(October 20, 2013 at 10:40 am)leodeo Wrote: before i was a christian but then i felt like god doesn't care about me and basically i came to the belief that god has his own plan/agenda and doesn't really care about me or my happiness.

It would seem that believing that god cares and has a plan for you really had no bearing on your clinical depression. Clinical depression is a bitch regardless of what you believe. It is natural to look back to a time before you were depressed and wonder what you might have changed that fucked things up. But it just doesn't work that way.

My suggestion to you would be to give up trying to undo the depression by adjusting your belief systems. Your mind may continue to thrash around like that, searching for relief. That isn't completely under your control either. But you should focus on actually treating your depression. If you're on medication make sure you take it regularly. If you're meeting with therapist of some kind or a group, make sure you go.

Depression can, and usually does, lift. Try not to despair that it never will but accept that you'll have the symptoms until it does. Look forward to being well again.

(October 20, 2013 at 11:40 am)Captain Colostomy Wrote: You're a horse's ass.

I gave him a decent atheistic alternative to a happy life so whats your problem?

(October 20, 2013 at 11:57 am)Sword of Christ Wrote:

(October 20, 2013 at 11:40 am)Captain Colostomy Wrote: You're a horse's ass.

I gave him a decent atheistic alternative to a happy life so whats your problem?

It just seems exploitative to proselytize and offer your beleif system as a kind of miracle cure. Clearly this poster became clinically depressed as a Christian and only became an atheist as a result of his/her despair. I for one won't offer him/her any hope that atheism will help. What he believes about god right now is irrelevant. (That makes me a non-horse's ass.)

(October 20, 2013 at 11:51 am)leodeo Wrote: no im not trying to convert anyone, the fact that christianity wasnt helping me is the reason i'm here anyways.

was mostly trying to find meaning in life without religion, and purpose, and what makes people happy.

If you are depressed I am certain that the origin of your condition does not lie within your faith or lack of faith.

I am not a medical professional, as such the only good advice I can give you is to get prrofessional help.

It would be wrong and actualy even outright inmoral and disgusting if I or someone else on this forum were to pray on your condition for the purpose of pressing a set of mind onto you, without having any crudentials that would ensure that what I am doing would actualy help you.

---

(October 20, 2013 at 11:57 am)Sword of Christ Wrote:

(October 20, 2013 at 11:40 am)Captain Colostomy Wrote: You're a horse's ass.

I gave him a decent atheistic alternative to a happy life so whats your problem?

Do you usualy pray on people in dispair and with conditions to pressure your faith onto them?

Do you have no moral conflict with chosing weaknesses to exploit for the purpose of pressing your agenda?



You are disgusting.

I feel like you are in the same situation I used to be in when I was younger, so I hope what I say helps you out. When I became an atheist I sank into a real deep depression that lasted for almost the entirety of my teenage years because I felt like my life held no meaning at all. I felt like no matter what I did the end result was moot because life in general was meaningless. In the grand scheme of the entire universe, my life and its actions were pointless. It really fucked me up for a while and I ended swallowing a bottle of pills. They decided to stick me in the crazy house for a while, and when I got out I had to go to a therapist. After about a year and a half of therapy I finally told him the root of my depression, that I felt that my life and all life was unimportant. There were more grains of sand on all the beaches in the world then planets in the universe, and I was just a speck. And he told me, "If your life doesn't matter, then why does that matter?" The fact that nothing in this universe matters, means that it doesn't matter if my life is worthless. It completely freed me up. I was so hung up on my life having no meaning that I never realized that I shouldn't care about it.

You seem to have a similar nihilistic viewpoint as I do, so let me tell you this. Your life is not priceless, it is worthless. But that is in fact a good thing. If you bought an expensive pair of pants you may only wear them a few times a year, and try your best to keep them clean and neat. But if you fish some jeans out of the trash you're willing to get some mud on them and put a few holes in them.

In the end though, live your life and live it how you want to.

