That falls under the “lobotomised praise machine” phrase I used.
He slaughtered and tormented his followers because of the “crimes” of one of them, killed them for breaking rules he gave only after killing, demanded they sacrifice their own children to prove their loyalty, and so on. He’s the sort that it’s safer to stay far, far away from.
I think it’s more a matter of people really thinking about what they are asking for. As for the rest, I think wanting to be a happy vegetable is stupid; in fact, it’s wanting to be stupid.
My advice to the OP: go find God. Doesn’t matter which one. Heck, find a whole passel of them, if that’s what it takes. But being an atheist is clearly making you miserable, and life is too short to be miserable. So, stop being an atheist, and cheer the fuck up.
How do you know it wouldn’t make him/her worse ? Why would thinking that all the evils of the world are either inflicted on us on purpose, or that God could save us but refuses make one happy ? I don’t see any evidence that believing in God makes people happy; for every happy theist, there’s a “we’re all vile scum who deserve to be punished and life is all about misery” theist. And theists are quite good at making other people unhappy.
And religion is stupid, crazy, and nasty, and shouldn’t be indulged in no matter how happy it makes you.
Paraphrasing from memory of the Life is Hell series.
I quote that to myself every time I start to take life too seriously. It never fails to crack me up and get me back on track.
xkcd, if I may ask, why are you doing this to yourself? No one told you to take the world’s problems onto your shoulders. That was your idea. If the suffering in the world want anything, it isn’t for you to suffer. It’s for you to help. OK, some suffering people might want you to suffer out of spite or good old-fashioned psychosis, but fuck those people, ya’ know?
Oh, and by the way, the stance that suffering improves character is bullshit. It’s the attitude of a person who has never seen real permanent, soul-crushing suffering, or if he has, he didn’t learn anything from it. Certainly the person who says this never personally experienced it. For the lucky few who manage to escape this kind of suffering, some might gain wisdom and compassion for their fellow man, but I have run into my share of these people, and most times, the suffering just makes them bitter and mistrustful of pretty much everyone.
The idea that suffering improves character is a very upper-middle-class attitude. Most times, suffering results in more suffering or death. I’ll go further and call this belief disgusting.
Overall, it sounds to me like the OP is in fact an atheist, but has only recently arrived at that conclusion and is bitter about it. That’s what I get from the tone.
I myself am an atheist, and over time I realized it’s an infinitely more positive thing to understand that this is all we’ve got and that we must make the most of it . . . can’t sweat the small stuff.
Here’s another option: God could make all his followers happy without making them mindless. He just has to make them happy. And since he filters out in advance anyone who doesn’t have a rapturous reaction to the thought of being with him, he might be able to do this without altering their minds at all! There are two ways to get a population that meets a specific criteria: change the population to meet the criteria, or weed everyone who doesn’t meet the criteria out of the population. It looks to me like God’s doing the second. Presumably, if you don’t get culled, you’re of the sort who can follow happily at his heels forever, naturally.
(Or, he might just alter their minds. Or some combination, such as a slight tweak to remove boredom. Who knows? The possiblities are endless (and certainly not limited to lobotomy).)
You draw the unjustified conclusion that this sort of thing will continue in heaven. Since he’ll have already culled everybody who annoys him, and will be left with only the yes-men who have already proven their loyalty, it’s entirely possible that he will no longer find himself annoyed by the actions of his followers and will thus not be unleashing his mighty wrath on them all the time. It’s certainly possible.
Happy vegetables are only one option; others include pretty much whatever version of heaven you like, keeping in mind the followers are limited to people that don’t challenge the system.
(I tend to leap to the vegetable explanation 'cause it nicely deals with the fact that God’s followers will have to implictly approve of his more heinous actions, which many obviously do in real life, but I incorrecly project my distaste upon them anyway and choose the option that answers it. My bad.)
Here’s why atheists should be happier than theists. You’re right that 1 and 2 suck. Now, we atheists believe the world is somewhat random, that bad people can be born with brains and talents, and that shit happens. Theists believe the same, but they also believe that their omnipotent god for some reason doesn’t want to do anything about it. If a loved one has to die, I’d rather it be by random chance than from the hands of some gang who is immune from prosecution. Theists have to love the gang, and the best they can do is that it is all for some higher purpose. I’ll take godlessness any day.
As for 3, I assure you that when you get to a certain age you don’t want to live forever as mindless worshipper, and you don’t want to see how some future president screws things up. Immortality would be very boring. Anyhow, you should reconsider the live forever part in 60 year or so.
Life’s a bitch and then you die, but the sex can be real good in the interval.
