Ok. This is mostly an opinion question for all you who enjoy good stimulating debate. I am a born again Christian, so there are certain things (viewpoints, etc) that come from atheists and others that I don’t understand. I’m not trying to offend, but I just don’t really see the logic. Before I came into my relationship with Jesus Christ, my life was empty, and I felt guilty about so many of the stupid things that I’d done. Once I allowed Christ to forgive me, I felt a great burden being lifted from me. My life completely changed, I went from deep depression to fullfilled joy in a matter of minutes. Granted, I had to give up some aspects of my life that I really didn’t want to, but now that they’re gone, God makes sure that I don’t miss them. My question for you is this: why would you turn something like that down? Is it that you have stuff in your life that you don’t want to get rid of? Curious minds want to know!
There is no “something like that.” God does not exist. You’re fooling yourself.
Yes I don’t want to rid myself logic, reason and common sense to believe in a moral authority in the sky with out any credible evidence to support it.
or maybe, just maybe, they ** don’t ** feel “empty, guilty, burden(ed)” ???
I don’t publically discuss my religious preferences or lack . But, what DOES annoy me about ANYBODY’S relgious viewpoint is the concept that if I don’t share your stance, then, it follows that I must have an empty, less than happy life.
am glad for you that you have found a way to be happy, please don’t assume that the same path will work for everybody. Ok?
I think the best response to this question was written by George Bernard Shaw in the preface to Andercles and the Lion
‘The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.’
chris
The problem, im_a_squirrel, is that he’s YOUR god, NOT mine. I have my own God/dess to follow and I’m quite happy with them. I chose them of my own free will, not taking their word blindly on faith or simply because my parents followed them.
I glad you’ve found happiness and fulfilment with your god, now please allow me the same courtesy with mine.
I was lost in my life until I found (pick one)
Yoga
Holistic Medicine
Wicca
Transindental Meditation
Islam
Buhdism
Staring for hours into a light bulb
. . . Why don’t any of these work for you? I don’t understand.
Just because you’ve decided to listen to what others tell you and believe them blindly, doesn’t mean a) that you’re right or b)that anyone else wants to hear it.
Do you really think everyone you say that to is going to say “Oh, now I get it. You’re right, there must be a kindly old guy with a long white beard hovering over me making sure I don’t miss anything.”
I strongly urge you to give your life back over to yourself and start thinking for yourself.
[sarcasm]
But his path is the right one. We’re all wrong for thinking any differently! Oh thank you ever so much for turning me in the right direction! This message board post changed my life!
[/sarcasm]
Cynical skepticism is my “God.”
I’m also one of those who doesn’t turn to religion because of feelings of despair, depression, or guilt. I’m having a perfectly lovely life thus far and have found fulfillment in friends and family. In fact, religion, when I did give it a try, only succeeded to suck joy and feelings of self-worth from life.
I’m glad you’re happy now, but your solution is a poor fit for my life.
The emptiness and guilt I experienced were mostly due to the Christian period of my life. I’m much more fulfilled and happy now that I am able to learn the truth based on logic rather than faith in a preacher’s opinions or an unreliable book.
I don’t care if I don’t really know if opress has one or two "p"s. You guys are all so mean. You’re attacking this man for posing a question whose style seemed more inquisitive and perhaps a little naive than it did hateful.
Just because someone loves god does not mean they hate you or think you or dumb.I bet you do not have a true understanding of what he thinks either.
The real differnce here I think is that he asks questions and you call people who ask questions stupid. God has nothing to do with it.
And no I do not discuss my religious beliefs (in public or private) either.
excuse me, but I don’t believe that I called the question stupid. As a matter of fact, I think I was very careful to actually answer the poster’s question, in a fairly respectable manner. I specifically chose NOT to try and demean them, thank you.
The posters’ question , however, was not as respectful, since there was an assumption that without accepting their religious viewpoint, one’s life probably WAS empty etc. I DID point that out to them, but made it as a general observation for ANYONE who makes such a sweeping judegment.
reading the posts over, Freyr and Beakerxf, also politely pointed out the problem in the basic question. Others may have vented their opinions more forcefully, but at the very least roughly have of the answers fell into the category of “gee whiz, why do you assume we’re unhappy in the first place?”, So please, when you’re busy lumping folks together in “you’re all so mean” category, I’d rather you concentrate on accuracy vs. your potential spelling errors. thank you.
What is more squirell, why do you turn your head from the Cult of the Righteous Goldfish? The Righteous Goldfish loves you and can bring you true eternal happiness through the right of passing. The right of passage is toilet flushing into a suburban sewer. All you have to do is donate your life savings and all of your possessions to the cult so that we may build a toilet big enough for all of humanity to be flushed down, but it may take a while, because right now we see taking up 45% of the worlds porcelin manufacturing ability for the next three years to build the damn thing.
Yes, you will have to make sacrafices such as your life savings, your time, and your dignity through being placed into a toilet, but I have found my involvement with the Cult to bring me true happiness. And are not those sacrafices small incomparison to true happiness?
I await your response.
Go ahead and include your address, bank account numbers, etc. so that we can begin your quest for true happiness immediately.
Sincerely,
The Assosciate Tender of The Holy Goldfish
Trust me 
Alright alright. Perhaps I should have made it clear that my “you are all” should not have been taken literally. Many of the replies were a bit more dignified than my response would have indicated.
