# A depressing thought from a confirmed atheist **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 15, 2015, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094 "2015-05-15T08:43:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/41 "2015-05-16T07:05:20Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I imagine two people who fell off a bridge and on the way down one is praying and the other is yelling at the first for being a dumbass. > > Worrying about what happens when you hit the ground is like yelling at the praying guy. All it accomplishes is making a sufficiently bad situation worse. No matter. They’re both going to go splat when they hit the bottom. An excellent metaphor for life, I agree. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/42 "2015-05-16T07:09:43Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Does it though? I mean sure traumatic or early death sucks, but would eternal life really be good? > > I imagine at some point you’d have accumulated so much trauma, and be so tired of the usual bullshit society and humanity has to offer, that death wouldn’t seem so bad. > > Hell most people can’t even seem to make it to their 70s without just being tired of it all and waiting for death. Even the afterlife would suck unless you get drugged to not care about what goes on down here. Think a Roman born during the height of the empire would be happy to see the fall of Rome? Our ancestors went through awful misery, but by definition survived long enough to have kids. Not necessarily true of our descendants. I feel lucky that I won’t be around long enough to see the true impact of climate change. Dying and being dead is a plus in my book. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/43 "2015-05-16T09:58:45Z")
In the words of a crucified Eric Idle: [QUOTE=Life Of Brian] You come from nothing, you’re going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing! [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/44 "2015-05-16T11:44:17Z")
In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? If there is no afterlife, if your consciousness/soul/spirit dies with your body, what’s to know - you’re gone. And if there is an afterlife, it’s just another part of your voyage, regardless of what came before or what comes after. At least that’s how I look at it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Angry\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b38774/32.png) [@The\_Angry\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Angry_Badger)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/45 "2015-05-16T12:37:44Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > I’ve long thought that eternal life would get tedious. I’m not even so sure about people living to be 200 years old. At some point, you get tired. I’ve always thought that people that want an eternal life/afterlife don’t actually realise what eternity _is_. Imagine this: A (magical, immortal space) fly comes down to Earth once a day. It lands somewhere then takes off again, taking a tiny amount of earth stuck to its feet. Now imagine how long it would take for that fly to erode away the entire planet in that fashion. Then imagine it doing that with every planet, star and asteroid in the entire universe. That’s a reeeaaaallly long time, but that’s still just the beginning of eternity. Even if you ended up in heaven and it was the most amazing thing ever, wouldn’t it still get a bit boring after a while? Like, after the first couple of billion trillion years? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/46 "2015-05-16T14:02:56Z")
> [@The\_Angry\_Badger](#): > > I’ve always thought that people that want an eternal life/afterlife don’t actually realise what eternity _is_. Indeed. [QUOTE=Marvin the Paranoid Android] “The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn’t enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.” [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/47 "2015-05-16T14:39:24Z")
Of course if the reicarnationists are right, both could be wrong hundreds of times. ---
**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/48 "2015-05-16T19:12:20Z")
> [@The\_Angry\_Badger](#): > > Even if you ended up in heaven and it was the most amazing thing ever, wouldn’t it still get a bit boring after a while? Like, after the first couple of billion trillion years? You’re forgetting that boredom is a purely biological function. It has evolved as an incentive for us to keep active. But the ability to experience boredom is not a necessary attribute of sentient beings. I would bet that there exist humans right now who are unable to feel bored. And it’s very plausible that alien sentient beings have evolved different incentives to keep themselves active. If an afterlife exists (which it probably doesn’t), then we don’t go there with all the needs that our material bodies impose on us. Hunger, thirst, horniness, boredom, that constant feeling that your tongue doesn’t sit quite right inside your mouth, which manifests itself only when you start thinking about it… all those things will disappear from our repertoire of experiences. ---
**Author:** ![wellanuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@wellanuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wellanuff)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/49 "2015-05-17T16:56:10Z")
As an atheist myself, I just do not care about being proven “right,” nor do I wish that believers be “proven wrong” or somehow be made to know they are “wrong” in some unfathomably convincing fashion. If believing something works for someone else, if it helps them navigate their life, but has no effect on me, why would I want them to be proven wrong if I don’t believe the same thing? Why would I care? (Of course I benefit from living in a society that does not demand compliance with some set of religious beliefs. If I lived in a time and place where I would be persecuted for not believing, I would certainly care about being persecuted on account of my atheism, but I still doubt that I would be concerned about what others believe beyond the extent that it caused them to persecute me. But a society that suppressed all religious expression and belief and persecuted everyone who was not an atheist would not be something I would want to see, either.) If a believer thinks that not believing must leave me vulnerable to feeling lonely and insignificant in this whole great universe, again, why would I care? I don’t feel lonely, and if I am insignificant, well, we are all insignificant together, amirite? We just each try to do what we can to enjoy life while we have it. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/50 "2015-05-17T17:51:01Z")
