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First let me qualify: I would never want to swallow a lie(such as religion) as a multi-vitamin.
I'm asking a serious question: As an athiest/agnostic, what gets you through in life?
From time-to-time, I get a little down. I get to thinking life can be pointless (I'm not suicidal, just indifferent). I don't eat as well as I should. I don't worry about too much,but I'm a little too careless. What's to worry about? It's only the rule of man. I'm not driven by money or possessions. I don't fear death, homelessness, debt, loneliness(except from my wife)... I love all of my friends and relatives, but I don't have anything in common with them anymore. Basically, I have my wife whom I love very much and my two dogs. Life would be fine if that was all there is for me.
I am not preparing for an afterlife. I live my life like an atheist. Everything I do and don't do, stem from my atheistic philosophy.
I take care of my family. I go to work. I am a law-abiding citizen, who hopes for a better and free-thinking world someday.
But, it can get to feeling a little empty when you think about the big picture.
So, I ask you, what makes you get out of bed each day?
Girls.
Wanting to leave a mark in the world.
Hoping the future holds better days(Even if today is good.)
Working on car.
Learning.
Fun.
New discoveries, tech, events, etc.
First let me qualify: I would never want to swallow a lie(such as religion) as a multi-vitamin.
I'm asking a serious question: As an athiest/agnostic, what gets you through in life?
From time-to-time, I get a little down. I get to thinking life can be pointless (I'm not suicidal, just indifferent). I don't eat as well as I should. I don't worry about too much,but I'm a little too careless. What's to worry about? It's only the rule of man. I'm not driven by money or possessions. I don't fear death, homelessness, debt, loneliness(except from my wife)... I love all of my friends and relatives, but I don't have anything in common with them anymore. Basically, I have my wife whom I love very much and my two dogs. Life would be fine if that was all there is for me.
I am not preparing for an afterlife. I live my life like an atheist. Everything I do and don't do, stem from my atheistic philosophy.
I take care of my family. I go to work. I am a law-abiding citizen, who hopes for a better and free-thinking world someday.
But, it can get to feeling a little empty when you think about the big picture.
So, I ask you, what makes you get out of bed each day?
It sounds like you need a hobby... Try and find something that you are passionate about, and just do it.
Nope, I have two hobbies. Weight-lifting and guitar playing. I'm also an artist-drawing, and painting. Hobbies isn't a problem. I have a home recording studio, a large library... I have some nice toys.
You guys may be too young. I'm looking for genuine words of wisdom.
There is an inherent emptiness that comes from not having something to believe in.... I want to know, how some people combat that. Someone who has lived long enough to have dealt with it.
I think I would live differently if I held a strong belief. I would be more purpose-driven.
Nope, I have two hobbies. Weight-lifting and guitar playing. I'm also an artist-drawing, and painting. Hobbies isn't a problem. I have a home recording studio, a large library... I have some nice toys.
You guys may be too young. I'm looking for genuine words of wisdom.
There is an inherent emptiness that comes from not having something to believe in.... I want to know, how some people combat that. Someone who has lived long enough to have dealt with it.
I think I would live differently if I held a strong belief. I would be more purpose-driven.
Is 56 old enough?
I think the "inherent emptiness" is not a function of atheism but of the human condition. That "emptiness" exists in everyone and it is what drives them to scratch the itch in various ways, most typically, religion. Religion is a way to distract from and deny the emptiness but does not actually remove it. When religion is out of the picture, the emptiness can no longer be so readily ignored and we tend to confuse its source with unbelief.
This phenomenon is similar to what is observed in many eastern meditation practices, the goal of which is not a blank mind (common misconception) but rather increased detached awareness of thoughts and feelings that arise. In the short term, becoming aware of feelings you have been repressing or ignoring makes matters worse rather than better, because you have, after all, been avoiding them for a reason: they are disturbing or frightening to you in some way. But over the medium to long term, awareness is the better path, because it brings familiarity and acceptance.
It may seem a ridiculously obvious statement, but life, like everything else, just is what it is. The constant drive for "something more" is a fool's errand. It is also an inflation: it's an attempt to make you more important and significant than you actually are (i.e., not very significant or important at all) -- to place yourself on the stage of life as its leading man or lady around which all events revolve.
