(August 1, 2014 at 1:59 pm)Blackout Wrote: Mozart Link, I am also an anime fan (as you can in fact see from my Roy Mustang avatar), however I think it's very important for us to distinguish clearly between fantasy and reality. When I watch anime, my mind gets into a world of dreams, fantasy and supernatural powers/events, but I turn those thoughts off as soon as I finish an episode. B sides, I don't even think the most important part of anime are supernatural unreal powers and fights, but the lessons, principles and ethical/moral values you can learn from series, many of them apply to real life. The same can happen with fantasy films, let's say Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, many people wish they were true, but reality is a cold hearted bitch and doesn't care about what we want. It's ok to get into a fantasy wishful thinking world of dreams while watching anime or even playing video games, as long as you unplug it once you are treating real life affairs like I do. Moreover, I think anime supported my atheism and not the opposite, just consider Japan is a significantly atheist country and many manga writers or series producers/editors/directors are atheists too, and they can distinguish between the written stories of fantasy and real life.

When my brain matured and I started being more aware of reality, in a certain way I felt like you, I even got depressed when I realized we are just a bunch of chemicals and biological/psychological processes with a tiny, insignificant existence in the whole universe context. However, as time goes by, I get more relaxed thinking about it and it doesn't bother me anymore, I'm happy embracing reality, because Man should be able to face the truth, no matter how painful it may be. Maybe theists have a certain hope because they believe they'll go to heaven and be rewarded, but IMO the negative aspects of theism and religion fiercely outstand the good ones.

I hope this was helpful

I am a person who is attached to fantasy no matter what and I wish to use that in composing music. I wish to compose music that has a fantasy-like feel. So, in a sense, I would have made this reality the living fantasy I want by living a life of composing the music I want and such and not living a life of what reality wants me to be (which would be having struggles of depression that take away my feelings of pleasure towards fantasy as well as having the attitude and such of a normal person who is accepting of the fact that there is no God and no afterlife and that fantasy is just a delusion and that reality is what needs to be accepted and lived by). I wish to live the way I want and have the attitude I want and pursue that in composing music.

But I now have anhedonia which has taken away all feelings of pleasure which now makes me even more unaccepting and hateful towards reality for taking away who I want to be and the life I want to live.

(August 1, 2014 at 2:13 pm)Mozart Link Wrote:

(August 1, 2014 at 1:59 pm)Blackout Wrote: Mozart Link, I am also an anime fan (as you can in fact see from my Roy Mustang avatar), however I think it's very important for us to distinguish clearly between fantasy and reality. When I watch anime, my mind gets into a world of dreams, fantasy and supernatural powers/events, but I turn those thoughts off as soon as I finish an episode. B sides, I don't even think the most important part of anime are supernatural unreal powers and fights, but the lessons, principles and ethical/moral values you can learn from series, many of them apply to real life. The same can happen with fantasy films, let's say Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, many people wish they were true, but reality is a cold hearted bitch and doesn't care about what we want. It's ok to get into a fantasy wishful thinking world of dreams while watching anime or even playing video games, as long as you unplug it once you are treating real life affairs like I do. Moreover, I think anime supported my atheism and not the opposite, just consider Japan is a significantly atheist country and many manga writers or series producers/editors/directors are atheists too, and they can distinguish between the written stories of fantasy and real life.

When my brain matured and I started being more aware of reality, in a certain way I felt like you, I even got depressed when I realized we are just a bunch of chemicals and biological/psychological processes with a tiny, insignificant existence in the whole universe context. However, as time goes by, I get more relaxed thinking about it and it doesn't bother me anymore, I'm happy embracing reality, because Man should be able to face the truth, no matter how painful it may be. Maybe theists have a certain hope because they believe they'll go to heaven and be rewarded, but IMO the negative aspects of theism and religion fiercely outstand the good ones.

I hope this was helpful

I am a person who is attached to fantasy no matter what and I wish to use that in composing music. I wish to compose music that has a fantasy-like feel. So, in a sense, I would have made this reality the living fantasy I want by living a life of composing the music I want and such and not living a life of what reality wants me to be (which would be having struggles of depression that take away my feelings of pleasure towards fantasy as well as having the attitude and such of a normal person who is accepting of the fact that there is no God and no afterlife and that fantasy is just a delusion and that reality is what needs to be accepted and lived by). I wish to live the way I want and have the attitude I want and pursue that in composing music.