> [@The\_Angry\_Badger](#): > > I’ve always thought that people that want an eternal life/afterlife don’t actually realise what eternity _is_. > > … > > Even if you ended up in heaven and it was the most amazing thing ever, wouldn’t it still get a bit boring after a while? Like, after the first couple of billion trillion years? Except, if eternity is a state \*outside \*of time, then notions such as boredom after a billion trillion years are meaningless, aren’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/51 "2015-05-19T01:17:39Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > What would this be depressing? > > Atheists sleep late on Sundays and get the best tables for brunch (if they beat the church crowd). Those two statements are mutually exclusive. Dammit. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/52 "2015-05-19T16:25:59Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I don’t know why I find it depressing, I just do. Here’s what occurred to me - a Christian will never know that he was wrong, an atheist will never know that he was right. Speaking as a Christian, I see the bind you’re in. So, by all means, mock us believers now, while you’re still alive, since you won’t get to do so after we’re all dead. Seems only fair to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/53 "2015-05-19T16:34:48Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#): > > But the grounds for depression would be the objective fact that you are a statistically insignificant blob of molecules in the arse-end of the universe, existing for an infinitesimal time, ending soon for all eternity, and none of it matters in any objective, provable sense whatever. Feel free to tell yourself whatever comforting lies you like, but those are the cold facts. You are some bits of left-over supernova ash wandering around in an anomalous manner, and the universe doesn’t care two hoots. If the universe is meaningless, then the meaninglessness of the universe is also meaningless. Why should I only be allowed to be happy if there is some meaning to the universe? Yes, my happiness is meaningless. That doesn’t mean I can’t still be happy. Sadness over the meaninglessness of the universe is just as meaningless as happiness over the meaninglessness of the universe. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/54 "2015-05-21T14:42:28Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Is Christianity being right totally contingent on the existence of the afterlife? Coming from a Jewish perspective, I believe in an afterlife, but that isn’t the purpose of my life or the “test” of whether my religious beliefs are accurate. > > I know that Christianity is much more afterlife-based, but does that mean that if we knew for sure that there were no afterlife that Christians would give up on their religion entirely? > > Christian believers in this thread – if you knew for certain that there was no afterlife, would that completely invalidate your beliefs? I Corinthians 15- Paul’s major point is that if Jesus is not raised from the dead, and consequently, we who entrust ourselves to Jesus are not raised either, our hope is an illusion and we are to be pitied. So while I might take a pragmatic Theistic approach & even respect Jesus as a good teacher, knowing that what I did would neither help me nor hurt me for Eternity would certainly dampen my enthusiasm. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/55 "2015-05-22T21:14:02Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I don’t know why I find it depressing, I just do. Here’s what occurred to me - a Christian will never know that he was wrong, an atheist will never know that he was right. You haven’t been reading my posts! I often say here (and NEVER get a chuckle, dammit), that the worst thing about being an atheist is you’re confident you’ll never get to point a finger at a Bible-thumper and say “SEE? I TOLD YOU SO!” As worst things go, it’s bearable. (Actually, we do get to say that sometimes, but only to the ones who are stupid enough to commit to a date for the Rapture.) ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/56 "2015-05-22T21:22:01Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > So, by all means, mock us believers now I only mock the condescending ones. I know I shouldn’t, but it’s just too much fun. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2015, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094/57 "2015-05-23T00:19:28Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Speaking as a Christian, I see the bind you’re in. > > So, by all means, mock us believers now, while you’re still alive, since you won’t get to do so after we’re all dead. > > Seems only fair to me. Mocking someone who hasn’t implicitly asked for it, e.g. by entering a debate, is not polite. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t justified. When you (I’m using “you” in the general sense) believe in something that is untestable, based on its presence in a book that has been proven wrong in almost every claim it makes that _is_ testable, then I don’t see why you deserve any more consideration than someone who believes that Obama is conspiring to conquer Texas with the help of secret tunnels between Walmarts. And it doesn’t help your case when you claim that all of those historical, scientific, chronological, prophetic, and magical assertions that turn out to be wrong are not meant to be taken literally, but the promise of eternal life is absolutely meant literally. It’s actually kind of pathetic. IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-depressing-thought-from-a-confirmed-atheist/720094.md?page=2)