(October 14, 2018 at 2:45 am)Dragonfly Wrote: @Abbadon_ire
I don't know how to reply in-line when quotes are threaded this deeply, so I'll just try here.
"Be warned. Believers who you know will actively exploit that. It is just one more shitty thing believers do."
Yes, I am very vulnerable right now. Thankfully, other than a few close secular friends, nobody else knows. Theists would LOVE this anxiety. It's the God-shaped vacuum and all of that.
As far as recommending stuff that helped you get through the existential crisis, I would love to hear it.
40 years on, I still occasionally get that existential dread. That is normal. Such nonsense has been embedded in your head over the course of years. Personally, when I feel such things, I simply stop and ask "Wait just a damn minute...What?". A few moments quiet reflection reveals the Pavlovian response for exactly what it is. A conditioned response. It has been beaten into your head so that it becomes an instant knee-jerk response, particularly under stress.
My best advice is that when such occurs, just stop and think in a serene pool of rational thought. Ask yourself why are you entertaining such irrational thoughts. You will quickly find that this is a conditioned response, AND THEY DID IT PURPOSEFULLY TO YOU.
And you are not alone. Never think you are alone.
As for the other clown? Clowns do clown stuff, who would have thunk.