Think about how much we try to make life about us, our story arc, our hopes, dreams, aspirations. No matter how (ig)noble those hopes, dreams and aspirations are, the universe is simply indifferent to them and lumbers on like an unmanned steam roller. Right over you, if you're in the way. This offends our desired sense of importance. Even unbelievers, in my experience, will spout nonsense in their philosophical moments like, "it was(n't) meant to be", as if there is an external Purpose which, if we could only align with it, would put everything in our life right. (Stephen King's novel Insomnia is about this very thing, an epic battle between The Random and The Purpose, in which, of course, his protagonists get to play an Important Role).
I do not have an easy antitote to all of this, other than to learn humility and to let go of attachments to particular outcomes. Easier said than done. I do not claim to have arrived at that place, although I think I've made useful progress that has reduced my day to day suffering. But I have had to, it was either that or become unable to function adequately.
My tendency has been to go for what I regard as the Big Kahuna, the fear of death, which, according to Ernst Becker, underlies all other concerns / fears / neuroses. I purposely remind myself that I have only a couple of good decades ahead of me (maybe -- my eldest brother died suddenly in his 67th year, although the men in my family tend to make it in passable health into their late 80s). I imagine what I would do differently if I were aware that I had weeks to live -- and then I try to live my life as if that were true. I have gotten quite comfortable with the idea of my own dissolution and have come, actually, to look forward to it. I have even gotten to the point where I believe I'll be disappointed and rather dismayed if I find out there's an afterlife. I have come to see death as an end to all this nonsense we occupy ourselves with as if it actually mattered. I see it as an end to all suffering, angst, worry and care. That it is also an end to all pleasure, enjoyment, and love is okay too; someone who no longer exists does not miss those things.
As for how I view life, I regard the suffering I have endured to get to this point as a sunk cost, and let it go; I try to let life unfold and develop without fighting it all the time; I of course have preferences and (dis)likes and I steer things in those directions but I don't spin my wheels when it refuses to be steered. I remind myself (for things both pleasant and unpleasant) that "this too shall pass". Much of the misery of life is trying to get it to stay the same or at least change in predictable ways -- it's like nailing jello to a wall. I let it evolve and I flex with it as best I can.
I hope these miscellaneous thoughts spark something useful for you. I'm sure that some theist will read this and think mine is a philosophy of despair but I reiterate, life is what it is -- for me, for you, for anyone, regardless of how they choose to regard it or what beliefs they choose to superimpose upon it. We must all deal with life as it is -- effectively or not. I have chosen to deal with it in a bare metal fashion without all kinds of cruft between me and life. It works for me, or at least it works better than other ways of being I have tried. Your mileage may vary.
I think about imaginary fantasy worlds, and ponder the nonexesistent feelings and histories and conflicts of the nonixestent nonhumans who do not live in them.
Nope, I have two hobbies. Weight-lifting and guitar playing. I'm also an artist-drawing, and painting. Hobbies isn't a problem. I have a home recording studio, a large library... I have some nice toys.
You guys may be too young. I'm looking for genuine words of wisdom.
There is an inherent emptiness that comes from not having something to believe in.... I want to know, how some people combat that. Someone who has lived long enough to have dealt with it.
I think I would live differently if I held a strong belief. I would be more purpose-driven.
In my case, I simply have no need to believe in supernatural things anymore since I find them silly and ridiculous if taken literally. I am middle-aged though, so maybe things might change as I age (I hope not).
BTW, how often do you travel internationally? Doing that and learning new languages will open up whole worlds for you that you never knew existed. There are close to 200 countries in the world to explore - more than enough for a lifetime.
What gets me through in life? A variety of things...
I'll say this much: It certainly isn't me wandering around thinking to myself "Must keep going on... No belief in deities." The fact that I don't believe in a god is so minute in respect to how I go about my business on a daily basis that I would have never even pondered this unless you asked. At best, it's simply a response I give when people in the extremely religious area I live in ask if I go to church or where I go to church. It's really not a coping mechanism or anything like that.
What pushes me forward when I'm feeling down is probably my natural curiosity and, probably annoying to some, my almost focused tenacity on figuring something out. I will isolate myself from people but that's when I'm also most productive. Many times, I'll lock myself upstairs in the computer room and write or teach myself math or figure out how something extremely complicated works. I like to program microcontrollers and build electronic circuits too. In other words, I have hobbies that keep my mind off whatever's bothering me.
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