It goes without saying that I’m not one of those people, but I don’t know about that summary. Some of them spout of some crazy shit about fearing an angry God or “do this or you’ll go to Hell,” but even some of the whack jobs tell people to embrace Jesus and be happy about it.
Either way, xkcd’s misery is self-imposed and pointless.
Well, he’s not happy, and if he wants to fix that, he’s got to change something about himself or his situation. Since atheism isn’t making him happier, maybe theism will work better for him. If it doesn’t, he’ll have to change something else, but based on the information he’s provided us about why he’s not happy, it seems like his basic theological conceptual structure is a good place to start.
And a note to anyone reading this who has gotten the wrong impression, I’m NOT saying that you can’t be happy and be an atheist. I’m an atheist myself, and I’m perfectly content with it. But not all ideas work equally well for all people, and the OP and atheism don’t seem to be mixing too well.
As are many atheists. I’m sure we all recall a particularly vocal atheist who gloated over the fact that he’d made the boards unpleasant for a particular Christian Doper. Assholes, alas, are not restricted to any one particular ideology.
Doing nothing is the problem. Bitch, Bitch, Bitch. I hear your words but I don’t see any action!? If he/she is worse at least it’s a change from sitting on your ass doing not one. damn. thing. Crap on religion at will. I can’t talk your talk but I can walk *the * walk. You keep bitching and I’ll meet you down the road a ways. Oh, and If I somehow forget how to see the unhappiness all around me, I’ll look you up. Your the Dali Lama of that crowd. Don’t be shy, step up. Were waiting for you.
The great mass of humanity is neither good or bad. Everyone has potential for either depending on the situation they find themselves in. It isn’t possible to “get rid of the bad people.” It’s a false premise. When you look in the mirror you look into the problems of the world, whether you’re a saint or a sinner.
Thanks for the kind words. I offer the method, but the person must help themselves, this is true. Probably the biggest obstacle is the “poor me” syndrome. There is value in being a poor me, people try to help and give attention. As long as there is value in not changing, they seldom do.
Hey, I have a “life’s a bitch and then you die” page.
Man, I know what your about. Complaining doesn’t do any good. Both he and DT need to step up to the plate and join the fight against injustice. Jesus was one man and look what he accomplished. If each of us could do even a fraction of what he did this world would be so much better. And for the record, Life is hard, then you die. I don’t see any reason to make it about women. I refer to the word bitch. They walk a far harder road than we, as men, do. Being a mother is something that I, as a man, can never understand. A whole other road to travel.
To share, is what we are here for. His words speak for themselves. I doubt that he needs or wants you to speak for him. I was around when this this phrase was used originally. I’m old and I can remember chicks (oh my) telling me my old lady was a bitch, not her. I have no idea what DT is doing when he’s not here. I can reasonably assume it’s nothing that gives him peace in his soul. Perhaps you know different. Please share with me. I have only DT’s best interest’s at heart.OM
Be sure he will be back to slam me shortly. It’s his bag, man.
I’ll tackle your three concerns, but not in order.
You complain about the prospering of the bad. In other words, you are unhappy when other certain other people prosper. That should be your first clue that something is wrong with your philosophy. Now consider this. Would you truly like it if yourself, and everyone you like, and everyone you know, were appropriately punished for everything you’ve all done wrong in your entire lives? If not, then you agree that a certain amount of prosperity for the bad is a good thing. Since no person is without sin, ending the prospering of the bad would mean ending all prospering. Would you want that?
Now on to the suffering of the good. You see good people and you see them as suffering. But do they see themselves as suffering? Many people take what you call suffering and don’t insist on experiencing it as suffering; some even see it as evidence of grace. People who insist on finding suffering can usually find it wherever they want, and people who insist on not finding it generally don’t find it. If you believe that good people are constantly suffering, it’s because you want to believe that.
As for endless death, I personally believe in life after death. Obviously I’m not likely to convince you of that in this thread. But let me offer a closing thought.
You are an atheist. You probably believe that it’s impossible for you to be Christian. But if you’re like most atheits on this board, you barely have any idea what Christianity is, what it teaches, and what it means. If you devoted yourself to exploring Christianity you would find many interesting things. For instance, you’d find that all the objections that you’ve raised to religion in this thread were already answered by theologians centuries ago. You’d find that all the other objections you have which you didn’t put in this thread have also been addressed centuries ago. You find that Christianity can speak to you in ways that you can’t currently imagine. That would cure your unhappiness. It would take a few years, perhaps even a few decades, but eventually you’d achieve happiness in this life. And you’d get everlasting life too, of course. The only question you need to ask yourself is whether you really want happiness, or whether you’d prefer stewing in your atheist misery.
“Bitch” means it’s hard, and you may recall the term didn’t originally refer to women.