But I now have anhedonia which has taken away all feelings of pleasure which now makes me even more unaccepting and hateful towards reality for taking away who I want to be and the life I want to live.

There are writers, musical composers and others artists who embrace a fantasy like feeling when producing their masterpieces, it's perfectly ok and not so uncommon, nothing wrong with it, if you wish to do that, it's a perfectly viable pursuit of happiness and fulfilment, but you must remember that reality is always there, no matter how much you hate it, so you might as well start looking at it's bright side.

So you're basically saying delusion in a virtue...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQRYIoUWLME

Is ignorance bliss? No, I prefer the the hard truth. I have been having one hell of a ride and I will continue to do so until someone kills me, or get naturally dead.

Quote:If fantasy becomes real, it has become reality. To feel superior to reality by embracing fantasy you need to know what reality is, from that it follows that you know that your fantasy is not. You would be deluding yourself to think otherwise, as you aptly mention for an afterlife and the existence of a god. You know it is a fantasy, yet you wish it were so. This is wishful thinking, an unreasonable hope.

Furthermore, you want to feel empowered, feel superior? Assume your fantasies become real, part of reality, that there is a god, an afterlife, whatever else is in your fantasies? How would this new reality make you feel empowered or superior? It would be this way for everyone. If comparing yourself to your past self instead others however, you would only see that reality itself was different then. So you want to feel superior or empowered by the changing of the natural laws, of reality itself?

Assume your fantasies don't become real, that they will always be fantasies. How do you feel empowered by having them? You know they are fake, wrong, impossible, how would they empower you or make you feel superior? It would make you feel worse about reality, worse than your wishes would want you to be.

Be under the illusion that your fantasies are real, what then? This would be your personal reality, cognitive dissonance all the way. But how would you feel superior, or empowered? What do you compare it to? This would be no different than the first example, except you'd actually be insane and living your life apart from everyone else.

Although, there's the possibility that one of your fantasies is you becoming superior to your current points of reference, without changing said points. I think there's a name for this kind of insanity, but I'm not sure.

Even if fantasy were reality, I would feel empowered anyway due to the fact that this is just who I am--I feel empowered by mystical things and things that offer you a God and an afterlife of eternal joy (religion, but without the morals since I am against morals and don't care what others think and only care about what I think and my own perceptions of reality). As for feeling superior, since there would be no inferior concepts of reality to compare myself to if life were a fantasy, I wouldn't feel superior--I would just simply feel empowered. Though I could imagine a life where there are struggles, no God or afterlife, depression, etc. and feel superior to that. To me, being superior is not about facing your struggles in life or dealing with the fact that there is no God or afterlife. It is about feeling empowered by fantasy and not dealing with these things as well as looking at the fact that there is no God or afterlife as something false through your own deluded world (a world that you have created for yourself that you want to have rather than what reality itself "wants").

Quote:Your reasoning(not sure if I can call you intelligent) has led you to the conclusion that it's highly unlikely there is no god (Atheism). Your model of reality, crafted by reason and experience, allows you to see and acknowledge your fantasies are just that, fantasies. I think you'll love the movie "The Congress".

It requires intelligence in the first place to come to the conclusion that there is no God or afterlife and this is what I mean by intelligence.

Quote:Do you think that without it there would be no unpleasant things, that everything would be like a dream? Everything exactly as you imagine it to be? Or do you think it might turn to a nightmare, unable to explain anything what is going on around you? How would you choose what to believe and what not to? Would you only listen to your own delusions, to be apart from everything else?

It would depend on what type of person I am. Since I am a person who feels empowered and superior through fantasy, then this is how I would feel. Some would say that a life without struggles and a life with a God and a promised afterlife would have no value or worth and that it would be more motivating to have struggles and for this life to be the one and only life. But for me, it would be the opposite and I would feel much more motivated and "pushed" to do things in life and I would feel empowered and superior living a life of no struggles and there being a God and a promised afterlife.

Quote:You want to be superior to everyone else, to do whatever you want without consequence, and shape the world you see to your liking? Ah alright, and how would this work? Other people exist, with the same powers as you actually do in reality. You'd need to have reality itself change, or be locked away/shot as an insane person would. So why are you wishing for this, exactly? You know it won't happen, you should know just thinking you can will let you.

