Do Any Atheists Feel This Way?

Big Dog

The atheists have done a pretty good job on me, I am just about to cast my lot in with them after all the reading and debating on the issue. They just seem to have all the answers and appear to hold the intellectual high ground, they do a good job of making one feel like a complete idiot for believing in a god, much less the Christian version.

So now that I am almost free of this delusional, magical thinking, religious burden of foolishly believing in a God and that there is anymore to life than what is right here how do I feel?

Not all that wonderful to be honest. If I remember correctly the earth is thought to be about 4 billion years old, if I live to 70 I will have existed less than one ten millionth of the time the earth has been around, much less the universe (my math could be wrong, I am so rusty, but suffice it to say, an almost infinitesimal tick of the BIG clock so to speak.

In 30, 40, at absolute most 50 years I am going to die, and that is going to be it, every experience I ever had, every thought, every memory, gone, forever. I will cease to exist and my body will either be cremated or left to decompose in the ground. And in another 50 or 60 years after that (maybe a tad longer if I have grandchildren), everyone that ever knew me will be gone. Oh, some might say, but your memory will live on with your family, big freaking deal, I’ll be dead, unaware of it, so I don’t find that all that comforting.

You can call me selfish, call me ungrateful, whatever but this tick of the clock existence, this nano-second in the big picture time while it is nice doesn’t seem like very much. I would like very much that there be something more, but have been pretty much convinced that there isn’t and you know, that doesn’t fill me up with wonder, or make my heart sing, or fill me with really any positive feelings to be quite honest. Oh, it doesn’t nullify the life I have, so far its been good and hopefully I have some good years left, but the idea that once it is over, its over, well that just bums me out actually, I’m not overwhelmed with the fact that, oh my, my ancestors crawled from the slime and I lift my apeman head up for this tiny fraction of time before becoming nothing again.

Do any of you other atheists feel this way? Do any of you feel saddened at all by the fact that we have so little time and that when its over, its over?

kls

Research Big Dog and your own . Just like when you were a jw and anyother other religion or cult , you can't believe everything you are told and shown but research on your own with the material you choose. Why does everyone have to believe there is a God or there isn't ? I feel maybe or maybe not and really , what is the difference . If there is wonderful , if not wonderful , that doesn't make me any different to believe either way but i don't have the conflicts in my mind of which way to go .

Why do you have to be one way or another ?

kid-A

I dont feel this way at all. It was when I lost my fear of death and my own immortality that the chains of superstitious belief just fell off.

Life is short, yes, that makes it precious and forces us to appreciate every moment we have.

We can gain immortality by leaving a meaningful legacy behind us, or raising great children to take our places.

I believe it is only those who cannot appreciate the life they have now, that must look for some imaginary afterlife to deal with the ephemeral nature of real life.

It is knowing that I will be gone someday that makes me live in the present and savour each moment.....believing in some fictional "heavenly afterlife" just cheapens the life we have been given NOW.

kls

I see Big Dog that you added on to your post and i missed it ,may fleas infest you.

Everyone is going to die and there is nothing anyone can do about it, but live a happy life and have fun till your so tired of living that eternal rest sounds good.

Think of now ,not what if and when .

Big Dog

Sorry Monkey goddess, my face was red as a baboon's ass trying to get the dang thing to post.

AlmostAtheist

Welcome to the fold, BigDog! :-)

Yes, it's a shift of mind, no doubt. Like finding out the diamond ring you've been wearing all this time is just a chunk of glass.

But think of life like a vacation. When it's over, do you mourn it? Maybe. But I'll bet you enjoy remembering it. I know I do. Life is like that. You get your few years of it, you enjoy it, you don't WASTE it. Wake up and know you've got a day in front of you to make something with. Not that you MUST do so, or anyone's looking over your shoulder to judge you if don't, but that you just want to. What joy there is in simply being a part of this huge universe.

It is knowing that I will be gone someday that makes me live in the present and savour each moment

Yep, that's it exactly. You will come to actually feel sorry for those that have a "hope for the future", and choose to sacrifice the present in their chasing of it.

There is a glory and majesty in looking back through the ages and knowing you're part of it. You carry DNA from the earliest days of it. Bits of junk coding you don't even need, carried still by your DNA simply because it was successful in hanging around. What a privilege to be a part of this whole system. The water you drink was once in the egg of a Tyranosaur. The carbon in your body was possibly carried aloft by a bird, possibly even recently.

Animals are no longer the "lesser" creatures, they are as successful in their environments as you and your species have been. You can feel your kinship with them. You can see in their eyes that they like to live, just like you do. It's far more awesome than thinking it was all snapped into being by an unseen, unexplainable force one Thursday afternoon.

Please post about your feelings over the next few weeks and months. I'd be very interested in what you experience.

Dave

kls

Sorry Monkey goddess,

Yes i am aren't i . I AM MONKEY GODDESS, Why do i feel i have to say that in a deep voice

Oh well ,I am monkey goddess,,,lol I love it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dezpbem

I don't feel that way at all.

I think we already are immortal and don't need a particular religion or even belief in a divinity to have what we already are. I don't fear mortality.

Dez

seattleniceguy

Hi Big Dog,

Accepting your own mortality is difficult. In fact, it is precisely this difficulty that has given rise to life-after-death myths for our entire human history. We simply do not want to accept that we will die.

(As an aside, I sometimes find it amusing that the JWs, who believe they have such a deep understanding of human life and death, are among the farthest from accepting their own mortality. Whereas most religious people at least accept that they will have to die to get into the next life, Witnesses think they'll never have to die at all!)

You're right. From a non-theistic worldwiew, an individual life does not inherently have great value in the large scheme of things. But there is a different kind of awe in taking a step back and seeing the world as a great biological machine, populations evolving, the surface of the planet changing, each of us a part of the process.

It also makes me want to use my time to make a impact for good on the people around me. Not because I think a big guy in the sky is watching and I'll get my reward later, but because I understand the interconnectedness of life and I want to be a force for good in my local environment. It causes me to want to raise children who become good citizens, solid thinkers, loving parents - people who themselves will make contributions to the world.

Of course, sometimes I wish I didn't have to die. But I firmly believe that accepting reality is better than living in self-deception.

SNG

seattleniceguy

one Thursday afternoon

Is there a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan in the house? :-)

SNG

Do Any Atheists Feel This Way?

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