Due to his Utter Existential Hopelessness the Believer in atheist Dogma Should Commit Suicide

Before delving into my argument by pointing out how presumptuous you have been in inferring the state of mind every atheist will find themselves in. As you will learn from my arguments - provided you have an open mind - you have an erroneous understanding of the frame of mind of an atheist. Atheism can, in fact, coexist with happiness and optimism. In spite of your proclivity for drawing unfounded conclusions, I look forward to having an interesting debate. *Main argument* Your laughable assertion that atheists have nothing to look forward but sickness, old age and other unpleasant things you cited fails to take into account that all those misfortunes befall the religious as well. In light of that, atheism or any belief one may hold has nothing to do with whether or not they experience the cited misfortunes. Any individual who believes that by virtue of the fact that they hold religious beliefs they will not grow old or fall sick is truly delusional. That point you raised has thus been proven to have no merit whatsoever. Further to that, an atheist does not fall into depression simply because they do not believe in an omnipresent and omniscient deity. An atheist has many things to look forward to - some of which are things that are looked forward to by the religious. These things include, but are not limited to, the pleasures of life. Such pleasures include eating, enjoying mental and physical stimulation and sex. Pleasures of this nature are, in and of themselves enough to keep a person optimistic and cheerful about life. I will briefly delve into science and say that many of these pleasures are due to the release of dopamine in the brain. The same chemical is excreted by the brain when one reaches the goals they had preset for themselves. In that respect, an atheist can find great joy in life by achieving their goals. The pleasures I have mentioned have nothing to do with whether one or not holds any religious beliefs; they can be experienced irrespective of that. You mentioned that an atheist would do themselves a great service by committing suicide because their understanding is that they will die anyway and nothing comes after that. Because of the scope of the term, atheism houses a variety of thought patterns - one of which is the one you cited. Where you were remiss was in making that a general belief that defines all atheists. A belief that would completely run contrary to that one is that since the atheist spent an unknown but lengthy period of time without existing - prebirth - and will spend an unknown but lengthy period of time out of existence - death - it stands to reason that they should value each unit of time they are alive. An atheist who possesses that thought patten realises the immense value of life because they spent infinity without existing and will spend infinity deceased. The only period of time that is measurable is when they are alive. This alone makes life very much worth living for them, and even lessens the burden of misfortunes they face throughout life because they see things from an incredibly wide perspective. Death can be met with stoic acceptance and life will still retain its joys and comforts through this way. A point I will leave you with is that atheists do not completely despair because, like the religious, they possess hope. Their hope does not originate from dues ex machina kind of intervention by a supernatural being but from the knowledge that everything is about chance. The atheist understands that very few things are certain and has hope that the randomness and spontaneity of life may play to their favour. Indeed, while the atheist understands that there are things within his control, he also understands that there are things that are determined by chance. The things within his control he aims to fully take control of through hard work and discipline and the things out of his control he leaves to chance and maintains hope. In light of my arguments, committing suicide would rob the atheist of the beauty of life and the pleasures and joy they experience through life. That is precisely why they should not commit suicide. I look forward to the next round.