Explaining Tragedy Under Your Worldview (atheist, quote, punished, believe)
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So, lately my car had some trouble starting. I was kinda wary of driving it around, but was kinda like "screw it, I don't feel like spending time and money getting it checked out." Especially when I'm finally earning money regularly and dreaded a huge payment. So anyway, today on the way back from a garbage run, the gear stuck, and I couldn't turn it off.
You could obviously take the approach here that poor planning obviously caused this mess, and you'd be right. I could have saved the money for the off chance this would happen but I didn't. Why? Because this life is too short, and there will always be accidents. It's better to enjoy life now, instead of waiting for people to take things from you. Because they always, always do (from taxes to girlfriends, I've had everything taken at one point or another).
(Ultimately, what I drew from my experience, was the importance of people you can count on. I contacted a next-door neighbor who got it into gear, since he had this same problem with an old truck. Then I tested it alone later, and because it was just me, the gear stick broke. Yay, what a wonderful lesson)
But anyway, suppose an accident happens to you. Someone dies, or some such. Why did it happen? What's your worldview say?
An accident is when your tire blows because there's debris on the road or an axle breaks because of a pothole and you loose control of your car and hit something.
Driving an unsafe car around because you've said, "screw it" and your car breaks because YOU decided to just say "screw it, life is short" and you take out an innocent family on their way home from getting an ice cream is not in my category of accident. Sorry.
Oh, and my worldview says the innocent family coming home from getting an ice cream would have enjoyed growing old together.
I think some things can be avoided if we take precautions early on to prevent them and sometimes we don't.
But then there's things that despite our greatest efforts we still witness or experience and when that happens, I think I just have to find ways to deal with it and find new resources within myself to survive and thrive. I only care to believe in having one life so I try to be as optimistic and make the most out of it as I can.
My car wouldn't turn off at a parking lot, within the confines of my own house.
I stay at home, I buy a cheaper car, or a scooter. Or I get it fixed if it's reasonable. That is the end of story. The car is not unsafe, the car is unusable. There is an important distinction.
An accident is more an unsafety issue than what most people think (face it, you were driving too fast). Not fixing the brakes, your fault and someone else's problem. Not fixing a problem with the gears/startup because you can't afford it, it is your problem. So yes, I can say "screw it" and the only issue is paying it.
Human freedom ends with regard to other people. If it only affects me, we have the ability to make choices, and live with them.
Last edited by bulmabriefs144; 06-16-2013 at 08:56 PM..
I'm of the opinion that momentous moments in our lives occur for a reason. And that reason is to learn; to learn more about ourselves - and by extension - everyone and everything.
It is flat-out impossible to learn anything positive about the human condition by always being successful. If one never stumbles, one never learns to get back up. And getting back up is the very essence of showing appreciation for life - which I believe is the greatest gift we can award our Creator: appreciation.
Tragedy reduces us to our essence. We quickly learn who are true friends and who prefer to share good times only. And we learn, quickly or eventually, what we are made of - and where we may need to grow.
It may well be true that tragedy/failure is the first important step to truly understanding ourselves and our place in life.
I'm confused. Is the OP saying the gear sticking was a tragedy?
Well, I think he was using his gear sticking event as a way to explain his worldview that life is short and you need to enjoy it so that he could lead into the question of "what is your worldview towards tragedy?"
I see us as living in physical world and we all face the reality of everything have to follow the laws of physics. None of us are exempt from them theist and atheist.
We are placed here as a trial and part of this trial is learning we are not going to get any preferred treatment because we believe in God(swt). We are limited by the natural events, and laws of a physical existence.
Things good and bad will happen to us simply because we happen to be present when they happen.
Because a man gets struck by lightening does not mean it is because he is being punished. He just happened to be in the path of least resistance for the lightening.
I don't believe there is a "reason" per se for the things that happen, including portentous or tragic or challenging things. Things happen because they are the end result of a complex web or interacting causes and effects. Sometimes human carelessness or lovelessness contributes to these causes and effects, but many things -- such as earthquakes, many cancers, etc., we have little control over and are just random happenstance.
When people say that challenges can serve as an opportunity to learn or grow, or make lemonade out of lemons, etc., they are correct, but to suggest that these things are somehow visited upon or "given to" us for the purpose of our growth is to suggest a giver / orchestrator of some kind and I don't see any evidence of such an agent.
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