(October 20, 2013 at 11:51 am)leodeo Wrote: was mostly trying to find meaning in life without religion, and purpose, and what makes people happy.

I know, that's I why I pointed him toward Epicurus. If this belief was true and God really didn't exist then this is stuff to be looking at.

http://newepicurean.com/wp-content/uploa...eryone.jpg

Quote:If you are depressed I am certain that the origin of your condition does not lie within your faith or lack of faith.

But then you don't know God so you can't speak from personal experience.

Quote:I am not a medical professional, as such the only good advice I can give you is to get prrofessional help.

Psychiatrists and medication are a good (though more costly) alternative for people who don't have God/Christ in their life. See the video I posted earlier.

Quote:It would be wrong and actualy even outright inmoral and disgusting if I or someone else on this forum were to pray on your condition for the purpose of pressing a set of mind onto you, without having any crudentials that would ensure that what I am doing would actualy help you.

I'm only trying to help, most Christians wouldn't give you the materialist philosophy of Epicurus that's some good stuff there. Or it would be if God doesn't exist.

Quote:Do you usualy pray on people in dispair and with conditions to pressure your faith onto them?

Pressure him into reading the materialist philosophy of Epicurus?

Quote:Do you have no moral conflict with chosing weaknesses to exploit for the purpose of pressing your agenda?

I gave him two valid ways of dealing with it and he's free to choose which one. More than what you're giving him.

Quote:You are disgusting.

Disgusting for giving helpful advice? You're the one who's trying to push your own agenda onto him and not give him any choice so saame back to you.

(October 20, 2013 at 12:31 pm)Sword of Christ Wrote:

(October 20, 2013 at 12:12 pm)The Germans are coming Wrote: was mostly trying to find meaning in life without religion, and purpose, and what makes people happy.

I did NOT write that!!!!

Change that NOW!!!!

(October 20, 2013 at 11:04 am)leodeo Wrote:

(October 20, 2013 at 10:55 am)Brakeman Wrote: So when you were a christian, did you scream at the animals "What do you have to live for! There is no heaven for you! Just go and die already!?" Probably not.

What kind of answer would satisfy your angst? Would it really comfort you to believe that you are the slave of some powerful slavemaster? Is having the freedom to find your own meaning that scary for you? Most atheists I've heard from relish in their freedom from theistic mental tyranny.

i guess i was kinda unorthodox cuz i believed animals also went to heaven, and that they were doing there part in making the world beautiful by existing and being part of nature.

what are some examples of meaning of life? what are some of y'alls meaning in life?

I don't think that there is any meaning to life, and I am perfectly comfortable with that - it is what it is and you yourself might get used to that concept one day.

As for meaning to your life, then that is down to you to give it meaning.

I would say that if you consider that we all could well be here due to nothing more than a series of chances, then isn't that actually incredible to think? So why think "might as well kill myself?"

Surely this one off lucky break that you happen to be experiencing in between two timeless periods of nothingness has to be savoured, filled with experiences and lived to the fullest?

(October 20, 2013 at 12:45 pm)Norfolk And Chance Wrote: Surely this one off lucky break that you happen to be experiencing in between two timeless periods of nothingness has to be savoured, filled with experiences and lived to the fullest?

There aren't "two timeless periods of nothingness" you can experience FFS. This is why I recommended Epicurus, he understood this better than you.

(October 20, 2013 at 12:12 pm)The Germans are coming Wrote:

(October 20, 2013 at 11:57 am)Sword of Christ Wrote: I gave him a decent atheistic alternative to a happy life so whats your problem?

Do you usually prey on people in despair and with conditions to pressure your faith onto them?

Do you have no moral conflict with choosing weaknesses to exploit for the purpose of pressing your agenda?

You are disgusting.

Of course he usually preys on people in despair, it is the christian "modus operandi." They ply their congregation with guilt sermons and degrading songs to make them feel guilty, unworthy, and wretched, then pressure sell a magic club where baseless promises are exchanged for 10% of your money and employment as pyramid scheme salesman.