philosophyI have read many answers and comments in this exchange that profess to the extreme effort required to reject the pull of theism or of the intellectual maturing required to do so. For myself, raised in a religious home, I cannot remember ever having a belief in God. Disbelief came easy. It seems that at earlier times in my life my struggle was the opposite- I tried to convince myself out of my atheism. I am curious as to what others truly believe. It seems to me that faith is the struggle and perhaps we have given up. To turn this into a question- Do these negative feeling not make me true atheist? While I fit the definition- I deny the existence of any deity - I feel like I still hope. What are the origins and then ramifications of this despair in atheism? Am I alone?
As Jung said, "Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health." It's only in the absence of real difficulties that people start whining about the 'meaning' of their lives and the realisation that they may not have actually lived when they come to die. It's generally only in rich countries that this happens.
The first remedy for despair is; find something you enjoy doing and do it! If you don't know what you enjoy doing, find out what you don't enjoy doing by trying different things. This may or may not include one's occupation.
The second remedy for despair is; help someone who is worse off than you. To find out how many people are worse off than you check out Global Rich List.
The OP is right that “Theism [is] a nice escape from mortality”, and Satanicpuppy is also right that rejection of deities and an afterlife implies means there’s no cosmic meaning to anything we do.
We humans are in a tough spot around that. Some folks (like some of my relatives) will admit, when pushed to it, that they believe in God not because they’re absolutely convinced by evidence that their religion is true, but because they can’t face the implications of there not being a God. They pay for their personal psychological comfort with intellectual dishonesty.
But you also pay for intellectual honesty with what existentialists call “angst”, one description of which is “the anxiety of the possible meaninglessness of existence”.
I sometimes feel quite angst-y - for instance, when I’m having a bad night, lying awake in the dark. It really sucks. I sometimes feel like I’m just marking time, waiting to die.
But I have found two comforts.
The first comfort comes from Buddhist meditation and mindfulness techniques. If you put aside your angst, how do you feel? Are you warm, safe, comfortable? Have you had enough to eat? Are the people you love and care about okay? From an objective viewpoint, is your life actually pretty good at the current moment? For most people who live in the First World, 99%+ of our lives are pretty damn good! And all that angst is just an emotional/philosophical phantom. So if you can learn to pay attention to the situation you’re actually in at the current moment, rather than keeping your consciousness focussed on some other time or place, you can give angst its proper importance, which isn’t much.
I also try to pay attention to the people I love, the things I enjoy, etc. And it’s amazing how hearty laughter dispels angst, like a wind blowing away the fog.
The second comfort came from thinking about my grandmother dying. Before that, I struggled a lot with the loss of my own being at death, and wished for some kind of immortality. But she had a long, agonizing decline - two years of full intellectual capabilities with more and more misery and less and less health. By the time she died, I am sure existence was a burden she was happy to lay aside.
I just read something in Lord Dunsany about this which I’ll paraphrase:
Death came to a man who was afraid of dying. So Death asked the man, “During all the eons before you existed, did it bother you?” The man said, “Of course not.” So Death replied, “Then neither will the eons after you’re dead bother you.”
Well, the Existential viewpoint is that despair is a natural reaction to realizing that, not only is there no god, no afterlife, and no deeper meaning to existence, but 99% of the people in the world are mired in bad faith and won’t acknowledge the truth. There is a reason no one invites them to parties.
It is hard. Physicalism is a hard creed to live with. Most people want to believe there is meaning beyond our little lives. Despair is a natural reaction to that, and there is nothing wrong with acknowledging it.
And there is no such thing as a “bad atheist.” As much as people here want to believe that there are beliefs that we all share (aside from the obvious one), all atheists are different and believe different things. No one can tell you you’re doing it wrong, as long as you don’t believe in god.
Theism is only an escape from mortality insofar as you can dupe yourself into believing that you or your loved ones won’t die, or at least that death is not final. But believing so doesn’t make it true and you already know that.
Besides, there are other ways to keep yourself from the thought of death, which altogether make me see theism as a waste of time. When I’m busy doing math, or dancing, or sporting or whatever, when I’m just simply living, I’m not thinking about death either. But I don’t have to cheat myself into believing I won’t die or that my loved ones won’t die.
It seems to me that faith is the struggle and perhaps we have given up. To turn this into a question- Do these negative feeling not make me true atheist?
I think it was Dale McGowan, who grew up in a very religious family and is now atheist, who said something to effect of, I had knew god didn’t exist when I was young and I spent 20 years checking my work.
He was doing that pre-Internet, pre-Dawkins. It is much easier now. However the same draw towards faith is still there. You might consider that it is a struggle to make a faith decision, because it is, by definition, a decision based on no evidence. Sometimes we have to do that because science hasn’t completely figured everything out. Turning your life over to others though is something you can find some evidence against.
So, no, the negative feelings do not disqualify you. Just as the faithful can have a crisis of faith, non-believers can have moments of doubt. It’s just part of being human.
You raise an interesting dichotomy between some theists and atheists. (I have to underscore the word ‘some’ here since I concede that not all theists think this way, although it is a sign of fundamentalism).
There are theists whose view of their god is so limited that you can’t be a “true believer” unless you agree with them about everything. Ignoring the obvious pitfalls of taking this absolutist position, it becomes a frightening proposition when they hold positions of authority as those who admire them work tirelessly to achieve an unattainable goal.
For an atheist, all that matters is that you don’t believe. That doesn’t mean you can’t have an appreciation for faith-based rituals or wax nostalgic over your religious upbringing (Dawkins does this often).
It seems to me that all of us are enriched by other atheists’ tales of how they arrived to where they are today. The theist might call this a spiritual journey. Call it what you like but it’s an important part of who you are. Embrace it.
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