fellow cultivators to point out my mistakes.
(Reprinted from PureInsight Net)