Consider this. The “reality” you experience is not, in fact, Reality. It’s merely a simulacrum constructed from sensory data to allow your behavior to anticipate local fluctuations in the state of the universe. Your particular internal simulacrum is not privileged in any way. It is neither optimal nor infallible. It’s an evolutionary hodgepodge thrown together to help you survive as a social ape on the African savannah.
Antidepressants don’t “distract you from reality”. They change your brain chemistry so the “reality” you perceive becomes (hopefully) more useful for day to day existence in the modern world. But neither “reality” is inherently more Real.
As quirks go, that’s pretty mild. As far as your suffering, I’ve no real help to offer other than an open invitation to cocktails if you find yourself in the Pittsburgh area. Hey, it works for me.
No, I wasn’t going to tell you that at all? The research is a little more exact than that. Here is a tiny part of it, if it seems interesting to you I will provide the link, your call. And yeah, it is nice being me. Thanks.
I’m an atheist and while some people think that to be sad, I think it makes you really appreciate life, I know that this is my one shot so I might as well make the most of it and live my life to the fullest. If you really feel so bad maybe you should do some volunteer work or something.
Desparate people can find ‘evidence’ of eternal life/god anywhere, especially in the vagueness of fields of science like neurobiology. That’s what you’ve done.
That would work, helping others with their problems keeps your mind off of yours.
I don’t think it sad to be an atheist. Which is better/worse, having no hope of anything after death, or being afraid you may go to hell as a fundamental. I don’t really like either choice. I have always wanted to ask this question: how did you become so certain there is nothing after death?
Either care less or do more, or some combination. If you go the ‘care less’ route, your worries about this will vanish but nobody will be very impressed with you; on the other hand if you go whole-hog with contributions and donations and volunteering then you’ll be very busy and rather poor but you’ll probably feel good about yourself and impress others too. Most people seen to get by being somewhere in the middle, donating and helping some but the rest of the time mostly not worrying all that much about it.
PotB
Vote for people who seem less corrupt, and more likely to sow good than evil. Support your police force. (Possibly join your police force, if you’re into that.) And keep in mind that God or not, they will die; whatever harm they’re doing or undeserved benefits they’re enjoying will inevitably come to an end. If you outlive them you’ll can even do the happy dance upon hearing about it.
ITEWADF
Why should death bother you? After death it’s over, there’s nothing. (Or, with a token nod to unfalsifiability, if there is something after you can deal with it then; there’s no sense worrying about it now.) For myself I worry more about pain than death; and I worry more about enjoying the moment than about the limited quantity of moments to come.
Yes. A divinity so inclined would already have done so; or more sensibly would have made the world and people better in the first place. A god that would up after all this time would be evil or a lunatic, like Jehovah/Allah/etc.
I agree. The “without evil we can’t recognize good” argument is just an attempt to make a virtue out of necessity. And even if it was true, so what ? If not knowing about evil is the price for living in a world without evil ( not that I think that’s possible ), so what ?
Why ? Why would we want to grovel before some supernatural egotist ?
How do you know ? Eventually, science can probably come close enough. And why not upgrade people if we have the technology ( assuming they want it ), instead of killing them ?
Science can’t do that NOW, of course, but “ever” is a very long time.
Or the kind of “atheist” who’s actually a disappointed theist, and just looking for some excuse to “regain his faith and come back into the fold.”
Actually, some do. The sort of people who sue school libraries to remove The Wizard of Oz because Dorothy solves her own problems instead of having faith that god will do so ( perhaps they should have faith that God will get rid of The Wizard of Oz, eh ? ). Or who blame sickness on a lack of faith or sin. Or who think that you get rich by being devoted to Jesus enough.
Because all the evidence leans that way. And yes, I know about your silly NDE fixation, which gets torn to shreds every time you bring it up.
Oh, come now, this isn’t so hard. “Saved” people are typically defined to end up in heaven, happy, forever, with all sorts of perks and rewards. And if you can’t detect any moral problems with supporting His Judgementalness, what reason could you have to turn down that temptation? Why, I myself have occasionally wished I lacked the attributes that prevent me from living a simple, happy, and possibly vapid existence, hoping for a blessed future that I would be certain would come.
First, I don’t buy that that’s what would happen. I don’t think spending billions of years praising God would be nearly as much fun as the believers think. Second, as someone once said, “happiness alone is only enough if you are a cow”; I have no desire whatsoever to end up a lobotomized praise machine, happy or not. And without getting their minds screwed over the believers would just bring their problems with them, and NOT be happy forever. And third, God as typically portrayed would never create a heaven worth the name; he’d be more likely to throw everyone into Hell, believers and all, just so he can watch us scream. And fourth, I don’t like grovelling for any reason; I find worship disgusting in itself, and would even if there was a God.
I don’t think so - but it depends. If you pronounce SOTG and POTB as “Sottug” and “pottub”, or something like that, then they’re acronymns, otherwise, they’re abbreviations.
First, if mind-altering drugs can do it, God can do it better. Eternal happiness, no side effects, no complaints about the management, no pesky exersizes of free will. Easy!
Second, this desire of yours is a personal problem, which I happen to share; there are those that don’t have it.
Third, there is no evidence whatsoever that the biblical or christian God doesn’t like sycophants. Sure, cross him to the slightest degree and he stomps on you hard, but based on scripture there is no reason to believe that he will roast those who meet the entry requirements and stay steadfastly and obediently in his servitude.
Fourth, this dislike of yours is a personal problem, which I happen to share; there are those that don’t have it.
I think you are falling into the trap of projecting your own attributes onto others, which I find a little suprising. I think if you stop doing that, you can understand how a person with the right mindset might see benefit in following god, even if (like me) you don’t agree with it and don’t have the attributes necessary to tolerate such a belief yourself.
Well I wouldn’t judge him so harshly if I were you. Like others have said, in this thread, if you wan’t to effect change you must do it. If seeing the suffering of others touches you. Do something. lekatt is a good example. I may not agree with everything he says but he is trying to make a difference. Visit his website and you can see for yourself. He can’t change the world by himself. Each of us must make the effort to see that good prevails. Don’t worry about your death. Concentrate on your life while your alive to do something about injustice in the world and even if there is nothing I promise you that when you leave this place you will know if you did anything worthwhile.