As for why I am wishing for that despite the fact that it will never happen is because, despite the fact that I know what reality is, I am completely detached from it and only care about my own perceptions. Actually, I am not wishing since there would obviously be no point since wishing won't make anything happen, I am just expressing how I feel reality should be and that how my "god-like" fantasy perceptions are superior to reality for me. I feel that I as a person and my perceptions are far superior to the universe and its own "intentions." The universe's intention was only to create us for survival and to simply just die in the end and go nowhere. Though the human mind is an amazing organ, the problem is that it is just simply designed for survival and to just simply forever die in the end and nothing more. I consider that a waste. All these amazing complex functions for that? My version of reality would be far superior to that in which we didn't evolve through Darwinian evolution, but through omnipotent evolution in which we are all gods with our minds and bodies designed for immortality, to be forever happy and feel superior and empowered, rule the universe, etc. Actually, it would be a superior god-like universe in which our minds are completely different and have god-like functions and have the ability to experience otherworldly god-like feelings of pleasure.

Quote:So, how would you kill these concepts? These struggles in life, depressions, there not being an afterlife, no god? What are they inferior to? Define your god, and how it would be superior to there not being a god(Still wishful thinking), define your afterlife(Still wishful thinking), and tell us what these struggles in life are, what causes these depressions? This entire sentence is garbage.

If I were to believe in a God and an afterlife, I would look at atheism and I would laugh at it and it would be "dead" to me. So, in a sense, by believing in a God and an afterlife, I would have killed atheism (caused it to be dead) in my own point of view.

Quote:You, a person, can only compare yourself to your past self, or another person. So what you want is to keep improving yourself if going by just that. It gets weird when you mention reality though. How do you compare yourself to reality that excludes comparing yourself to other people? You already compare yourself to.. yourself, or past self really. Please explain how you'd do that.

You're pretty insane though.

What I meant by reality is just these inferior concepts of reality such as there being no God or afterlife, there being struggles in life, depression, etc. As for everything else in life that is pleasurable in life (other people and such), that is nothing to frown upon or to feel superior to.

How old are you?

(August 1, 2014 at 8:31 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: How old are you?

I'm 26 years old. Age has nothing to do with who you are as a person. Some people decide to abandon their fantasies and live in reality while some people choose to remain attached to fantasy. This would be me (the person who remains attached to fantasy) and age has nothing to do with it. Therefore, even if I were 90 years old, I would be the exact same person as I am now because I wish to be this way.

(August 1, 2014 at 8:32 pm)Mozart Link Wrote:

(August 1, 2014 at 8:31 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: How old are you?

I'm 26 years old. Age has nothing to do with who you are as a person. Some people decide to abandon their fantasies and live in reality while some people choose to remain attached to fantasy. This would be me (the person who remains attached to fantasy) and age has nothing to do with it. Therefore, even if I were 90 years old, I would be the exact same person as I am now because I wish to be this way.

Are you the same person you are now as you were at, say, 16?

(August 1, 2014 at 9:12 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(August 1, 2014 at 8:32 pm)Mozart Link Wrote: I'm 26 years old. Age has nothing to do with who you are as a person. Some people decide to abandon their fantasies and live in reality while some people choose to remain attached to fantasy. This would be me (the person who remains attached to fantasy) and age has nothing to do with it. Therefore, even if I were 90 years old, I would be the exact same person as I am now because I wish to be this way.

Are you the same person you are now as you were at, say, 16?

No, but only because I have chosen to change (I used to be interested only in playing videogames, but now I am interested in composing music). But in a way, yes I am because I still have this fantasy-inspired perception just as I did when I was younger (actually, it is much greater now).

(August 1, 2014 at 9:16 pm)Mozart Link Wrote:

(August 1, 2014 at 9:12 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Are you the same person you are now as you were at, say, 16?

No, but only because I have chosen to change (I used to be interested only in playing videogames, but now I am interested in composing music). But in a way, yes I am because I still have this fantasy-inspired perception just as I did when I was younger (actually, it is much greater now).

Your choice to change had absolutely no outside input at all? Your music has no inspiration, say from your namesake?

Can you fantasize being wealthy and use that to buy a Stradivarius?