(September 25, 2012 at 10:14 am)festive1 Wrote:(September 24, 2012 at 5:00 pm)Brian37 Wrote: Love your quote above your avatar "I prefure the harsh truth over a comforting lie"
Accepting reality does not make the atheist a pessimist or evil. It merely means we don't need to make up stories to explain either the good or bad that happen in reality.
Thank you for that quote, glad I read it.
Thank you. I really love Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents. Admitting there's nothing beyond this life can be overwhelming, but I think it's better than deluding yourself. I'd rather fully enjoy what I DO have rather than suck it up and simply endure in the hopes of some eternal reward. And, as you pointed out, it has worldly implications as well.
For many who, like me, grew up beleiving, it can be scary when that light bulb clicks on. But once you get to cope with it, it becomes a silly proposition to be scared of nature. No one is scared of life before they were born so while we might be scared of pain, or not having more time with our loved ones, death is as mundane as the seasons changing and a leaf falling off a tree and rotting. Reality is nothing to be scared of, minus the violence people will commit in the name of their fictional super heros.
All we have is now. To think that we are special in the vast universe has to be the biggest pile of shit claim any human has ever come up with. It was started long ago even before any written tradition or religion. It was human ignorant gap filling. It was understandable back then when our species lacked the modern scientific knowledge we have now. But it is sad evolution still produces irrational beliefs in the face of hard facts.
