Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For those who don't know by now, I started doubting all of this nonesense a few months ago and now, i'm happy (sort of) to be an Atheist.
I am feeling a bit strange though and i'd like to hear your views on this and to see if anyone feels the same way i do!
See, i now do not believe in a heaven and hell and so all i do in life is for this life and this life alone....I try to enjoy my life to the fullest; i try to be good to others and love my family. i try to learn as much as possible and see as much of the world as i can in the time that i have on this earth.
however, i do feel a bit sad! Sad because i'm disappointed to finally understand that THIS IS IT! before i became an atheist, i believed in a afterlife (or at least entertained the idea) but now, it's clear as day to me that all that is pure BS. that makes me sad and a bit disappointed. To suddenly realize that there is NO grand 'purpose' in life, other than reproducing, raising offsprings, and if lucky, enjoying life, is somewhat sad. Don't get me wrong...i love my life and i'm amazed everyday by life itself and the nature that surrounds me...but i do kinda wish there was something else! (but there clearly isn't!)
For those who don't know by now, I started doubting all of this nonesense a few months ago and now, i'm happy (sort of) to be an Atheist.
I am feeling a bit strange though and i'd like to hear your views on this and to see if anyone feels the same way i do!
See, i now do not believe in a heaven and hell and so all i do in life is for this life and this life alone....I try to enjoy my life to the fullest; i try to be good to others and love my family. i try to learn as much as possible and see as much of the world as i can in the time that i have on this earth.
however, i do feel a bit sad! Sad because i'm disappointed to finally understand that THIS IS IT! before i became an atheist, i believed in a afterlife (or at least entertained the idea) but now, it's clear as day to me that all that is pure BS. that makes me sad and a bit disappointed. To suddenly realize that there is NO grand 'purpose' in life, other than reproducing, raising offsprings, and if lucky, enjoying life, is somewhat sad. Don't get me wrong...i love my life and i'm amazed everyday by life itself and the nature that surrounds me...but i do kinda wish there was something else! (but there clearly isn't!)
anyone else feel what i feel?
It never disappoints me. Things in life need be only one thing. TRUE. Accepting the lack of a god was and is a major step in finding that truth. I feel a freedom I know the religious do not have, and try not to look down on those who still need a myth to give meaning to their life.
It never disappoints me. Things in life need be only one thing. TRUE. Accepting the lack of a god was and is a major step in finding that truth. I feel a freedom I know the religious do not have, and try not to look down on those who still need a myth to give meaning to their life.
thanks for the reply.
i too feel the freedom you mentioned....but i still wish there 'was' a more fulfilling 'purpose' other than populating the earth.
and to your other point....it's VERY hard not to look down to those who still need a myth! i know i was in the same boat up until a few months ago...but it's HARD! I will try harder though. thanks
For me it's pretty simple: The one thing that is disappointing about realizing that the Christian religion is not "true" is that you realize that you don't get to spend eternity in Heaven and that loved ones will be absent forever after death. Even those disappointments fade after a while as you stop worrying about non-existent things and focus on real life.
I don't particularly mind that there is no grand purpose for life. I don't really find it important. Not having an afterlife is a blow, though, I agree. It sucks, but hey, reality doesn't owe us anything, so we have to get over it one way or another.
OP - no dissapointments here.
Being an atheist does not prevent you from having your own -often altruistic purpose(s) - like leaving the earth in a better state, being a productive member of the society etc.
I can't say I ever really believed in a god, a heaven or a hell. I remember as a kid, when asked if I believed, I would say yes because I thought everyone did and I didn't quite know how to explain why I didn't. All that aside, even on the playground with my schoolmates, there was the occasional gesture of what belief in a god meant. I remember hearing all kinds of various attributes assigned to a god and what would grant "eternal life" or "eternal death." It's interesting because I had never heard of the concept of being "saved" until I was much older.
Because I almost never went to church and my parents were never very religious, the only information I had regarding what 'God' consisted of was very often through those classmates and schoolmates who were merely repeating what their parents told them. I really had no basis for conception of agreement or disagreement. I knew the general idea - God made everything, God was watching, etc... But, when it came to the attributes assigned to what God cared or didn't care about I realized very quickly that I was cherry picking precisely what I wanted this God to be like.
I can remember telling myself "I like Jeff, Susan, and Billy's version but I don't like Christopher, Jeremy, and Cindy's version." I think it was at that point I realized, although in a much more childish manner, that we pick and choose precisely what the attributes of God should be. In most cases, I feel that this "picking and choosing" is done for us by our parents and can often be a mirror of what your parents raised you to believe. Yet, in a situation such as mine, I found that I was more likely to believe in a God that I agreed with rather than what I disagreed with.