I do disagree that the poster’s question was disrespectful, however. People too often think that when someone else is curious about the reasons behind an opinion rather than merely just the opinion itself.
Our squirrel, I believe, has a good point. Everyone (or almost everyone. I’m not making the same mistake twice.), without some sort of raison, tends to feel lonely and empty. As I said before, it is a little naive to think that there is only one solution to this dilemma, but an honest attempt to understand alternative solutions should not be called disrespectful.
ok, some room for agreement, then (the eternal peace keeper, that’s me).
I agree that it seems (and I’m not offering proof here, just my observation) to be a part of the human condition to long for some sense of belonging -kinda the reverse of your assertion that we all feel lonely and empty. But, you see the difference in the two points?
So, if the question had been, since we all seem to look for a sense of belonging, connecting to others, why not embrace God (or whomever)? I wouldn’t have felt it was as disrespectful. However, the question ** was ** “I felt lonely and empty THEN I found this religion and now I feel better and why DON’T you join in?”, it seemed to me that the poser of said question made two unwarrented assumptions, that A. I felt lonely and empty and B. that their particular solution was the right one for me and all others.
I have known many folks who were/are strong believers in thier own faiths. I respect that. Where I have a problem is when they (or anyone) tries to tell me what I should believe and how (tho’ I’m not certain that the original poster was attempting that)
I also noted that this was squirrel’s first post and was willing to cut some slack, there, too.
Ok?
Squirrel, just because your life was empty doesn’t mean everybody’s is. Some of us don’t need a crutch.
I’m not sure it would be correct to assume that a majority of the people feel lonely or empty. Nor is correct to assume that a majority of the people don’t feel lonely or empty. Frankly, I have not seen evidence to either point of view.
If you were to ask me, I assume most people are happy because I’m a optimistic, glass half full type of person. If you were to ask one of my friends, she’d tell you that everyone is miserable deep inside. That’s because she’s a raging pessimist and miserable herself. So take a moment and examine your statement. Is your statement based on knowledge or your own personal perspective on life?
Personally, I think everyone has a niche in life. When you are outside of that niche, you feel empty and miserable. It goes with what wring said about the human need to belong. Once you find where you belong, you find contentment.
Some people seem geared towards the religious and spiritual. Others, like myself, seem oriented towards the interpersonal and tangible. I find no comfort in an unseeable God, but a conversation with a trusted friend can leave me happy for a week.
squirrel asked: My life completely changed, I went from deep depression to fullfilled joy in a matter of minutes. Granted, I had to give up some aspects of my life that I really didn’t want to, but now that they’re gone, God makes sure that I don’t miss them. My question for you is this: why would you turn something like that down?
Other posters here have done a good job of making the points that not everybody is “deeply depressed” when not believing in God nor “joyfully fulfilled” when they do believe. I’d like to address what I see as a deeper moral issue: namely, true convictions are not something you change for motives of personal gain. If you really don’t believe deep down that God exists, it is immoral to try to convince yourself or others that you do believe it just in order to lay hands on the goodies, emotional or spiritual, you think it may offer.
I’m always amazed at many theists’ obliviousness to the contemptible paltriness of their arguments along the lines of “isn’t heaven, or God’s love, a good thing? why would you turn it down?” (I said something like this to lambda in the deductive arguments for God thread, but the discussion never went very far.) If a bank robber tried to hand me some stolen cash, I wouldn’t take him/her up on that; sure, I could use the money, but I won’t commit or be accessory to a crime in order to get it. So don’t come around insulting me with your offers of “fulfilled joy” either; if I have to betray or deny my honest convictions in order to get it, it isn’t worth it and I don’t want it. And I can’t believe that any God I could ever respect would really want me to do that, either.
I like that attitude :)! It was said before, but I’ll say it again. You are assuming that the lives of atheists, myself included, were the same as yours before you made your spiritual decision (i.e. empty, and guilt ridden). If this was the case your disbelief that others could voluntarily live like this while a better way existed would be justified. However, I am happy as an atheist, as are many others. There are even some stories of people here abandoning a religious lifestyle for an irreligious one because they felt as disatisfied and empty in the church as you did away from it. And, again it was said before, that many find peace in religions other than Christianity. I suppose you could argue that you have more peace, but that would be hard to verify. I realize your belief is strong, but so is that of others.
A note to the others who posted derisive comments: I know im_a_squirrel comments seemed arrogant to you, but he/she is trying to learn. It takes great strength to ask a question the answer to which might alter your beliefs, and he/she deserves to be cut some slack.
Maybe this will help you… If someone came up to you and said (and no offense is intended)
Before I came into my relationship with Kali, my life was empty, and I felt guilty about so many of the stupid things that I’d done. Once I allowed Kali to vindicate me, I felt a great burden being lifted from me. My life completely changed, I went from deep depression to fullfilled joy in a matter of minutes. I was able to fully embrace aspects of my life, such as my love of destruction, that I felt guilty about before. I was able to feel completely free. My question for you is this: why would you turn something like that down?
Anyway, I hope you see that such an argument would have no effect on you.
I myself am officially a Catholic, although not a very good one.
However, I don’t think that MY way is the way for everyone.
What if someone else has a different set of beliefs? And they think that MY religion is wrong? I mean, everyone believes that THEIR religion is the right one.
So I believe it is. I think ALL religions are the right ones, all Gods are one…just different ways of worship…
So I guess I’ve got my ass covered.