(April 19, 2015 at 5:08 pm)robvalue Wrote: I guess I can sort of see the attraction. It's a bit like handing over some responsibility. It's a bit like getting drunk. It's taking a bit of a step back from reality.
I'd love to step back from reality. I'd quite easily get smashed off my face and not deal with anything. Sadly, I have to deal with the real world as it is.
Believing stuff is just going to be OK is fine, as long as it doesn't lead to complacency.
Yeah, there are times when I need to step back from reality, we all probably feel this. I smoke little weed (hey, it's legal in my state starting in just 2 months!). Some people drink. Some people pray.
Meditation is also a great secular way to get that same feeling.
But since I shed belief in skydaddy, I think I'm actually happier. I was LESS happy for the first couple of years, as there were some major adjustments to make (such as illing off all my dead relatives again in my head, dealing with my mom who said I'd ruined heaven for her, and so forth), but after getting over the hump of the pain of reality, I do also feel like I feel more Joy now than I used to.
I look at my daughter and I know how truly lucky I am to have such a great kid. Not by virtue of magic or because I am good so I deserve it, but just because. I feel so lucky to even be alive! Everything is 100 times more amazing when you realize magic didn't cause it, and you can get a lot more joy out of life for those same reasons.
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?”
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
