These are excellent points, things I didn't consider before. I suppose it comes from a lack of really having my views challenged yet. So, I practice by myself in my head(and here also, now that I found this place).
I was watching a GMS video today, "are atheists hopeless?" And it brought up similar things as my conclusions in the OP. How I don't care about getting assigned purpose nor a divine purpose. But I also empathized with the spiritual view, of how a life without God was scary. Because for a little bit, I had thought so too. Then it progressively peeled back the layers until I was thinking about "This is it, there's nothing else, there's just the one life and no one's watching." and it clicked. Like, when you get a new job, something you feel outmatched by, unfamiliar with, you don't know if you can do it or not. Then all of a sudden, one day, you have your desk and your space and your accomplishments and it becomes "second place home" in your head. It's not scary or depressing; this is it, this is the one and only life. I feel a tremble of exhilaration at the same time as a relaxed and comfortable ease. I just wanted to share that, hoping to add to the conversation about how the atheist experience, especially after losing a faith, is about loss but also very much gaining space, room, and independence. I am accountable for my death bed regrets because there is no sequel.
I was watching a GMS video today, "are atheists hopeless?" And it brought up similar things as my conclusions in the OP. How I don't care about getting assigned purpose nor a divine purpose. But I also empathized with the spiritual view, of how a life without God was scary. Because for a little bit, I had thought so too. Then it progressively peeled back the layers until I was thinking about "This is it, there's nothing else, there's just the one life and no one's watching." and it clicked. Like, when you get a new job, something you feel outmatched by, unfamiliar with, you don't know if you can do it or not. Then all of a sudden, one day, you have your desk and your space and your accomplishments and it becomes "second place home" in your head. It's not scary or depressing; this is it, this is the one and only life. I feel a tremble of exhilaration at the same time as a relaxed and comfortable ease. I just wanted to share that, hoping to add to the conversation about how the atheist experience, especially after losing a faith, is about loss but also very much gaining space, room, and independence. I am accountable for my death bed regrets because there is no sequel.
