Posts: 3872
Threads: 39
Joined: August 25, 2008
Reputation:
43
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 11, 2012 at 12:23 pm
(May 10, 2012 at 8:10 pm)cbell39 Wrote: When I was in Christianity, I used god as the meaning of life. Heaven was the main goal. Now that I am an atheist, I am having trouble finding my purpose in life. So the question is now what? I need to find the point to being alive. That may sound somewhat depressive or suicidal of me, but I swear its not. I find wonder in this amazing world, I just want to know where I fit in. I want to do something worth my time. I don't want to waste my life. I need a purpose.
Did anyone here feel a loss of purpose when you became an atheist? How did you find your purpose? Do you have any suggestions on some philosophy to read? Any advise on finding my purpose? Do you have any stories you would like to share?
You can create you own sense of purpose. I've never been in a situation where I felt meaningless. I've always been an atheist.
Who do you want to be in life? What do you want to do?
There are many things to do, many paths to walk down. You can walk down many if you so wished.
If your purpose in life was to die and hope for another life then you're pretty much devoid of any purpose. It's like your only purpose for being here is to be there ('there' being some afterlife that may not exist). My purpose for being here is for the journey, not the destination.
If there is no other life beyond this one, all the living and waiting for this afterlife would of been a complete waste. The one and only journey spent hoping for a more luxurious one.
It does not do well to dwell on dreams, you'll forget to live. Life is a journey, not a destination. You don't want to reach the destination, because it'll mean the end of the journey.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Carl Sagan
Mankind's intelligence walks hand in hand with it's stupidity.
Being an atheist says nothing about your overall intelligence, it just means you don't believe in god. Atheists can be as bright as any scientist and as stupid as any creationist.
You never really know just how stupid someone is, until you've argued with them.
Posts: 10712
Threads: 15
Joined: September 9, 2011
Reputation:
119
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 11, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Welcome, cbell39! When I realized I was an atheist, it was like my manacles had been unlocked. Christians and Muslims are taught the whole point of their entire life is to qualify for a pleasant eternity after they're dead and avoid an unpleasant one. It's literally living for your death.
Being alive is like winning the lottery. For each one of us there are millions of possible people who could have been but aren't. Each of us is the heir to life that goes back unbroken to the first thing that ever lived, and we get to be one of those very, very few possible people to actually exist to experience a life made of choices in an intricate and vast universe. Our lives are stories with endings, but stories without endings are incomplete. We each have a chance to make our lives a story worth listening to. What you do won't matter in a billion years, but it doesn't matter that it won't then, it matters that it does now, to you and those who love you.
'cbell99 was generous, kind, and loved by those who knew her' is not a bad epitaph, and not that hard to achieve.
Posts: 1473
Threads: 20
Joined: November 12, 2011
Reputation:
26
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 11, 2012 at 1:03 pm
(This post was last modified: May 11, 2012 at 1:07 pm by Norfolk And Chance.)
(May 10, 2012 at 8:10 pm)cbell39 Wrote: When I was in Christianity, I used god as the meaning of life. Heaven was the main goal. Now that I am an atheist, I am having trouble finding my purpose in life. So the question is now what? I need to find the point to being alive. That may sound somewhat depressive or suicidal of me, but I swear its not. I find wonder in this amazing world, I just want to know where I fit in. I want to do something worth my time. I don't want to waste my life. I need a purpose.
Did anyone here feel a loss of purpose when you became an atheist? How did you find your purpose? Do you have any suggestions on some philosophy to read? Any advise on finding my purpose? Do you have any stories you would like to share?
Your purpose in life is to try not to die for as long as possible. This increases your chance of propagating the species.
That's it, in a nutshell.
(May 11, 2012 at 12:03 pm)Napoleon Wrote: None of it. Fucking waste of time philosobabble crap.
Ah that reminds me - *go and troll the philosobabble forum for shits and giggles*
brb.
You are currently experiencing a lucky and very brief window of awareness, sandwiched in between two periods of timeless and utter nothingness. So why not make the most of it, and stop wasting your life away trying to convince other people that there is something else? The reality is obvious.
Posts: 19789
Threads: 57
Joined: September 24, 2010
Reputation:
85
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 11, 2012 at 1:18 pm
(This post was last modified: May 11, 2012 at 1:20 pm by Anomalocaris.)
The point in life is to have the courage to exploit the delights biology and resultant sociology has given you.
(May 10, 2012 at 10:01 pm)Shell B Wrote: Now, go forth and multiply!
Yes, improve the gene pool by outbreeding the christians.
Posts: 69247
Threads: 3759
Joined: August 2, 2009
Reputation:
259
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 11, 2012 at 1:25 pm
If you are still looking for meaning and purpose I submit that you are not quite as free of religious indoctrination as you think.
Life is what YOU make of it. Always has been and always will be. There is no sky daddy with some shiny eternal reward for those who do exactly what his crooked priests say.
You cannot be disappointed to learn that a fictional reward does not exist after all. Even when you believed in it it remained bullshit designed to fool the masses into shutting up and doing what they were told.
Posts: 5652
Threads: 133
Joined: May 10, 2011
Reputation:
69
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 11, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Now, we DANCE!
Posts: 13901
Threads: 263
Joined: January 11, 2009
Reputation:
82
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 11, 2012 at 3:35 pm
What is the purpose of life?
42.
Now come back when you've worked out what the question is.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
Posts: 11
Threads: 3
Joined: April 12, 2012
Reputation:
0
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 12, 2012 at 8:57 am
(This post was last modified: May 12, 2012 at 8:59 am by Freethinker~.)
I found Martial Arts, my dog and my family and friends (although i already had my family lol)...now you go find yours.
Posts: 5652
Threads: 133
Joined: May 10, 2011
Reputation:
69
RE: So I am an athiest. Now what?
May 12, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Masturbation helps one pass the time.
|