Religion and pleasure

[Esquilax]

My greater joy in life is political advocacy. I have sacrificed much of my own happiness to further this cause. And my greater joy in death is afterlife. I again, feel that I have to sacrifice a portion of my own happiness to further this cause.

I could go on and on about by fiat assertions based on nothing much, but I'm sure that'll occur to most people who read through your post anyway. Instead, I'll focus in; you're claim is that atheists- the sole thing separating us from the religious being god beliefs- are generally unable or unwilling to engage in these "greater joys" you list... and then proceed to mark yours as a wholly secular pursuit, and therefore not beyond the grasp of atheists in any way.

Is it truly your belief that religious conviction makes people more willing to deal in these (secular) causes? Is there any point in even asking, given that the rest of your post was nothing but bland, tasteless and judgmental assertions from top to bottom without any form of evidence?

Would it help if I told you that, from my perspective, there's no difference between the "little" joys and your "greater" ones? That they're all just things to delight in? That life is something to delight in precisely because one has choices like these, and that to sit on your high horse like a Judgey Jason doesn't make your choices more valid merely because you've attached a high minded label to them?

Hello, I'm an atheist. I'm also a writer, a composer, an activist for various causes, a husband, a robot enthusiast, and a pretty mean pianist back in the day. Maybe these are all little drops to you, but to me they're just as legitimate as any of the life choices you've made. I guarantee you that if you'd actually bothered to ask around, you wouldn't find the squirming hedonistic den of indulgence that you're imagining, but instead would find a vibrant group of individuals who've found plenty to like in their own lives, even if they don't measure up to the big torrential flood you're filling your hole with.

But I dunno, maybe that'd take time away from your important works.

However I still don't understand what kind of a greater joy an atheist finds in life. Just to give an example, the atheists I've met here, deny the notion of heritage, which is to claim and be proud of your ancestors and their accomplishments. They claim that a man only ought to be proud of one's own accomplishments.

Why rest on the laurels of those who've come before you? Acknowledging where you've come from is one thing, but how is that important beyond a sense of history? What's actually your point here?

Although I'm fairly certain that no man here has founded a city, became an important official, nor reached the highest degrees in arts&sciences, nor has done anything other than being the average joe.

Hey, I dunno, maybe you should have asked.

And as an average joe, that lacks a purpose, they have said that the greatest purpose ought to be to live for the sake of living.

I doubt anyone here would say that they lack purpose. I think we would all say that your presumption that any purpose you disapprove of is somehow lesser is terribly arrogant.

Since they lack any restraints that are outside of the law, they find it easy to indulge or encourage the indulgement of many of the simple, and sometimes "guilty" pleasures of life.

Oh, do I sense an "atheists gots no morals!" canard in the midst of this mass of self-congratulatory wank?

To answer your question, there is a point of sacrificing your earthly pleasures for the sake of a greater cause, that will give you a sense of belonging, a sense of being a part of a greater whole.

None of which, of course, being solely the purview of religion.

I see the human as a being that has within itself the whole the size of an ocean. Everything that we do in life adds water to it. While certain things are nothing more than drops, some are as buckets of water, and some amount to tons of water. I've chosen to fill it with larger amount of water than simply drops, so if I have to sacrifice drops in favor of greater amounts of water, so be it.

I'll have your medal sent right out.

The reason I have chosen this path is that I know that my life will not just be a number in the great multitudes of people that have come and gone, I will be a part and support to a greater whole in my life on earth, and I will have a reward in the afterlife. So I try my best to live my life according to these, which means I have to sacrifice perhaps a portion of my earthly pleasures, and become a being that is led by ideals and creeds, rather than its base instincts.

Christ, maybe a statue somewhere, your holiness?