depressing disbelief in any reason for life

cliona8969

ok so the only positive reason i can think of as to why god would make the universe so big is so there is room for all the dead people who ever lived

Sarky

The universe is far too big. A solar system would have done for that, with room left over.

Seriously, your mode of thinking isn't doing you any favours, go try something new and interesting to shake yourself out of that funk.

18AD

cliona8969 wrote: »

ok so the only positive reason i can think of as to why god would make the universe so big is so there is room for all the dead people who ever lived

That's the sort of thing God does. He's a bit of a joker. It's a good thing his reasons are his own.

A near infinitely large graveyard for all the great people who ever lived. You have to live before you can die!

How should the epitaph of the universe read?

sandmanporto

al28283 wrote: »

cliona8969 wrote: »

how depressing is it to think though that we're only here for a few seconds basically and then gone for eternity. how can anyone take life seriously?
what is the point?? how do people carry on with their days carefree.. i'm seriously scared and sad. i'll never see my loves ones again and that is the hardest part. i feel very sad

You never worried about these things before you were born and you won't after you die

That's besides the point. That's like telling a person in physical agonizing pain they didn't feel it before birth and death will heal it. Sometimes mental pain counts for something YA KNOW
cliona dont worry. You will be ok. Al you sure know how to cheer somebody up

Standman

The channel 4 alpha course doc is on youtube, not great quality but here's a link to a previous thread with the videos in it.

RichieC

Saila wrote: »

thats the problem with throwing out the idea of god/religion, the bathwater goes with it. you better get/have something real strong in place to live with it.

Only some people need religion like that. It's far from across the board.

The idea that life's empty and pointless without made up gods is ridiculous to me.

/Pedant; its the baby you want to keep not the bathwater.

Galvasean

RichieC wrote: »

Only some people need religion like that. It's far from across the board.

The idea that life's empty and pointless without made up gods is ridiculous to me.

Theists keep repeating that life must be meaningless without God and yet whenever anyone bothers their backside to ask a few non-believers if this is true the answer is almost always a resounding "NO!".
It's just a myth certain theists like to perpetuate. Maybe it makes them feel better about themselves. I don't know, but it bugs me that they are so quick to speak for us without consulting us first.

fisgon

Galvasean wrote: »

Theists keep repeating that life must be meaningless without God and yet whenever anyone bothers their backside to ask a few non-believers if this is true the answer is almost always a resounding "NO!"..

Agree with this. For me life is more meaningful without this false belief that I used to have weighing me down. Like a weight off the shoulders. Maybe this is something that the OP could achieve eventually. Certainly a loss of belief is not necessarily connected to depression, and can be liberating.

sbsquarepants

cliona8969 wrote: »

i would preferably like some believers in god to try to argue with me.

please bear in mind that i did not come on here to make people doubt their religion. i was born into a christian household and would call myself christian, however as the years go by i find myself more and more doubting the existence of god.
my biggest reason for doubting god is the fact that the world is so big. why would god create life only on one teeny tiny planet. the earth is like a speck of sand in relation to the size of the universe. it is almost irrelevant.
so how could we be the only life that matter? what is the rest of the universe there for? the universe is sooo large- made up of billions of galaxies and stars. i can't understand how we are so arrogant to assume we are the only ones in the universe...

Personally i find not believing in god makes me value my life all the more. If this is it, then i wan't to enjoy it and stretch it out as best i can. If i felt that by dying i'd gain eternal bliss i'd stick a gun in my mouth now! To an infinite being, a human life span is so tiny that it would be a pointless amount of time to ask for reverence/devotion and so on, and a meaningless amount of time to base any reward or punishment on. It would be like you saying to your child "if you're good for the next millionth of a second, i'll buy you something nice!"
However to me, and to you, 60, 70, 80 years is a huge amount of time to listen to music, to watch movies, to walk on the beach, to have sex, to eat shepherds pie and all the other tiny little things that make our time here worth having.
You came into being through a wildly unlikely string of coincidences, but yet you're here, truth is you're lucky to be here at all, to be here healthy, relatively rich, not in a war zone, or a famine and so on, you are blessed - if you'll forgive the word!
Live in the present - it's all you really have, the past is gone and the future may never come, but right now, this very second, you can do something amazing - even if it's only have a cup of tea and a biscuit - that in itself is amazing. You don't need any higher purpose than existence itself!

The Internet Explorer

Hear hear, I'll eat to that ! !

vibe666

i think that knowing that there is nothing after life is by far the best reason to make the most of it whilst you are alive and leave your mark on the world whilst you've got the chance.

Mistress 69

Galvasean wrote: »

Theists keep repeating that life must be meaningless without God and yet whenever anyone bothers their backside to ask a few non-believers if this is true the answer is almost always a resounding "NO!".
It's just a myth certain theists like to perpetuate. Maybe it makes them feel better about themselves. I don't know, but it bugs me that they are so quick to speak for us without consulting us first.

They perpetuate it for their own benefit, so as they will never let doubt creep into their mind.

mewso

I suppose the only issue for religion if aliens turn up is they might be somewhat more advanced than us and the opening conversation may prove difficult...

"You believe in a being that created you and judges you then decides if you are worthy to join him after you die...Hmmm...Sgt. Splurgh warm up the engine I think we took a wrong turn at Alpha Centauri."

Whoops there I go being an arrogant Atheist. Oh well.

Turtwig

mewso wrote: »

I suppose the only issue for religion if aliens turn up is they might be somewhat more advanced than us and the opening conversation may prove difficult...

"You believe in a being that created you and judges you then decides if you are worthy to join him after you die...Hmmm...Sgt. Splurgh warm up the engine I think we took a wrong turn at Alpha Centauri."

Whoops there I go being an arrogant Atheist. Oh well.

Or the aliens would most likely just see us as other creatures the same way we do other animals and not be bothered eitherway if they squish a few of us or exterminate us all.

OP,

The only reason why it's hard to believe in the first place is because you were fed a rotten, cruel and selfish lie. It's not your fault, there's nothing that can be done about waking up to reality. Some choose never to do it. But just like a junkie experiences withdrawals from the comfort of his virtual world, you will experience withdrawals from the fiction that was fed to you. It's not easy at first, but believe me it does get much better. The truth is more beautiful than any possible fictitious scenario the human mind can possibly dream of. Try to think of it as a new beginning, your life has just begun and what an experience it will come to be!!

fisgon

fisgon wrote: »

Certainly a loss of belief is not necessarily connected to depression, and can be liberating.

In fact, my loss of belief initially came from depression. At first it was a case of "if there is someone or something out there, supposedly to guide me, then why am I being allowed to feel like this?"

Eventually it was logical thinking - I have never seen or heard of any shred of evidence that a deity exists. The Santa Claus comparison mentioned earlier in the thread was a very good one, it's just as (un)believable.