I think it was at that point in which I realized that my belief would merely be a projection of what I wanted it to be and that would be based upon my own personal psychology, upbringing, and introduction to the world. In hindsight, I imagine the attributes I assigned to God would be somewhat like a Freudian based relationship with my own Father and would be dependent largely on that. I had a wonderful relationship with my Father, still do, and perhaps that's part of the reason I never felt the need to fill that gap with a God.
The puerile gestures of what heaven and hell meant were simply not important or even vaguely realistic to me. Certainly, from a child's point of view, the thought of death scared me, the thought of losing loved ones forever was very frightening and yet I realized that for me to believe in a heaven or hell would only be something I wanted and would have no influence on the truth of the matter.
I simply couldn't acknowledge the idea that I was "willing" something to be true because I would always know it to be a lie deep down inside. In retrospect, I realize that our presuppositions of what God is and can be are more or less self-generated. Once I realized that, I also became aware that if I could assign these attributes and principles to a God based on my own cognitive fruition, why couldn't I just assign those attributes and principle to myself? And then it hit me... I'd already assigned those attributes and principles to myself and those were definitely influenced by my parents and their upbringing of me and my own personal experiences... And so I realized, God to many people is just a reflection and projection of what they want to believe and is often very indicative of their own nature.
I think we can often glean a lot of information about a person based on what they believe. It seems to be no coincidence to me that those who choose to worship a vindictive, maniacal and tortuous God very often show themselves to be of that same mentality. There are those who choose to worship a God that is very accepting and genuine to others and yet I often find those people of the same caliber. And the list goes on.
I cannot say for certain what guides one or the other. Are those who are brought up with a belief in a vindictive, traitorous, and vengeful God influenced by their parents first and reflecting that upon their belief? Or, are they being taught "This is what God is, apply it to your life?" I think it's really more of an autonomous feedback loop than anything. In both ways, it seems to me to be self-correcting. When one falls below the bar, the other picks up... At least, those are my thoughts based on nothing more than observation...
I suppose what I'm getting at is that I never really felt the need to use the word "Atheist" to describe myself until I actually started to debate religion. I don't consider myself to be an "Atheist" in terms of how I choose to define myself. Certainly, on this forum, whilst debating the idea of whether God exists or not I use it to identify my personal ideology and stance. Unfortunately, religion has spread this diseased notion that when someone asks you the question "What are you," one must respond with a self-identifying answer. "I am a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, etc..."
Perhaps the sooner you realize that you are not an "Atheist" but rather a multi-dimensional human being filled with every human emotional range from rage to calm, happiness to sadness, etc... will you realize that the principles upon which you define yourself constitute who and what you are much more so than a mere label of whether you believe in a God or not. Religion has politicized the use of the word "Atheist" to indicate something of the nature that we ignore all humanity in pursuit of a purely sanitized, emotion-free, 1984 kind of state devoid of understanding the richness and beauty of life.
Don't fall ill to the social stigma of what religion has told you to believe or not believe about life, death, and the rest. Because, in the end, they're only merely repeating what they have assigned to themselves to begin with.
For those who don't know by now, I started doubting all of this nonesense a few months ago and now, i'm happy (sort of) to be an Atheist.
I am feeling a bit strange though and i'd like to hear your views on this and to see if anyone feels the same way i do!
See, i now do not believe in a heaven and hell and so all i do in life is for this life and this life alone....I try to enjoy my life to the fullest; i try to be good to others and love my family. i try to learn as much as possible and see as much of the world as i can in the time that i have on this earth.
however, i do feel a bit sad! Sad because i'm disappointed to finally understand that THIS IS IT! before i became an atheist, i believed in a afterlife (or at least entertained the idea) but now, it's clear as day to me that all that is pure BS. that makes me sad and a bit disappointed. To suddenly realize that there is NO grand 'purpose' in life, other than reproducing, raising offsprings, and if lucky, enjoying life, is somewhat sad. Don't get me wrong...i love my life and i'm amazed everyday by life itself and the nature that surrounds me...but i do kinda wish there was something else! (but there clearly isn't!)
anyone else feel what i feel?
That feeling will pass. You're probably disappointed at the falsity of the myths and promises of rewards and punishments they offered. But the reality is that you're now liberated from the mental and emotional constraints that had you boxed in.
Sooner or later, you'll feel connected. Everything is connected. Reality is a great place to be.
When I was in my early teens I went through the transition of being a lukewarm believer to an atheist in a fairly short amount of time and at that point in my life I could probably have identified with the question in the OP and it sounds like the conversion to atheism was fairly recent. As I've gotten older it doesn't bother me a bit and I can honestly say that I've never had a secret desire for there to be a God for all of my adult life.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
